By: Luke & Alysha

We find that these propane fire pits have many advantages for us, especially for the upcoming 2021 camping season with our newborn.

You may be wondering about the cost comparison of running a propane fire pit compared to purchasing firewood. Of course, costs vary, but we have found that it can cost about $10 to $15 for a fire that lasts a couple of hours when you purchase firewood from your campground - if the campground sells firewood at all. We don't have an accurate cost per fire when it comes to our propane fire ring, but we know that it is no more expensive than purchasing firewood. We installed a T valve on our motorhome’s propane tank allowing us to run our propane fire pit directly off of it. This is great because filling up the propane tank on our motorhome is cheaper than filling up bottles of propane, and we don’t have to pack around a bottle of propane either. Our last propane fill-up on the RV only cost 80 cents per liter, and even with using our propane fire pit, our propane tank lasts us a very long time.

Propane fires are also a lot less hassle and an inconvenience than a classic wood campfire. Having to split your own firewood and start a fire - although a fun part of camping - can be a lot of work to do every night (and potentially messy if your firewood is sappy!). Again, we love every aspect of a wood fire, but sometimes you are low on time or energy, or you just don’t want to have to smell like campfire smoke. This is when we love to bring out our propane fire pit. Propane burns scent and smoke-free, and all at the click of the lighter. This has been especially great for us this year camping with a newborn. We don’t have to sit around a smoky fire every single night, and Luke can spend a bit more quality time with Chloe rather than prepping the campfire.

Unfortunately, here in North America summertime can also mean forest fire season. Quite often mid-summer we will be hit with a campfire ban to prevent forest fires from starting. With sitting around a campfire in the evenings being an almost essential part of a camping trip, this can throw a wrench into your plans. Luckily, the campfire ban does not include propane fire pits, which means the marshmallows can still be roasted! Even if there isn’t a campfire ban, people who are nervous about having a campfire or who don’t have experience starting a fire may find a propane fire pit a stress-free way to enjoy an evening around a fire.

We still plan on having our share of traditional wood campfires this summer of course, but we like to have our propane fire pit as another option. It's looking like a dry start to the start of the 2021 BC camping season, so if the fire bans hit early, we'll have our propane fire packed and ready!

Ready to purchase one? At Fraserway's Parts store we have different options to choose from. Visit your local Fraserway RV for all your propane tank needs.

About the authors: Luke & Alysha bought their first RV from Fraserway RV and travelled around Canada exploring.