There are 2 ways to cook on  a Chimenea, inside and on the top.

To cook on the top you will need a special bowl and rack as shown on the left.

As soon as the fire starts you can put food on the rack on the top of the Chimenea and start cooking. This way you do not waste lots of heat and fuel.

 The top rack is also excellent for cooking soups and casseroles in a pot. My friends at the Complete Chimenea Company sell the most ingenious range of accessories and cooking pots to enable virtually anything to be cooked on or in a Chimenea.

Most people do not own the new and innovative top rack so cook in the lower oven part of the Chimenea.

At first I found that the grill did not balance well here so I made a prop out of some rolled up Aluminium foil to support it.

One nice thing about cooking this way is that you can quickly remove the grill and access all the food, away from the danger of the fire.

If you want some good ideas for meals suited to cooking on a Chimenea then my friends Allison and Dana have written an excellent book with some exotic dishes that will really impress your guests.

 Buy my Friend Dana's Chimenea Cook Book

use the link below for a similar book

Sadly this excellent top rack is no longer available

A Funky Modern  Chimenea

If you don't like the look of the old fashioned Chims then there are many options and the one I particularly like is this funnel shaped version.

It comes in 3 sizes and has optional custom made covers to protect it from wind and rain.

Care of your Chimenea

If you have a clay Chimenea it will be vulnerable to frost damage in the winter. Unless you have a cast Iron one or the new Superchim.

If you have a normal clay Chim then you  can seal it with a special liquid called Chimseal and then cover it with a big bag to protect it from frost and bad weather. Alternatively you could buy a special trolley and just pull it into the garage or conservatory over winter.

Cast iron and steel chimeneas tend to go rusty even if you cover them but a quick rub down with wires wool and a spray of heat resistant paint will quickly smarten them up for another season.

I am now using the stainless steel Gardeco Chim burner shown on the link to the right of this page.

It rests on metal legs and has a handy smothering plate with a long handle so you can out the flames out safely.

Firebowls and using your Chimenea as an indoor feature over winter

I like to bring my Chiminea  inside AND use it as an attractive fire thanks to a new material that burns without smoke or fumes. This Bio-ethanol is sugar based and can be safely burned in a room and does not require a chimney. Bio-ethanol burners are for effect only and not to provide a heat source.  The little glass burner below is nice outdoors for effect at a party.

Gardeco Chim burner is 6 inches diameter * 3 inches high

My Favorite BBQ and the Big Match Lighter

Firepits and multipurpose BBQ Tables

This BBQ has a deep bowl made of cast iron that can is strong and durable and can hold a lot of wood or coal.

It also has a dome shaped mesh that can cover the fire to prevent sparks escaping.

I like this BBQ because when you have finished cooking your food you can use it to burn logs and make a superb garden or patio heater.

Any burning machine made from steel will likely go rusty but unless it is really thin steel will last many years and not be a problem

Another interesting take on this is the fire pit with a lid that doubles as a table.

 If you have a small garden or want something pretty and dual purpose then there is a firepit with a ceramic cover that turns into a table when required.

Big Match BBQ Lighter - best BBQ lighter?

The big match lighter is also an excellent tool for lighting BBQ''s candles and any sort of fire.

It is refillable and also has an adjustable flame length. The red end is solid metal and the stick part is aluminium so it is very durable.

I have had one for over 6 years and it still works well, unlike my sleek stainless steel Ronson one that packed up after 2 months. 

Sadly the big match lighter is no longer available.

Best Cleaner For Glass Doors on Woodburning Stoves

My British made Stovax Riva wood burner gets a lot of use and I love the way it burns the wood gas at the top of the stove to make it super efficient.

Sometimes when I don't keep and eye on it the glass door gets blackened and can be really hard to clean. After trying half a dozen different cleaners I came across the Stovax glass cleaner which is even more impressive than the stove!

The cleaner is available in a spray or a gel. The spray tends to drip off but does cover the area very quickly. Both work incredibly well , especially if you use a bit of ash as well to add an abrasive element on the really caked on soot.

I prefer the spray and after spraying it on I stick a kitchen towel on it for 5 minutes then leave it to soak in for maximum effectiveness and no waster.

The product is quite expensive but I find that it does last a long time and save you a lot of time too.

Also

I am currently testing some new, award winning Trollull stove glass cleaning pads

They are made using carefully selected wire wool on a foam backing. As steel is softer than glass it wont scratches.  The pads are a bit like "soapless brillo pads" and work extremely well without the use of any chemicals or water. The trick is to use them regularly so that the soot does not build up. if you do this then you can keep your stove glass clean with just a quick wipe and no chemicals.

Stove Glass Cleaners

My Stovax Riva woodburning stove works well but the finish of the metal was extremely poor and the paint soon fell off.

The expensive table it sits on was extremely badly finished.

On closer inspection it was evident that no primer had been used and the stove and stand would need respraying.

Despite knowing that I am a wheelchair user and the Stove was still under warranty the company merely posted me a can of paint.

As it happened it needed more than one can I had to pay someone to help me prep and spray it.

 I bought Stovax because I thought that being made in Britain it would be good quality I have since discovered that the stand at least was shipped in from the far east.

Whilst I like the performance of my Stovax Riva I am not impressed with the company and its customer service.

Burning Garden Waste

If you allow your garden waste to dry sufficiently it is possible to burn almost anything in a well made garden waste incinerator. I like the one that looks like a dustbin with a lid with a chimney in it as this one is great for keeping the heat in and stopping the smoke and ash from blowing everywhere. The trick with burning garden waste is to get the incinerator really hot buy burning the most dry and woody material first.

If you want a dual purpose burner the brazier below has a BBQ grill mesh that you can use for cooking if you have some seasoned logs to burn.

Best Log Splitter

I recently discovered the amazing Swedish log splitter at a trade show and met the inventor who showed me how to use it.

Alf Ganlund was very proud of his invention and rightly so!

Despite being in a wheelchair, I was able to easily split large logs with only 2 -3 drops of the wedge.

Alf's brilliant logsplitter works by using the force of gravity channelled down a steel rod. This avoids any jarring of your joints which is often what happens when you use a splitting axe or a wedge like the wood bomb.

Unless you have tonnes of logs to split I don't think you need to spend loads of money on an electric or petrol powered log splitter

There are very few parts to go wrong on this and it costs nothing to run! So it really is a clean , mean , green machine!

Please use the links below to compare prices and support this site with your purchase.

  check price of smart splitter from a Fredshed partner site

Small Log Splitter - Roughneck  Wood Grenade

I sometimes use this little tool to split small logs that I use as the next step up from kindling. After cutting down my trees I let the logs season in a dry place for at least 6 months and then split then with the wood grenade and a club hammer. There are some poor reviews of this product on the internet but they are all when users have tried to split large logs.  If you have large logs  to split ( over 8 inches diameter)  then I think you should use a splitting axe like the Fiskars X25 or  a log splitting machine like the one shown opposite.

  check price of smart splitter from a Fredshed partner site

click here to see a large range of powered log splitters from a Fredshed partner site

use link below to see my recommended electric log splitter

 best electric log splitter