EcoSmart Fire Pit Kit Guide: How to Design and Install a Custom Outdoor Fire Feature

An EcoSmart fire pit kit is a modular bioethanol burner system designed to be dropped into a bespoke, non-combustible surround that the specifier or builder constructs on site. It is the engine of a custom fire feature, not a finished product. You decide the form, the material, the height, and the integration with seating or planting. The kit handles combustion.

EcoSmart Fire has been designing and certifying bioethanol burner systems for over two decades, with installations across hotel terraces, rooftop bars, and private residences in more than 75 countries. The fire pit kit range is the part of the catalogue where that experience meets the bespoke build directly.

Each kit ships with the burner, a high-temperature coated stainless steel tray, baffles (on the linear configurations), a 5-litre jerry can, a fire lighter and lighting rod, a bottle adaptor, and decorative black glass charcoal. The build crew supplies the surround, the fuel, and any optional fire screen. There is no flue, no chimney, no electrical run, and no gas plumbing.

That distinction matters because it changes the architecture of the project. A drop-in gas burner pan still asks the build for a gas connection and an outdoor-only siting. A freestanding fire pit arrives ready to use but resists integration. A kit sits between the two, offering full integration into a custom surround without dragging utilities into the design.

Bioethanol is the fuel that frees the design. It burns cleanly enough to be specified indoors with the right accessories, leaves no smoke or ash, and requires no permanent connection to any utility. Wood and gas both ask the project to give something up; bioethanol asks it to give up very little.

A gas build needs a fitter, a permit pathway, and a continuous supply line, or a bottle and regulator that the surround has to accommodate and the designer has to conceal. Many gas fire features are outdoor-only by certification, ruling out a covered pergola or a rooftop with a partial canopy. A wood build needs a chimney, a hearth, an ash plan, and clearances tied to flueing. Both technologies tend to lock the fire into the location the infrastructure prefers, rather than the one the brief asked for.

A bioethanol kit reverses the priority. The siting decision comes first, and the fuel logistics follow. The table below sets out where each technology earns its keep.

The surround is the part the guest sees. The burner is engineered; the surround is designed. This is where the kit approach earns its keep, because the surround can be anything the project wants, provided three principles hold.

First, the surround must be non-combustible. Stone countertops, concrete (cast in place or precast), brick, and tile are the materials the kit is engineered around. Combustibles like timber finishes can sit nearby but not directly around the burner opening; a steel or stone insert mediates the heat where the flame meets the surround. Second, the cut-out dimensions in the surround must match the physical tray, not an approximation. Verify the tolerance before the surround leaves the workshop or the form is cast. Third, the visible top surface above the burner, the rim that meets the flame opening, should be detailed to handle thermal cycling without staining or spalling.

The cross-section is simpler than it looks. A non-combustible structural base supports the surround. The surround forms an opening sized exactly to the tray. The tray drops in, sitting on a continuous bearing edge. The decorative top of the surround returns to its design intent on either side of the opening. The glass fire screen, if specified, slots into a recessed channel that is part of the surround design rather than an afterthought.

A footnote worth keeping in mind: surround proportion is harder to get right than surround material. A 2,300 mm tray inside a 2,500 mm bench looks tight and busy; the same tray inside a 3,500 mm bench reads as architecture. Generosity around the burner is almost always rewarded.

A well-designed surround is only half the project; what happens before the tray drops in determines whether the design performs as drawn. Site planning is where the trade brief separates from the homeowner brief, and where most of the issues that surface on commissioning day could have been caught a fortnight earlier.

For an open outdoor build, the base needs to be level, hard, non-combustible at the cut-out, and drained so water does not pool inside the tray. For a covered outdoor build, the airflow analysis from the design section becomes a delivery checklist. For a rooftop installation, the structural load is the first conversation. The triple-burner linear configuration weighs in at around 83 kg before the surround. Once the surround is built around it, the kit's contribution to the rooftop dead load needs to be assessed alongside the live-load expectations the building was designed for. AS/NZS 1170.1 Table 3.1 sets a baseline live-load expectation of 2.0 kPa for trafficable rooftop areas in many residential dwellings, but the right number for a specific project comes from the project's engineer, not a guideline.

A working pre-installation checklist for the trade specifier:

• Cut-out dimensions confirmed against the tray to manufacturer tolerance.

• Base material confirmed as non-combustible at the cut-out perimeter.

• Drainage path confirmed for outdoor and covered-outdoor settings.

• Structural load assessed for rooftop and elevated installations.

• Air volume calculation completed for covered or indoor sites.

• Delivery access mapped, especially for the larger linear trays.

• Local authority requirements confirmed (more below).

• For Australian projects, surround fixity confirmed against the ACCC 2017 stability rule.

• Clearance to seating, planters, and any soft furnishings reviewed against the surround design.

The drop-in design is the reason this part of the project goes more smoothly than a gas or wood equivalent. The build sequence is short, and the demanding work is upstream in the surround.

1. Prepare the base. Confirm the slab, frame, or rooftop substructure is level, dry, and drained. For outdoor builds, position the surround footprint and check the cut-out dimensions against the tray one last time. Combustible substrates outside the immediate cut-out are acceptable; the cut-out itself must be non-combustible.

2. Build or position the surround. For cast-in-place concrete, this is the form-and-pour stage. For precast or stone, the surround modules are set and dry-fitted. The cut-out opening is the priority. Leave the surround to cure or stabilise before the tray is fitted.

