Written by Terry Smith
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UK’s best garden incinerators large and small with heavy duty options for your garden
This article was last updated on December 14th, 2021 at 5:46 am
So, you’ve just been to war armed clearing your garden – with your chainsaw (in my case my cordless chainsaw), hedge trimmer, garden pruning saw etc. and you’ve finally got the garden looking halfway respectable. Thing is, you’ve now got a huge pile of garden waste to get rid of. Your options are either spend a lifetime queuing in your car at the local waste disposal (and now I have to make an appointment too!), or burning it right there at home. If you opt for the latter, as many people tend to do, your best bet is to purchase a special bin made specifically for just that purpose; a.k.a. a garden incinerator ( but I do save the bigger bits for my fire pit or chiminea). Owning and using the best garden incinerator will give you a safe and efficient way of disposing of all your garden waste, and best of all; they won’t have to cost a lot of money to do so and used correctly are very safe, even in confined areas. I’ve looked at a dozen of these and cut the list down, mainly because so many are duplicates I don’t want to force you to read the same review twice, though I’ve included some personal tests for good measure:
On this page you will find our reviews of the best garden incinerator products, in addition to a short, but informative, garden incinerator buyers guide and how to use a garden incinerator safely. Let’s begin with the best top rated garden incinerators out there:
Best garden incinerator – editor picks for top fire bins:
Best garden incinerator: Denny International FIRE INCINERATOR 90L – personally used this for at least 100, probably 120 evenings with no signs of damage
Alternative to the Denny if unavailable: CrazyGadget Galvanised Metal Incinerator – well priced, and comes in sizes ranging 15-120 Litres
Heavy duty garden incinerator: SAIT Garden incinerator bin – extra large and well made
Small garden incinerator pick: Mini Garden Incinerator Small Fire Bin – just 15 litres, if you want a different small size take a look at the CrazyGadget line(15, 18, 40, 60 Litre options)
Complete solution: Metal Galvanised Garden Incinerator Fire Bin – Ash shovel and poker included. Ideal if you need a full set.
Budget pick: Denny International FIRE INCINERATOR 90L – rarely is the best also the budget but sometimes we get lucky as buyers 🙂
Best garden incinerators buyer’s guide
Before you buy, here are a few things we think you should know about buying and using a garden incinerator. There’s the obvious safety factor, then how much you can burn? Remember incinerators are different sizes so if you want something heavy duty to clear loads of material you want to be looking at the SAIT. Conversely a small space wants a small incinerator so you’re going to be looking at the Mini Garden Incinerator most likely.
Always keep safety in mind
Whenever you are dealing with open flames, you need to be extra careful, as it is so easy to cause injury to yourself and others, or damage to property. Get yourself a good pair of gloves, thick ones like what welders use, and safety goggles too, as ash and other things can blow out of the incinerator. Always make sure that you are using the incinerator away from anything else that can catch fire easily, and keep taking a look around while using the fire bin to check that nothing has caught fire.
Bricks can come in handy – airflow
Most of these products come with legs and so are raised off the ground. This is important because they have holes in the bottom for proper airflow. However, some larger products like the 20-litre bin, don’t have legs, so for best results, you should set it up so that it stands on bricks or something similar – the Denny International FIRE INCINERATOR comes with legs and so do other models so keep an eye out for that.
Take your time
It can be tempting to throw all your waste in your new incinerator all at once, but this is not a great idea. Doing so will probably just result in your fire becoming smothered and therefore will be counterproductive. It will take a while for you to get used to your new garden incinerator and know what the optimum amount of waste to burn is, so just take it easy at first. Also, make sure the fire is burning well and that there is a good heat in the bin before adding any waste. We had mountains of green waste and you will get there over the course of a few long evenings safely:
However, if you’re looking to really up the pace then you’ll want a bigger option like the SAIT. This is 200 Litres and twice the size of my top pick -a real heavy duty number.
How to use a garden incinerator safely
So it got me thinking (and expanding on the buyers guide with some useful tips to follow), I was using the incinerator with the kids, burning our way through paper, some green waste and various bits of wood (we just bought a house that had been neglected) and I wasn’t really adhering to safety carefully enough – it’s something we take for granted but I just want to recap (as a result of not doing as I should have) what is and isn’t safe when using a garden incinerator:
Do:
- Give yourself enough space, that even if the fire bin falls over, the contents cannot get anywhere near material that is flammable
- Keep a hosepipe or bucket or water handy – my automatic hose reel is never far away.
