Can I burn wood or paper in a gas fire pit?
No — never burn wood, paper, or anything solid in a gas fire pit. The burner, media, and pan are built for a clean gas flame, not solid-fuel heat and ash. Wood and paper clog the burner ports, warp the metal, coat everything in soot, and create a real carbon-monoxide and flare-up hazard. If you want to burn wood, you need a wood fire pit.
Why it wrecks the pit
A gas fire pit is a precision appliance — a burner with drilled ports feeding an even flame through rated media. Throw wood or paper on it and you undo all of that. Ash and char sift down into the ports and plug them, so the burner fires unevenly or not at all. The concentrated, dirty heat of a solid fire runs far hotter in spots than the pan and burner are designed for, warping metal and cracking media.
Then there's the soot — a wood or paper fire coats the glass, the burner, and the pan in a black film that no gas flame is meant to produce.
The safety side is worse
Beyond the damage, mixing solid fuel with a gas burner is genuinely unsafe. Burning debris can block ports and cause gas to build and then flare, and incomplete combustion off smoldering material adds carbon monoxide to the mix. Paper especially loves to float off as burning embers — a bad idea anywhere, and a serious one on a wood deck or near dry mountain brush.
A gas pit is designed to be lit and killed at a valve with no embers left behind. Feeding it wood throws away that entire safety margin.
Want to burn wood? Get the right pit
If the smell of woodsmoke and the crackle of real logs is what you're after, that's a legitimate want — it just calls for a wood-burning fire pit, which is built for the ash, heat, and embers a gas pit isn't. Some folks like both: a gas pit for easy weeknight ambiance and a separate wood pit for the full campfire experience.
We install both, and we'll help you choose. Call (828) 545-0525 or visit the Asheville showroom and we'll match the pit to how you actually want to use the fire.
How we can help
Related questions
- Can I convert my wood-burning fire pit to gas?
- Are gas fire pits worth it compared to wood-burning fire pits?
- What should go in a gas fire pit — lava rock, fire glass, or a log set?
- Can I use regular landscaping rocks or river stones in a gas fire pit, or will they crack and pop?
- Should I get a smokeless wood fire pit or a gas fire pit?
- How much does it cost to install a gas fire pit?
Still deciding? Talk to a real installer.
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