Chimneas - do you need one with a door?

[Nicky]

We're looking at chimneas rather than having a patio heater and wondered what other people have got. I've looked at some but can't decide if we need one with a door or not.....

[zanussi101]

we have one without a door and it's great. Never cooked on it we just have it to keep warm on chilly summer nights. last year we put a load of old wood from a ceiling my partner took down and it burnt so well we had flames coming out of the top!
definitely better than a patio heater- we had them at work a few years back and when the wind was strong they just blew over and ended up with the umbrella bit all dented.

[Hans Mum]

ours has a door and its easy just to chuck some more stuff on to burn although the handle does get b****y hot....

[HeyWayne]

Just be sure to spare a thought for your neighbour. In our old house the dude next door would burn almost anythin in his and it was right near the back of our house. The smell would last days!

I like them, but our gardens are too enclosed to have one without it affecting our neighbours.

[tootles]

Call me a thickie - what is a chimnea??!

[squashysu]

Call me a thickie - what is a chimnea??!

heres one
Buy the Tampico style Cast iron Chiminea online from the largest range of Cast iron Chimineas in the UK.

i have one like this and its great, it burns anything, well recommended and far more environmentally friendly than a patio heater

[Stacey Steve]

A chiminea is maybe more environmentally friendly, I don't know but I don't see how.

What ever you are burning has an effect on the atmosphere & as HW (or maybe BD as we should perhaps call him now) has said burning wood, coal or what ever has an associated smell. Fine if you have big open gardens but most modern houses are cramped together with tiny gardens. What smells fine to you may not be what the neighbours particularly wanted to smell.

I'm a bloke and I want one because there nothing better than putting things onto a fire.

However it wouldn't work terribly well under the gazebo, whereas the gas heater is fine. I can turn it on when I need it and turn it off when I am finished, I don't have to think half an hour in advance to get it lit and stoked up and I don't have to damp it down when I'm done.

I sleep with my windows open and some neighbours chimineas are still burning down hours later, fine if I wanted to be a kipper.

[smallblueplanet]

A chiminea is maybe more environmentally friendly, I don't know but I don't see how.

Because you can grow the trees to burn on it, but unless you can get bottles on cow's bums I'm not sure about gas?

Here's one that Tesco have on sale, looks a good price?

Cast Iron Chimenea - Tesco.Direct

[Mikey]

Isn't a chiminea with a door just a stove or oven if you prefer!!

[squashysu]

I sleep with my windows open and some neighbours chimineas are still burning down hours later, fine if I wanted to be a kipper.

So do i, i think a barbie is sometimes more inconsiderate especially when your clothes are on the line!!

Perhaps move to Bedfordshire, the neighbours here are more considerate lol !

[Stacey Steve]

Sorry, I was always under the impression that the gas was largely a by product of the petrol production process and prior to it's use as a bottled product was burnt off. Now of course there are gas fields that are "farmed" or some will say exploited.

Quite where the wood comes from to burn in a chiminea is another point entirely.

My point was that when you burn things there are immissions and this is true for both gas and wood, I am not a biochemist so am not trying to say one has more "nasties" than the other.

I am no more going to have a personal field of cows to collect their waste for environmentally friendly gas than I am going to have my own sustainable forest.