- Wear gloves – gardeners gloves (the thick leather finger tipped kind) are ideal. Whilst not designed just for heat, they will give you protection when lifting the lid (from my personal experience)
- Use paper and small kindling to start – this will get the fire going hot and reduce smoke
- Check the wind direction – do your neighbours have a chicken coop near your boundary that has hay etc?
- Use your common sense – if you feel the rules above contravene common sense in any way – keep yourself safe and use due diligence
Do Not:
- Leave the incinerator unattended because it looks safe – biggest no no
- Don’t overfill your incinerator, not only is this the most common way of making it fall over, the material at the bottom struggles to burn as it can’t breathe
- Let pets anywhere near – although most dogs can cats know it’s dangerous, any spitting embers will get their paws
- The same applies to kids – like me, if you have them about (we all love a burn up) make sure they know the boundaries and stick to them
Garden incinerator – the kids kept creeping closer and I should have been paying more attention to it - Burn wet garden waste until the fire is really going – it’ll just smoke you out.
- Burn anywhere near a building that can catch fire – I don’t mind using the incinerator next to my breeze block wall for example:
Following those simple rules will keep your kids, pets, neighbours, and house safe. I know they seem ridiculously simply but I broke some of those last time and it’s a fresh reminder to me of the dangers of fire.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best garden incinerators:
1. Denny International FIRE INCINERATOR 90L
Usually available in either a traditional round shape, or square one(although covid-19 seems to have caused some restrictions with this recently), the Denny International fire incinerator is one of, if not THE best out there for the price. This is the one I use personally at home.
The first thing you’re going to notice is the discolouration – a lovely steel colour quickly turns a dull metal looking colour – this happens to all incinerators! The next thing you’ll notice is that the airflow needs a bit of help – don’t overload this or it doesn’t work properly – again – this applies to all garden incinerators.
Standing on its three legs, it is 32 inches high and 18 inches in diameter and has a maximum capacity of 90 litres, which is plenty of space for the amount of garden waste the average person has to deal with – we burn through a surprising amount.
To ensure a fast burning action, the galvanized body of this garden incinerator has air holes all the way from the base to the top, and the lid also features a built in chimney to channel the smoke out. I find myself opening the lid slightly if it gets a bit smokey and the fire soon picks up. It just needs more air sometimes (depends what you’re burning):
It’s safe enough, and balanced well enough that it’s now the only way I burn in the garden and feel comfortable letting the kids get involved – standing back a few metres. I’ve used this personally for hundreds of burns now and it’s still in great condition even though I just leave it outside through all weather as you can see on my shed security cameras and gale force 9 wasn’t enough to blow it over with about 4 inches of ash to weight it down but the lid did blow off as it wasn’t put on properly 😀
Zinc plated handles fitted onto the side make moving the weight of the empty incinerator nice and easy, and there is also another handle situated on the lid. These handles are all metal, and will get extremely hot, so make sure you’ve got a good pair of gloves on when using it – the whole thing is seriously
Made in last right here in the UK, and requiring very little assembly (you just need to screw the legs on), the Denny International fire incinerator is a well-made, good-sized product that has a very attractive price tag attached to it. The only reason you wouldn’t buy this is you need a heavy duty incinerator like the SAIT.
Pros:
- Bargain
- Proven to last from personal experience (two years burning and still like new).
- Very sturdy on legs (granted I burn on the concrete as you can see from pictures).
Cons:
- Metal dulls as with all incinerators
- Needs the lid opening up a touch from time to time in order to get the fire going strong
2. CrazyGadget Galvanised Metal Incinerator
Like the Denney garden incinerator, this offering from Crazy Gadget is another well-priced, and solidly made, fire bin. With a galvanized steel body, lid, legs, and handles, it is certainly durable, and stands very stable even when filled to capacity. That capacity can vary, as this garden incinerator is available in 15, 18, 40, 60, 90, and a whopping 120 litre sizes.
