Sizing
Measure once.
Order anything.
Three numbers, taken with a tape measure in about two minutes, size every screen, grate, lid and insert we sell. Here is where to put the tape, and what each product does with the answer.
The three measurements
Write them on your phone. Four of the five rules further down use nothing but the first one.
Have your measurement? See what fits your pit
The opening, at its widest point
Straight across the inside of the pit, from the inner face of one wall to the inner face of the opposite one. On a square or rectangular pit, measure across the flats and not corner to corner. This is the number four of the five rules use.
The depth, from the rim to the floor
Inside the pit, from the top of the wall down to whatever the fire sits on. An insert and a drop-in grate both take up part of this before any wood does.
The rim or coping, front to back
How much flat, solid surface the top of your wall gives you. Only the grill grate depends on it, and it is the one thing a diameter cannot tell us, so it is worth knowing before you ask.
What each one does with the number
They are not the same rule, and one of them runs the opposite way to the rest. That is the single most common sizing mistake we see.
Spark screen
The size names its range
Match your opening to the range printed on the size you pick. The sizes are named by the pit they cover, not by their own diameter, so there is no arithmetic to do.
A screen sits over the whole opening and the dome needs to clear the flame, so the size is specified by what it has to cover.
Smokeless insert
The size names its range
Measure the inside of the opening at its widest point and pick the size whose stated range contains it. On a square pit, measure across the flats rather than corner to corner.
The insert hangs from a wide brim that rests on your stone and overlaps the lip, so the opening it spans is the number that matters. It also needs depth: at least 15 inches.
Snuffer lid
Larger than the opening
Pick a lid about 2 inches wider than the opening you are covering. If a lid came with your insert, it is already sized to it and there is nothing to work out.
A lid has to land on something solid all the way round to smother a fire and keep rain out, and an exact match would drop straight in.
Fire grate
Smaller than the opening
Measure the inside of the pit and order a grate smaller than the opening. How much smaller is stated on each grate's own page, and they are not all the same. If its page gives no figure, send us your measurement and we will tell you which size to take.
This one drops inside the pit to hold the wood off the ash, so it is the one product where bigger is wrong. It needs room all the way around rather than wedging against the walls, and how much room depends on the grate, not on a rule of thumb.
Grill grate
Send us a photo first
Measure straight across the inside at its widest point. If that number lands close to a grate size, send us the measurement and a photo of the rim or coping before you order and we will tell you whether it will bear safely.
A grill grate spans the opening and carries food, so it needs real steel bearing on the rim at both sides. Whether it does depends on the rim you actually have, which no diameter on its own can tell us. A grate that only just reaches is not something to find out about under a full cook.
Two things that catch people out
Do not trust the box
Measure rather than look it up, even if your pit came in a box. One well known smokeless pit's own product page currently gives two different inside diameters, half an inch apart, in two places on the same page. Half an inch is the difference between a grate that drops in and one that sits on the edge.
Double walled pits are different
If your pit is a double walled smokeless one, its own rim is doing two jobs: it is the cooking surface and it is the air path that burns the smoke. Laying a flat grate across it covers one and chokes the other, so buy the accessories built for that pit rather than ours. Our sizes are for open pits: block, stone, steel rings, and whatever came with the house.
Still not sure? Do not guess at it.
Send us your three numbers and we will tell you which size you need, or tell you if nothing we make will fit. An irregular, oval or homemade pit is worth a photo as well.
Send us your measurements or read the Guaranteed Fit promise, which covers you if the size still comes out wrong.