What is the Best Gas Fire Pit Burner?
Choosing the best gas fire pit burner for your needs depends on a number of features. Shape, flame style, size, BTUs and more, should all be considered before ordering your burner.
We believe that the best fire pit burner system is the Crossfire by Warming Trends. Almost everyday we get inquiries like this:
“I have a fire pit with a stainless steel burner but I’m not happy with the flame. It’s only 5″ high and it doesn’t put out any heat. What can I do?”
This is the reason why we ONLY carry Warming Trends Crossfire brass burners; because we don’t want to have that difficult conversation with our customers. If you have an adequate fuel supply, you WILL be satisfied with our burners!
You may pay more upfront for an all brass burner, but you will pay less over time for these reasons:
- Brass does not corrode over time like stainless steel
- You won’t feel the need to “upgrade” to get a better flame… you will already have THE BEST
- Limited LIFETIME warranty!
- Twice the flame
BTU Ratings
This part is simple: just make sure your gas line can supply at least 60-70% of what the burner is rated at.
Example:
- Desired Burner: 180K BTUs
- Minimum Required Fuel Volume: at least 108K BTUs
How Hot?
- All of the burners we carry are HOT
- All Crossfire models have the same “jets”; providing hotter, brighter, taller flames
Why do Warming Trends burners have so many more BTUs than others?
- The secret is in the jets (no, you can’t just buy the jets. Nice try!)
- Other burners are made by poking small holes in stainless steel tubes. Gas just seeps out without mixing oxygen. The flame is small and not as hot or controlled, hence the smaller BTU ratings
- Going with a stainless steel burner greatly increases the risk of being bummed with your fire

- Crossfire burners produce twice the amount of flame with the same amount of fuel as conventional stainless steel burners
Shape
Before choosing the best fire pit burner for your pit, determine if the inside opening is round, square, rectangular, or custom. Gas burners come in a variety of shapes including:
- original
- octagonal
- double tree
- tree style
- linear
- H style
- custom
If you have a round opening, the burner you need will be either original, octagonal, or radial. Those shapes are going to lend themselves very well to a round opening shape. Double tree styles are similar to original and tree styles, they simple include more jets for larger flames. Warming Trends also makes some unique designs including the centipede or serpentine Cross Fire Burners.
Choosing the burner shape/size requires you to answer several questions about your fire feature and fuel line:
- Shape & Size
- Square, Round, Rectangular, Custom
- Standard Round & Square Opening sizes
- 18″, 24″, 30″, 36″, 42″, 48″, 60″
- Do you need a plate/pan?
- See PLATES & PANS to help answer this question
- If YES, choose a burner that has a plate size that works with your opening
- If NO, make sure you keep 5-6″ of clear space around the burner so that the heat doesn’t harm your top
- Custom cut plates are available
Flame Style
We love Crossfire burners. The angle of the flame inward creates a strong flame that is impressive. The shape of your burner will influence the flame style but all Crossfire burners have jets that direct toward one another. For square openings, we recommend the Double Tree. Any one of those burners is going to lend itself very well to a square opening.
Finally…
The third most popular shape is rectangular. The important thing to know is that the dimensions are arbitrary. Whatever works for your build. If your opening is rectangular, the best gas fire pit burner you will want will be linear.
It is not a Crossfire burner. All jets on a linear burner sit straight up. This results in a wall of flame. The second burner style for a rectangular opening is the H style. With an H style, your jets are all going to be pointing in and creating a Crossfire flame. The third, most popular, and best flame pattern (in my opinion) for a rectangular opening is the Tree style.
With a Tree style, depending on the overall size and the BTUs, the widths may vary wildly. Plan around the opening so you know what size plate you need.
The opening should correspond to the plate. The plate just drops right in to the opening easily. Round, square, rectangle, original, octagonal, double tree, tree style, linear, and H style are the most popular.