So, you’ve just picked up a beautiful new fire pit, and you’re looking forward to years of exciting outdoor cooking, calm evenings by the fire, and memorable camping trips. That’s all great, but just like any hard-use tool, you have to maintain it to keep it in good condition.
Here’s how to maintain your fire pit to make sure it outlasts you.
1. Clean After Each Use
This is especially important if you cook on your fire pit. Even if you’re a neat cook, you will splash ingredients, get gunk caked on them, and more. It doesn’t just go away the next time you light up the fire, and a simple wipe with a cloth isn’t enough.
When you’re done with the pit and it has properly cooled, take the time to wash it. Some warm water and a gentle dish soap are more than enough to get off soot and food residue if you do this regularly.
If you get a little lazy with your fire pit and skip a few cleanings, those contaminants can cake onto the metal, and then it’s much harder to fully remove them. If you leave it long enough, it might cause corrosion.
This is a simple task that takes just a few minutes, but it will protect your pit for years.
2. Use Proper Tools
A high-quality fire pit is going to be pretty resilient to damage, but that doesn’t mean you want to intentionally use the most damaging tools possible when you maintain it.
Any brushes, scrubbers, or similar items you use to clean the pit should be rigid but gentle. Stiffer silicone brushes are good for this. Not to mention, the traditional wire options can not only scratch up the surface, but they can also leave behind wires that get into food. You don’t want to gnaw on a bit of scrubbing wire next time you go camping.
3. Use Gentle Chemicals
The same way you want to avoid using really abrasive tools on your fire pit, you want to avoid caustic chemicals, too.
Some grill cleaners and other items you’d think would be great for a fire pit are extremely caustic and corrosive. If you don’t use them properly, or you don’t fully remove them fast enough, they can damage the steel.
If you have a cheap fire pit, this is even more of a problem. Those chemicals can eat coatings that protect the cheap pot metal those low-end pits use, and the next thing you know, you’re eating powder-coating pigments or inhaling them.
A gentle dish soap is good enough to get the job done just fine.
4. Store Your Pit in a Dry Location
Our recommended fire pit is highly resistant to rust and corrosion, but whether you have a cheap pit or just want to take good care of your stuff, it’s always best to store your portable fire pit in a dry area.
Moisture and metal don’t get along well. If you leave your pit too long in a high-moisture area, it can develop surface rust. Cheaper pits might rust all the way through, and then you’re stuck getting another one.
5. Avoid Toxic Accelerants When Lighting Your Fire
It’s very common to use fire accelerants when you’re getting the fire started. It makes life easier, and there are plenty of good options on the market.
However, it’s important to use products that are meant for grilling. You’re likely to use your fire pit to cook.
One of the mistakes to avoid when using a fire pit is choosing fuels that aren’t safe for cooking. Tossing vehicle petrol, random flammable chemicals, or tinder can leave harmful residues behind.
Depending on what it is, that might start to damage the fire pit, but even if it doesn’t, you’ll smell fumes from it every time you light it up. It’s really hard to clean out.
Even worse, when you do it, you inhale all that. It’s not good for you or the pit.
6. Avoid Excessive Messes
Everybody’s going to make a mess when they cook, but it can be very helpful to be mindful and prevent excessive messes.
The more you slop ingredients around, the more likely it is that you’ll leave something behind until it gets caked on.
7. Check for Damaged or Stuck Moving Components
One of the benefits of portable fire pits is their convenience. Many models use screws and pivot points to make them easy to fold and pack away.
Unfortunately, those neat features are weak spots. You don’t want a moving component to fail while you’re having a fire lit. If you’re cooking, your food is going right in the fire.
Even if you’re not, the metal is going to be way too hot to pull it out and fix it up. You’re stuck waiting until the fire goes out and it cools down before you can do anything about it.
Always check moving parts to make sure they’re not damaged before you use your fire pit. Also, look for gunk and debris. As it heats up, that stuff can harden, and it can make it difficult to operate your fire pit in the future.
Cleaning this out is fairly simple. Take the pit apart if it’s possible, scrub each piece the same way you would if you were cleaning the rest of the pit, dry it, and put it back together.
Even if you have a pit that interlocks rather than screwing together, it’s important to clean gunk away from the connecting surfaces. If they build up too much, they can make the pit uneven. It might fall apart in use, or you might have trouble keeping cooking instruments flat.
Save Yourself Time and Energy with the Bush Mate
If all that sounded like a lot to handle for something that you’re supposed to use outdoors in rugged conditions, don’t worry, Saturnia has a solution.
The Bush Mate makes all of that easier, and fire pit maintenance is a breeze. Clean it off to keep food from building up, and that’s about it. It’s basically bulletproof.
Contact us to find the perfect fire pit for your outdoor adventures!
