CobraCo FB8008 Diamond Mesh Fire Pit with Screen and Cover

This is my first fire pit. I bought this particular model after reviewing more than 100 others for a handful of reasons listed under PRO below, and the product delivered well on every expectation.

PRO:

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1. It's a large diameter model. I need it big enough to hold whatever firewood I can buy locally, and this model handles it all well. I don't have to chop normal firewood into littler pieces.

2. It's a deep model. Those little pan models are out of the question. This model holds several pieces of wood and all the newspaper I care to ball up underneath. When I'm ready to light it, a single match takes care of everything for the first couple hours. Instead of giving the fire my constant attention, I can enjoy my family and guests.

3. There's a wonderful flat surface ringing the pit, and it's tall enough to be useful. The ring stays cool, perfect for plates and drinks. We particularly like keeping mugs of hot chocolate on the ring as we settle around the fire after dark, having eaten dinner there when it was light out. We also bought marshmallow roasting sticks that work beautifully with this fire pit.

4. The diamond mesh allows superior air flow. A fire cannot thrive without air, and this pit provides far more than other models. I could wish that the pan's bottom allowed air also, but that would allow debris (and hot coals) to fall through.

5. The mesh lid is solid and effective. I have no worries about safety when the lid is in place.

6. The entire unit is solid. Some friends have a more rickety model. This fire pit's legs are sturdily attached, but their real stability comes from their wide base.

7. Absolutely zero maintenance is required after initial assumbly. Just park this fire pit in your back yard and pull up a few of those soccer-mom sideline chairs. The firewood itself requires a bit of attention of course, but there's nothing to turn or tighten on the fire pit itself.

8. It comes with a cover! That's something you definitely want, and this model saves you that expense. My cover lasted until the lawnmowing service started a few months later, but I expect that any cover of any quality would not have survived that weed-eater treatment. Shame on me for leaving the fire pit in my suburban backyard grass instead of building a patio or laying out some bricks.

CON:

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1. Assembly was a bit more difficult than I expected, but not bad really. All the parts are black, so it's hard even to see the holes and alignments. The metal edges aren't sharp exactly, but neither are they smooth and comfortable like rolled edges. The instructinos are clearly written in real English. But legs were attachable curving inward instead of outward, and the big ring was attachable upside-down. I could imagine v2.0 of this model ensuring that parts can only be assembled correctly. This one minor point almost gave this product less than a perfect score, but ultimately the finished product is what I rated not the assembly.

2. After six months of occasional use, the wire mesh lid looks a little burned in one place. I expect that the fire got too hot once, and that a steel wire brush would make it look new again. But I'm still in zero-maintenance mode, and I care far more about the function than continuing the like-new look.

Overall Summary: It's bigger than it looks, and quite solid. The size allows pre-building a long-lasting fire, and the mesh allows air to feed that fire so you don't need to tend it constantly. The wide, flat ring surface makes the whole unit more functional.

The product itself is actually really nice. Pretty much it's the main bowl that sits in the frame with the legs so that when you have the firepit going the main bowl is hot but the outer metal stay cool.

The problem I had with the product was that one of the legs was broken out of the box and the mesh cover was dented. I guess thankfully I have a lot of patients and am in no hurry; I called the company to request replacement for these parts under warranty. Now some may go crazy considering how long it's taking for these parts to arrive. (Around a month) but that's because they need to ship the part from China to their HQ in the US and then ship it to you. Best part is the request stays in the their records, I've dealt with so many other companies and half the time the ticket number would just magically disappear *cough HTC cough*. They even personally called me up to give me the status of the part and to give me the situation of the part.

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Be aware that if any parts are missing you will be asked to ship the whole fire pit to Woodstream for replacement. I was missing the screen handle and bolt and they told me to ship the whole fire pit back to them for replacement. Sorry, I did not stay on the call long enough to find out if the shipping would be at my cost or theirs.

In my opinion this is pretty poor customer service for a minor part. There are a lot of other choices, I plan to avoid this company in the future.

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Whoever said "she" assembled this in 15 minutes, must have had extra hands helping or assembled it in a black hole time warp! Took me a solid hour. The tools provided are adequate but not "hand-friendly" and a philips-head screw driver is needed but not provided (no big deal). Whoever is counting bolts, nuts, and screws miscounted on my order, apparently just as with other orders. I had one less screw than necessary and two extra bolts than needed; so I improvised and used a nut where there was to be a screw. When your unit comes with insufficuent nuts, bolts, and screws, either improvise as I did or take one of whatever you are missing down to Lowes/Home Depot and pay the 32cents per nut/bolt/screw rather than returning the entire fire pit. Also, instructions neglect to tell you to be certain that the "ring" is below the upper lip of the fire canister and not above it during assembly. After assembly (1 hour), loved it! Whoever said "her" kids sat their hot cocoa on the ring must not have had a robust fire going at the time; the heat generated will melt or super-heat anything left on the useful decorative ring. Be careful what you put on the ring ... it gets really hot! All-in-all I really like the unit, but the pit fits too tightly to remove from the ring (at first) when dumping ashes out .... so you have to lift pit, ring, and all to dump, but its doable. After a fire or two the pit lifted from the ring for easier dumping. The actual pit is a really wide diameter, which I love for burning broken/fallen branches and split logs in ... you can easily sit 6 around this pit or 8-10 at a farther distance from the pit. Enjoy it... I am!

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Just got it. Quite fast...2 days free shipping, Sat. delivery. Assembled in less than an hour. All parts needed where there, with the exception of washers (it lost a star for this). I highly recommend using stainless steel lock washers on all the "ring" assembley screws (8) and under the mesh lid cover for it's handle, and star lock washers on the (4) feet screws. That's what I did anyway. The included tiny open-end wrench will drive you crazy (another reason for the lost star) so be sure to have a 10mm open-end/box wrench and a 10mm speed nut driver if you can. The rest are Allen nuts (8) which I personally hate, but they include an Allen nut driver in a good size. You also need a #2 or #3 Phillips driver. The assembly went easily with the right tools. Everything fit well and looked great after assembly. The paint/coating was not scratched anywhere. The welds seem ok. Seems quite sturdy.

We looked at a lot of fire pits before choosing this one. We like the all black coating....it goes with everything, and and black residue from smoke etc. will merely blend in. One of the main reasons we chose this one is it's height. It's only 14" high, and we happen to have 2 Eddie Bauer folding camping chairs that are 12" high. Others we considered are 23" high or so, and would be too high for our EB chairs and even regular chairs (typically 17-18"). In any event, we wanted a low profile pit, not something that dominated our new natural stone patio, but merely enhanced it. We also feel that the low profile is safer....less top heavy with a lower flame/spark profile. Be sure to put at least 1" of sand or DG (decomposed granite) in the bottom before using.

Have not lit a fire yet, but don't need to in order to review it. The fire part is easy. We will simply use Duraflame logs to start it and throw in firewood as needed.

Hope this review helps someone.

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