5 Easy Upgrades That Turned My Backyard Fire Pit Into a Chill Hangout Zone

Fall means a lot of things to me: more mountain biking, more raking leaves, more flannel shirts. Mostly, though, it means more sitting around a fire in my backyard. Since night comes earlier, I like to pretend I’m a caveman and gather around a flame with my friends and family as often as possible.

Backyard fires are like a lot of the adventurous pastimes that define our lives. You can approach your fires as a minimalist by arranging rocks in a circle and lighting some sticks with a match. Or you can give some thought to the practice and elevate the experience with a few choice items. Here are five key pieces of gear that I’ve used to upgrade my own backyard fire pit experience.

Breeo X Series

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Check price at Breeo

It took me a while to come around to the idea of a smokeless fire pit, but I’m a dedicated convert now for three reasons:

1. The stainless steel canister surrounding the fire helps contain embers, making the fire safer.
2. Smokeless pits burn hotter than an open fire, so you don’t have to constantly stoke the flame.
3. They look better than a ring of rocks. Call me shallow, but these “over-engineered cans” really bring my patio together aesthetically.

Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the main reason these smokeless pits are a good choice: they create less smoke than an open-air fire when you’re burning dry wood.

Breeo’s X Series has become my favorite smokeless fire pit because of the metal-on-metal aesthetics; The corten steel that comprises the main body of the pit patinas over time, while the stainless steel arms and rim stay silver. Breeo has also gone all-in on cooking accessories that help you turn the backyard blaze into a live-fire cooking experience. Some of these accessories are a little over the top (I don’t think I need a pizza oven or rotisserie for my fire pit), but I absolutely love the Sear Plate Griddle ($180), a ring of 1/4-inch thick carbon steel that rests around the edge of the pit, giving you a 7”-wide cooking surface around the fire. Think of it as a massive skillet for cooking veggies and searing steaks. Using the griddle is a process; you want to build a fire and let it burn hot for an hour before you even set the griddle on the fire. But then, the act of cooking becomes part of the ritual of dinner al fresco, like going to a hibachi restaurant and watching the chef prepare your meal in real time.

Breeo makes a variety of fire pit and griddle sizes. I have the X24, which weighs 62 pounds and  can accommodate four chairs around it.

Pit Command Talons

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Here’s the situation: there’s a piece of wood that’s fallen to the edge of the fire, and you need to put it back on top of the log cabin you so carefully constructed. Or teepee. No judgment either way here. You can spend a few minutes trying to wedge the wood back into the flame with a long stick, or you can use the Pit Command Talons and put the log exactly where you want, like you’re playing a high-stakes game of Jenga. The Talons are a practical tool designed for fire management, intended for people who like to poke and prod and arrange the flame for ultimate combustibility and efficiency. These stainless-steel grabbers are also more than 25 inches long, so they work well with smokeless fire pits and allow you to meddle with the fire from a safe distance.

Snow Peak Fire Side Gloves

Check price at REI

Check price at Snow Peak

If you haven’t burned yourself while sitting around a backyard fire, then maybe you haven’t been around many backyard fires. While the accidental searing of your fingertips is a rite of passage, it’s not a ritual I like to repeat., I’ve taken to wearing the Fire Side Gloves because I get careless and sometimes forget that fire is hot. You can find cheaper gloves at a big box hardware store, but the Fire Side pair sets themselves apart with the fire-retardant inner layer, which is also removable and washable. I also really like that they’re not bulky, so you retain plenty of dexterity while wearing them. That’s key if you’re cooking on a live fire; you don’t want to feel like a toddler wearing oversized mittens when you’re flipping steaks.

Fiskars Norden N10 Chopping Axe

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The Norden N10 is a small, single-handed axe designed to do a variety of tasks, from clearing downed limbs to splitting small pieces of wood. We lost a lot of trees in a storm last year, and I used the Norden to strip branches off limbs and chop thin chunks of timber into smaller pieces that I store and age for my fire pit.

But mostly, I use this axe to carve small slivers of kindling off of larger logs to help start and feed a fire. The carbon steel blade is double-hardened so it stays sharp longer, and it’s given a low-friction coating to help keep it from getting jammed in the wood. I love the shaft, which is made from a dense hickory that’s shaped ergonomically so the axe feels like an extension of your hand. I also appreciate the long collar that helps protect the hickory shaft from errant swings. It’s balanced and light enough to use with one hand, but it has enough weight to actually slice through small logs.

If I’m being honest, I also like how pretty the axe is. You can choose the right size for you, too. I like the N10, which is 17 inches long and strikes the balance between one-handed and two-handed tasks. The N12 is a couple of inches longer for splitting, while the N7 is a 14-inch hatchet designed for lighter work.

Looft Lighter X

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Check price at Walmart

Getting the fire started is often the hardest part of the backyard fire process—even if you’re equipped with a match, newspaper, and fire starter. I’ve recently stepped up my ignition game with the Looft Lighter X, a battery-operated blowtorch that directs a wave of heat (up to 1,300 degrees) at your pile of kindling. Just build a traditional fire with kindling and some paper at the bottom, point the business end of the Looft at the base of your fire, and press the button. In less than a minute, you’ll have a robust flame in your pit. The Looft has a 36-volt lithium battery pack that’s good for 10 ignitions per charge. It’s great for starting your charcoal grill in a hurry too. Is lighting your fire with a blowtorch overkill? Yes. Is it awesome? Absolutely.