What is the Best Chiminea?

It’s a question we’re asked quite a lot: what is the best chiminea? The answer goes along the lines of ‘how long is a piece of string’. It depends on your outdoor space, your lifestyle, your aesthetic taste and what you want to achieve with your chiminea. A gadget that delivers perfectly-cooked foods? Something to keep you toasty and warm outdoors when there’s a chill? A great all-rounder?

The best chiminea – the shortlist:

Here’s a quick run-down of our biggest sellers and what they’re best at. As usual, if you have any chiminea questions at all, we’re more than happy to provide sensible, practical and creative answers. In the meantime, here goes…

The best cast iron chimineas

• The Toledo is an excellent all rounder with its quirky Steampunk-style good looks and beautiful, curvy silhouette. It’s rock solid, delivers lots of lovely heat, is a generous size and comes with oodles of handy accessories in with the price. You can even cook on it. We think, overall, it’s the best chiminea.
• The Helios is built for heat, with a smooth, pleasing outline, elegantly simple design and an extra-heavyweight design for extra stability. It comes in just two parts, so the assembly is as easy as pie. And it’s perfect for any size of outdoor space. Mmm, toasty!
• The Billie is your perfect chiminea choice for smaller outdoor areas, a neat and beautifully-designed item ideal for a little balcony or city patio. It burns any kind of chiminea fuel, you can cook with it and it’s low and squat, which makes it safe and sturdy even when there’s not much room for manoeuvre.
• The Corona provides the ultimate in flexibility for excellent cooking and equally good heating. The canny combination of chiminea and fire bowl make barbecuing a dream and the three genuine slate side-tables keep your food and crockery within easy reach.
• The Opera is great for people who are hypnotised by the beauty of real fire, with its 360 degree decorative grille. It’s practical too because the fire is in view, simple to feed and maintain as well as clean out. Add contemporary good looks and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular.

The best clay chimineas

• Chimalin AFC is a miracle, a brilliant new material that looks like ordinary clay but comes with extra resilience, designed not to crack through heat. Any chiminea made from this innovative stuff will see you through seasons and seasons of alfresco frolics. This is our pick for the best chiminea in the clay category.
• The Traditional Mexican is our best-loved all rounder and the most effective heater. It looks gorgeous with its lovely, mellow handmade-style clay finish and simple silhouette. As millions of Mexicans who’ve used one over hundreds of years will tell you, it also fires up a treat and delivers loads of heat.
• The Four Elements has an extra-large mouth for great view of the fire, a treat when you like nothing more than staring into the flames and daydreaming. It’s gorgeous to look at, too. Choose from four delightful nature-inspired designs – earth, air, fire and water.
• The Cozumel is our champion chiminea for barbecuing, designed for great food cooked the traditional way. Wonderfully practical, it performs equally well as a chim or barbecue. Just lift the top section off and you’re ready to cook. It’s small enough to carry easily, too.
• The Ellipse comes with attractive contemporary styling, for those of you who appreciate the beauty of sheer simplicity. It’s a really pleasing egg shape with a circular mouth and neat lid, and gives you great views of the fire. There’s no assembly necessary and it’s easy to light.

Get cool free stuff with all of the above

Whatever you choose, you get a free gift when you buy a chiminea and one accessory from us. And we’re currently running a madly generous 3-for-2 accessory offer too. It’s almost rude not to…