Customer Reviews

Kay Home Products 30072 Iron Hearth with Lid

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The cast-iron fire pit is great - very sturdy. However, the legs are not. One of the wheeled legs broke right in half after about six uses. (We were wheeling it on flat concrete and flat lawn grass.) The same thing happened to a friend of ours after similar infrequent use. Eventually all the legs broke off and he has it on cinder blocks. I am currently trying to get in touch with Kay Home Products to see if I can order another set of legs.

The firepit was fine for the first few months, then all of a sudden, a leg fell off. I thought it was a loose screw or something, but it turned out that an entire chunk of the metal fell off where the leg was secured. There was a large hole in the bottom of the pit. The metal is very brittle and low quality. Avoid this piece of junk.

If you enjoy campfires or cooking over a wood fire, this in my opinion is the best fire pit (hearth) available. I bought mine after using this fire pit at a friend's house where we have the occasional men's night out (we cook thick steaks over the fire and philosophize on the big picture issues in life). My family and I use this fire pit frequently on our patio. It's a real treat. It offers a relaxing place to sit and I find that sitting around the fire with friends is very conducive to encouraging conversation. The best feature is the heavy-duty fire bowl. Unlike the flimsy sheet metal competitors, this fire pit will withstand many years of use. The screened cover is nice if you are concerned with occasional sparks, but I removed mine and put it in storage. I also remove the grill when not using the fire pit for cooking. I have no complaints about this product. I will say though that after many years of use and lack of preventative maintenance, the leg on my friend's fire pit broke, however, the manufacturer sent free replacement legs to him after one simple phone call. My fire pit is still holding up fine and I leave it out year round in the elements. I highly recommend this product if you are shopping for a heavy duty fire pit.

When shopping, this firepit was just what I was looking for. After reading some of the reviews, I was hesitant because some of the folks commenting about the legs breaking off. I figured I would get it and see what I could do. Once I got it and assembled it, I could tell what the problem is. The legs bolt through the cast iron basin and have no support. Since cast iron is quite brittle, I can see that the legs could easily break a chunk out of the bottom where the legs attach. I remedied this by buying a six foot length of 1/8 x 1/2 steel from the local home improvement store. I bent it into a square so that it fit inside and touched all four legs. I drilled through it and the legs, and attached with four bolts. This essentially tied all four legs together and added a lot of needed support (much like the strechers that attach the lower portion of legs together on a chair). I then painted it BBQ black and it looks like it is part of the design. In my opinion...it should have had this brace to begin with. A pit that weighs this much (and even more with wood inside) should have beefier attachment points.

If you plan on buying this and not moving it around often, I think it would be adequate as-is. However, if you're going to be wheeling it especially across grass or dirt, I would recommend the above fix to prevent the basin from cracking at the leg attachment point. I'm very happy with it now and have used it several times. I should also mention that Amazon was the cheapest place for this product and had free shipping...that's what sold me on Amazon.

Hope this review was helpful.

Very poor construction. I purchased this for my husband and the first time he put it together to use it broke. He was wheeling it down the driveway and the entire leg snapped off creating a hole in the bottom. Do not purchase this! We had another fire pit that lasted for years and was very durable. This was not the same quality and will not last.

This is actually the second time I purchased the exact same pateo fire pit and, so long as they continue to make it, I will never buy a different one, for the following reasons:
1. It is portable, so it doesn't clutter up the pateo when I don't want to use it. I typically keep a fire "ready to go" in the fire pit, and just pull it out when I want to use it, often on the spur of the moment.
2. It comes with a grill and a moveable screen. On my first fire pit of this design, I thought both were silly and I would never use either. The first time I lit the grill, the advantages of the screen top were obvious (sparks fly all over and the screen eliminates all those issues). The grill took me longer to appreciate: It took me years to try the grill, but (a) a steak (or anything else) on a REAL wood fire is unbelievable and (b) there is nothing better than pulling the dinner off the grill and actually eating it around the fire.
3. Kay Home Products is the most supportive customer support group with whom I have ever had to deal. The first fire pit actually had one of the legs break (after many years of abusive use, I must admit). I called on a Sunday night not to complain but to get a new leg, left a message. Monday morning first thing I arrived at my office to a message asking me to call to make sure they knew the size I had. When I returned the call, and they verified everything, I asked to pay, to which they responded, "That leg should never fail, and we'll get a new one to you right away." I protested that it was really my fault, but they would not let me pay, and I never missed a weekend with the product.
4. I have seen dozens of fire pits on other people's pateos, but never one with all the features and benefits of this one, topped by great customer service. When it was FINALLY time to replace my first fire pit of this design, I looked all over to find the same design. After some difficulty I finally found it on Amazon and have been happy with it all over again.

This is the second Kay Products outdoor hearth I have had. The previous was good for five years of frequent use with no problems. This was different. The casting was defective and cracked during assembly. No, the legs weren't over tightened, only hand tight... Wasted a morning putting together and was hoping to use it tonight.

Left a message with Kay Home Products and we will see. At this point I will ask for my money back and get another fire pit. Too bad, I liked this model but now I'm worried I'll get another and have the same quality issue.

After sending in the receipt I was told they will ship a new cast iron bowl. I give them an A+ in customer service.

Kay Home Products 30072 Iron Hearth with Lid
This was purchased to replace an older version of the same fire pit worn out by 10 years of use by the family. It arrived when promised, was assembled quickly and easily, and is providing the "campfire" experience once again in our backyard. The retractable fire screen dome is an improvement we appreciate; the wheels and handle make it very easy to move into our storage area; the heavy duty cast iron pit is very durable as we learned from our earlier experience.

I purchased my first Kay iron hearth 5 years ago. I was extremely happy with it. During the 5th year, the iron grate on the lid rusted out. One of the rear legs rusted off as well. Nome-the-less, the hearth was such a pleasure to have during that 5-year time period, I said all along that if I could find another one like it, I would buy it in a minute. I was disappointed that I couldn't find the same "wheel-barrel" type anywhere. Then fortunately I found my paperwork from the original purchase, searched Google and found the exact same product. I was ecstatic. I purchased it right away, and look forward to using it again in the Spring. Hopefully some of the rusting issues will have been improved upon over the last 5 years. But even if I get the same life out of this new one, I'll be happy.

I like my Kay fire pit and use it often. My suggestion to the manufacturer would be to provide better hardware. It comes with cheap steel fastners and the heads are so small they almost fit throught the openings in the kettle and they rust, especially after being exposed to the heat of the fire and sit in wet ashes. I would like to see larger heads on bolts, larger washers and stainless steel hardware. Of course, a trip to the hardware store would resolve my issue. People complain about the legs falling off. The cheap fastners is probably why that happens in most cases. Mfg. support is very good, so I hear.