It is not just more space you get with the larger versions though; any size other than the two smallest also features a very handy, lockable lid. Apart from that though, all sizes are fairly identical.
Assembly was a piece of cake, and only required the legs to be fitted on. All the screws needed were supplied with the incinerator, and they were decent enough quality to do the job.
The Crazy Gadget garden waste burner features two rows of holes around the base of the body, but they don’t go all the way to the top like with the Denny model. Having said that, I didn’t notice a massive difference in how hot they got, or how quickly they burned through waste.
To be honest, there isn’t much difference between the Denny and Crazy Gadget garden incinerators. They are both very good value for money, and you’ll be happy with either.
3. Mini Garden Incinerator Small Fire Bin
Not everyone needs a huge fore bin to burn their waste in, and if you count yourself as one of those folk who don’t, you could save yourself a few quid by buying this mini garden incinerator, brought to us by Keto Plastics. Don’t be alarmed by the brand’s name, this isn’t a plastic product, it is made completely of strong galvanized steel just like most of these products, and as such; it is actually quite durable despite its smaller size.
From the top of its chimney, down to the bottom of its metal leg, the Keto plastics mini garden incinerator measures 48cm, and has a diameter of 33cm. This equates to a maximum capacity of 15 litres, which is still more than adequate for people with smaller gardens, or who don’t get that much waste.
At only 1 kilogram empty, it is very lightweight and so is easy to move around the garden; certainly, easier than having to move armfuls of debris around, that’s for sure. However, I wouldn’t leave it empty, out in the open, in times of strong winds. Thankfully, its small dimensions and lack of weight make it easy to store away in the shed.
Featuring two rows of ventilation holes in the side, just like the Crazy Gadget model, this little burner soon gets up to a good heat, and keeps the flames going until all the waste has gone.
For just over ten pounds, this is a cracking little garden incinerator for smaller gardens. Lightweight and mobile, yet robust and practical.
4. SAIT Garden incinerator bin
From the smallest, to the largest garden incinerator now with this product from SAIT. Priced at under forty pounds, it offers you very good value for money if you need a big bin to burn through a lot of waste.
Made from recycled materials (a refurbished food drum to be exact), the SAIT garden incinerator bin can be filled with up to 200 litres of leaves, paper, twigs, and just about anything else you need to get rid of.
The four columns of holes lining the sides reach up about halfway up the sizable drum, and along with the other holes in the bottom of the incinerator, keep the fire burning nice and hot, even in the absence of a lid.
Unlike most products featured here today, this one isn’t made from galvanized steel, and so may discolour faster than some of the others (the paint will start to burn off immediately, but that’s not important), however, the steel is very thick and heavy duty, and I have no doubts of its durability.
The only real downside to this excellent garden waste burner, is that there is no lid, and so you have to improvise if you’re going to leave it out in all weather, or you’ll end up with it full of rainwater. Apart from that, I have zero complaints about this and recommend it to anyone with a lot of debris to get rid of in a hurry.
5. Metal Galvanised Garden Incinerator Fire Bin
A great little incinerator for smaller gardens, this product from Easy Shopping comes with a couple of nice little extras that might entice a few buyers.
This 15 litre fire bin is made in the UK from galvanized steel, and features pretty much the same design as the Keto Plastics mini garden incinerator. It features the same double rows of ventilation holes around and in the base, and also the same type of lid with a large chimney in the centre of it.
So, what do you get for the extra few pounds? Well, along with the garden incinerator itself, you also get a well-made poker for helping to keep those flames burning, and although it’s a little bit short to reach down through the top of the incinerator, it does fit nicely through the holes in the side.
The second extra, is a shovel that comes in very handy when clearing out the ashes from the bottom of the bin after all the burning is done. The shovel has quite deep sides, and can hold a fair bit of ash on there.
This product is also available without the extras for a reduced price, and you can choose to go with a larger size too, if needs be. Whatever you go for, I’m sure it’ll stand you well.
That concludes our reviews of the best garden incinerators. There are plenty to choose from and with the prices being so favourable it makes sense to grab ourselves one. If you feel like we’ve missed any garden incinerators then please do pop us a quick message and we will be glad to add them to the list for you.
