About chimeneas – Your versatile outdoor friend

So what’s so special about chimeneas? What is a chimenea anyway? Grab a cuppa and read our article about why chims are really cool things. You might be surprised at how versatile and handy they are.

Define chimenea

Ok, let’s start at the beginning and describe what a chimenea is. It’s basically a clay or metal patio fire with a tall chimney, on legs or a stand, with a rounded belly and a wide mouth where you add the fuel. The fire isn’t the clever thing. It’s the large body of the chimenea that does the hard work, soaking up the heat from the fire inside. The clay or metal gets hot, then radiates the heat out a full 360 degrees to keep people warm.

Where do chimineas come from?

The idea comes from Mexico. Mexican people have perfected the design over centuries and still use clay chimeneas for outdoor heating and cooking. This means Mexican chimeneas are the best of all, giving you excellent performance and optimal heat.

How are metal chimeneas and clay chimeneas different?

Clay chims deserve special treatment. Made from much the same kind of red clay as terracotta plant pots, the relatively low firing temperature means the material is porous. When it gets wet it absorbs water, and if it gets cold and the water freezes, it can crack the clay. The same goes if the body gets very hot in one area while staying cooler elsewhere: the temperature difference can crack the clay.

It’s an easy fix. Use an insulated cover in winter to stop frost. Season the clay first, quickly and easily, with a small fire so it heats up nice and slow. And use a layer of pumice stone, a volcanic rock that protects the belly of the chim from heating up faster than the rest.

Metal chimeneas are made from steel or cast iron and they’re as tough as old boots. The worst that’ll happen is a bit of rust, and you can set a big fire inside to heat the metal body as fast as you like.

Metal and clay are just as easy on the eye. There are so many designs to choose from, it’s just a matter of taste… and of size. Leave at least 1m all the way round for people to move or you’ll singe yourselves – these clever gadgets really do get wonderfully hot!

So what can you do with a chimenea?

A chimenea provides the most beautiful light, thanks to the flickering flames inside which cast their magic out into the surrounding area. Some of our Mexican clay versions have cut-outs in the body or chimney – or both – for the fire to shine through. We also sell a metal chimenea model featuring a 30 degree mesh so you can see the fire from every angle, making it an exciting focal point for your garden life.

It’s a heat thing, too. A chimenea is a brilliant patio heater, a garden heat source with a more natural-looking design than slim, shiny steel patio heaters. Your BBQ might give off heat but it isn’t made to keep people warm, it’s for cooking. A chim focuses the heat where it’s needed.

You can cook in all sorts of ways on a chimenea. Use a waffle iron or get yourself a cooking iron to hold meat, fish and veg securely while you BBQ it inside the chimenea’s body. Grab a fish basket to cook fillets and whole fish or smoke gorgeous treats in a food smoker. Cook an entire chicken using a chicken roaster or make kebabs of every kind on metal skewers. Bake perfect pizza with a pizza stone, cook tasty casseroles on the chimney of the chim with a specially-shaped cast iron cookpot. Or just use a simple portable BBQ grill to create classic barbie food quickly and tastily. If you can cook it indoors, there’s probably a way to cook it on a chimenea. Basically, the bigger your chimenea, the more food you can cook on it, and in it.

Garden design can be such a challenge unless you’re an actual designer. You know you need a focal point for your entertainment area but what should it be? A chimenea makes an attractive destination, the beating heart of a garden, a place people naturally gather. And it works as beautiful garden decor, never an eyesore.

Perfect for a small space, a chimenea delivers good looks, light, heat and cooking into one, a top idea when your outdoor space isn’t big enough for separate sources of light, heat and food.

Things to do with an old chimenea

People do all sorts of cool things with their old chimeneas. Plant flowers in it. Decorate it to create an unusual garden sculpture. Hide it in the undergrowth so wildlife can shelter in it. Bury it half in the ground so it looks like an ancient piece of pottery poking out. It can make a cosy cat house for your pet, with the rain lid on to keep the inside dry and a cosy bed inside.

If you’re inspired, hop over to our chimenea collection and see which one you like the look of.