Ours rusted out after one year... and yes, it was from Lowe's.

I bought one with a clay bowl and keep it in the garage when not in use. It has held up fine. Our first one was metal and was left outside. It eventually rusted away. It would have lasted a lot longer if we stored it in the garage.

Mine is clay/metal and is rusting a small amount but not enough to affect function...I assume. We've never put a fire in it but have left it out for several years and grown mosquitoes in it. Home Depot I think. It was a gift.

I would expect the thing would be treated with heat-proof paint. If not, you can always paint it yourself so that hubby can't complain. Treat yourself and if you have to repaint it every summer, is it that bad? :)

I bought one from Home Depot, seemed to last for awhile. The key is you get one with a top on it :)

Many metals will corrode when exposed to moisture, so the key is to keep it dry when not in use....in the garage, or covered. We keep ours in the garage and it has a vinyl cover. Of course you don't put the vinyl cover on it when it's hot. Yikes!

We have one from Lowe's that we're about to take to the dump. It did rust, but it was usable for about five years, so I'm happy with that. The kids loved having it, and it was used often. We'll be getting another one.

Oh - ours had a vinyl cover, but it blew off all the time and one year it froze and cracked in the snow (no room for it in the garage)... so the cover only lasted a year or so.

LL Bean has one and it's guaranteed for life...

We have a heavy cast metal one that hubby re-painted. We use ours alot and because of the size (it's wide and tall not one of the low round things) it's not an option to move inside and out. That kind of defeats the purpose as we use ours quite often. Ours did not rust but the paint/color changed. Looks great now and we don't cover it, etc.

tina

Thank you everyone! So, I'm thinking the key to making it last is to not leave it outside and always keep it covered. I think it would really be fun to have one and I know my teenagers would love it for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs.

We just got one recently from Lowes to use at DD's graduation party. It was a real hit and put out a lof of heat. Everyone could gather their chairs around it and chat, just like at a campfire. It came with a cover which we plan to use. We used to have a patio heater and had problems with storage of it off season, too tall/bulky to move easily and store in garage. It came with a cover that blew off and so stopped working after one season's use. I hope we can get more use from the fire pit just for outdoor summer barbecues, etc. than what we got from the patio heater which was only used for larger parties. I wish it was on wheels though so we could move it more easily.

Just be aware that if you have close neighbors, depending on the prevailing breezes, the smoke could end up blowing into their house windows and creating an unpleasant situation. Don't ask me how I know!!

We have had a Weber one for over a decade and it is still fine. The body and lid are black like a typical Weber grill. There are a couple of tiny rust spots where the is a defect in the paint. There is an unpainted piece that goes between the body and lid when it is in use and that has a rust coating but is still solid and strong.

We keep it outside but often it is stored under our eaves which provide a bit of shelter. Perhaps our drier California climate helps.

We like that it is light enough to move to where we want it for use and then put it out of the way when not in use because a fire pit without a fire isn't the most attractive thing and I wouldn't want to have it in the way in the middle of the patio but when sitting around it on a cool night that's a nice place for it.

When one is done with the fire, one can put out the fire by taking the unpainted piece out and putting the lid directly on the base. That's a nice feature because I wouldn't like to leave a fire going outside unattended.

Ours is out in the yard, not on a patio or deck. We have adirondack (sp) chairs around it. It is on a concrete "pad" made by putting together several of those large concrete squares.

Our plan is to do a stone firepit. When we get around to that project LOL.

tina