3. Drop in the tray. With the cut-out clean, lower the stainless steel tray into the opening so it sits on the bearing edge. Confirm the tray sits flat and the rim returns evenly to the surround top.

4. Position the burner inside the tray. The burner is supplied pre-fitted in most configurations. Confirm orientation and that the slider mechanism is accessible from the intended service position.

5. Place the decorative media. Add the supplied black glass charcoal so that no media obstructs the burner mouth or interferes with the slider. Decorative media must be larger than the burner's largest opening and should not be substituted with anything that could emit fumes or shatter under heat.

6. Fit the optional fire screen. If a glass fire screen is specified, slot it into its channel. The screen reduces draught effects in exposed outdoor positions and protects the flame in covered settings.

7. Commission the installation. Walk through the first-fire procedure below before the project is handed over.

The installation does not require a licensed gas fitter, an electrical run, or a sealed flue. In markets where gas kit variants are available, the gas plumbing introduces a licensed-installer step that the ethanol configuration bypasses entirely.

Bioethanol kits are easy to live with, which is part of the appeal. The burner cleans up in a dishwasher, and the surround behaves like any other piece of well-detailed architecture. The maintenance pattern splits cleanly into the burner and the surround.

For the burner, a regular clean keeps the flame even and odour-free. Empty any residual fuel before cleaning (small volumes of ethanol can be disposed of down the drain), wash with mild soap, and dry the burner thoroughly before refilling. Moisture contamination is the most common cause of performance issues. Inspect the burner mouth and the slider mechanism each season; debris around either is the most common cause of an uneven flame. Keep the burner lid closed when the appliance is not in use, especially in outdoor settings where dust and pollen accumulate. The full ethanol burner range shares this maintenance pattern, so a team that has cleaned one of our burners has effectively been trained to clean any of them.

For the surround, the right care depends on the material. Concrete benefits from a periodic reseal and immediate wipe-down of any fuel spill before it stains. Natural stone needs the same attention to spills, plus an annual inspection of the joint between the tray rim and the surround top. Porcelain and tile are the most forgiving and respond well to standard tile cleaners. Steel surrounds, particularly Corten, are designed to weather; the patina is the finish, and intervention is usually limited to keeping organic debris from sitting against the steel for long periods. Powder-coated steel benefits from a touch-up kit kept on site for the inevitable chip.

A tarp or fitted cover during long unused periods extends both burner and surround life considerably, especially in coastal or high-pollen environments.

A bioethanol kit is the right answer when the project wants a custom, integrated fire feature; when the site rules out a flue or a gas line; when a covered or interior placement is part of the brief; or when the hospitality programme needs an architectural anchor with predictable refuel cycles. The flueless, no-utility nature of the kit is the unlock.

A kit is not the right answer when the project wants a fully portable, instant-use fire that can move around the garden. A freestanding bowl from our portable outdoor fire pits range does that job more directly. It is also not the right answer for very large open landscape projects where existing gas infrastructure already supports a built-in solution at lower lifetime fuel cost, or for clients who genuinely want the wood-burning ritual of building a fire from kindling.

How long does a fire pit kit installation take from design to commissioning?

For most projects, the kit itself drops in and commissions in a single day once the surround is built. The full timeline is driven by the surround: a precast or modular stone surround can be designed and installed inside a few weeks, while a cast-in-place concrete surround typically adds curing time to the programme. The kit is the fastest part of the build.

Can the same kit be specified for an indoor and a covered outdoor project?

Yes, with the right accessories. Indoor use requires the indoor safety tray and, for compact kits, the AB8 burner efficiency ring; specific indoor accessories apply to the linear configurations. The same base kit covers both applications, and the specifier configures it for the site at order time. Minimum room volume requirements apply to the indoor use case and inform the burner selection.

How is a fire pit kit different from a drop-in gas burner pan?

A gas burner pan needs a gas supply, a licensed installer, and is almost always certified for outdoor use only. An ethanol kit needs no utility connection, can be installed without a licensed trade for the kit itself, and is rated for both outdoor and indoor use with the correct accessories. The two products solve similar architectural problems but with very different infrastructure footprints.

Does a fire pit kit need a permit?

The product carries the relevant safety certifications for the markets it serves, but installation requirements vary by jurisdiction. For Australian projects, the ACCC's 2017 mandatory standard sets stability requirements that the surround design usually satisfies by holding the kit in place. Confirm requirements with your local authority before commissioning, particularly for indoor installations and rooftop placements.

What surround opening size does the burner need?

The cut-out matches the physical tray dimensions for the chosen configuration: round or square for compact kits, and one of four lengths for the linear range. Verify the tolerance against the product documentation before the surround is fabricated. The drop-in design depends on the cut-out matching the tray, not approximating it.

A bioethanol kit is the part of a custom fire feature that no longer asks the project to compromise. The flame is settled, the surround is yours, and the building does not have to give up a flue, a gas line, or a covered placement to accommodate it. That is the quiet shift the technology makes possible.

The work that pays back is the work upstream of the drop-in: the brief, the surround proportion, the air-volume check for a covered site, the load assessment for a rooftop. Get those decisions right and the kit handles the rest. The fire stops being an infrastructural problem and becomes the social centre the design was always reaching for.

A fire feature that finally sits where the architecture wanted it is a small change with a long shadow. It is what an evening on the terrace, a Thursday in the lobby bar, or a Saturday around the courtyard quietly turns into when the fire is no longer asking the building for permission, and it is the same shift that runs through the broader outdoor fire pits collection whatever form the project finally takes.