We have glass crystals in our gas fp insert (with brick surround, which we painted black as part of our FR reno). We love the how black glass crystals sparkle when the fp is on. I saw new, different shape crystals on the fp co.'s site recently. They look like clear (glass) pebbles (like semi-flattened marbles), that would probably look nice, too.

You don't have to do this, but I remove all the crystals prior to start of fp "season" and wash them in a bucket of soapy water. The carbon build-up (especially builds up around the flame ports), from running the fp all winter, washes right off, and we start out the season with clean, sparkly crystals again. It's not necessary that you do this, but the crystals do start to look dull over time otherwise.

That sounds so nice! Do you have a pic? I am like you, I could totally see myself washing the glass rocks!

Oh, how pretty! I am definitely leaning towards these for our fire pit. Thank you so much for posting!

Very glad to help! Be sure to post pics of the fire pit when it's completed!

We used glass in our fire it, I might change the color down the road, but having that option is one of the neat things about glass -- there are many looks. I don't love the lave rock in our gas fireplace and would like to change that out to glass too. Here' a link to some photos of similar ones with amber glass, We used a dark grey to tie in with the veins in the granite top we put on it.

What a pretty style fire pit...the amber glass looks very natural compared to some of the blue glass I was looking at. It appears I could go with amber, black like cat-mom, or grey like you did for a more subtle look. That is probably best for me, although my dd wants the bright blue, lol! I guess you are right...I could change it if needed so it isn't a permanent choice. Thank you for posting!

We did consider a blue to go with our pool tile and might have gone that route if the granite had any blue or the right greys in it. I found the fire pit online but had to order through a dealer. The guy there showed us the stock glass, but also larger pieces. Some are larger crumbles and others look like small ice cubes or gems. I think he called one of them liquid ice -- the name because of how it reflects the light and looks melted from the fire. He said some people us one color for most of the glass and then scatter some of a different color on top or use some clear or colored larger pieces to catch the light on top.

If I recall correctly, our pit has a dish that is about 24 inches wide and not too deep. The glass just covers the burner and I think we needed 80 lbs of glass. The glass runs several dollars a pound, so it is easy enough to change out, but it may not be cheap -- especially if your contractor is building a large brick pit. I assume he will insert a pan for the burner and make it more shallow? You may want to ask about that.

Oh wow, good point! I will definitely ask about that....it could get crazy expensive if it had to be filled deeply. Thanks for the advice!

We installed one a couple years ago. Selected gas as, like your contractor advised, the bonfire effect from wood does not do nicely with clean hair. Ours has a domed metal cover to keep moisture off the fire-glass and we have a vinyl cover to protect the entire fire pit.

Here is a link to photos of out patio. You will need to scroll several pictures to see the fire pit. We wanted it to be different than the patio so put about 4 inches of stone in the fire pit area.

http://s1277.photobucket.com/user/treeshouse/library/?sort=6&page=0

Oh my goodness, fnmroberts! Your yard is lovely! I like the idea of a cover...very smart. Thank you so much for sharing...I am definitely going with the glass after hearing from everyone on here!

nini804 - Thank you for the nice compliment. My DH is an old farmer with a green thumb. Actually those photos are from two years ago and things have filled in since. Just realized I connected the complete collection, not just the outdoors - glad you found what I intended to show.

cat_mom: how noticeable is the carbon build up on your black fireglass? I have white reflective fireglass in my fireplace and the carbon looks terrible (and happens in one specific spot every time we use the fireplace). I'm worried about investing money in black reflective fireglass, only to have the carbon be very visible on it as well.

It's probably equally noticeable, except it appears white-grey on the black crystals. It's concentrated across the ports (a 1-2" wide line that goes across the crystals from one side of the insert to other). Over the course of the season, carbon film dulls all the crystals in our fp, but the area where the flames come out is the worst, and most noticeable.

Thanks, cat_mom!

You're welcome! I do have to say, that the crystals outside of that section over the ports don't really appear cloudy (filmy) unless you're looking at them closely with the fp OFF. It's the sort of thing, where it happens gradually, so you don't really notice that the crystals aren't as shiny clean, or they don't sparkle as much, until you clean them. Kind of like not noticing before, but then seeing how much cleaner a wall mirror is or a glass tabletop is after you clean it.

Pretty well, the Fire Glass I bought on this website-https://grillpartsreplacement.com/search?type=product&q=Fire+Glass&options%5Bprefix%5D=last worked well and activated the barbecue atmosphere.