What is a chimenea and what do Chimineas do?
Originally, all clay open fire garden heaters imported from Mexico were known as Chiminea. As the story goes, Chimineas originated hundreds if not thousands of years ago by Mexican tribesmen who developed the Chiminea as a means of heating for their family as well as a vessel for cooking in. The original Chiminea was designed to keep the rain off the fire and the family warm using merely a couple of sticks.

Unfortunately, the Chimineas currently imported are unable to withstand the thermal shock associated with a sudden down pour of rain. Admittedly the Chimineas originates in Mexico where there is generally low rainfall and not exceptionally low temperatures and in general produces a radiant glow which is sufficient to keep warm. In Mexico, when the cooking pot or Chiminea cracked and fell apart, they simply scooped some more mud or river clay together and made another.

Consequently, due to the generally low quality of clay used in the manufacture of so many Chimineas imported into Europe, several companies copied the original idea hoping to improve on the basic concept and throughout Mexico, numerous companies popped up, all claiming to manufacture better quality Chimineas using superior clay. Some companies disappointed with the general low grade of Mexican clay decided to use Mediterranean clays and had the Chimineas fired to very high temperature to enable them to withstand bigger fires to be made in them.

Unfortunately, the higher the temperature in the firing process, the more brittle the end result became and the less tolerant the product was to thermal shock or rapid temperature changes making them ideal for Mediterranean dry climates but fundamentally flawed for our wet, cold and freezing English climate.

In order to overcome the fragile nature of the clay or terracotta Chimeneas, other companies decided to manufacture a range of garden heaters in cast iron. Unfortunately, rather than improving the original Mexican Chimenea, a new cult of rather ugly products hit the shelves, which are now in demise due to two main reasons - rust and heat!

This new range of cast iron heaters when hot are so lethally dangerous that a mere brush with them can leave you with horrific burns, not to mention the fact that after the first fire the paint effect burns off and leaves you with a rusty old tin can in your garden. Well let's be honest, you may just as well save your money and stick to an old 44 gallon oil drum with holes in it!