BuzzSkito Mosquito & Tick Control Specialists · Published August 22, 2026
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Jump straight to current Canadian availability — the warmth pick and the ambience pick:
The Short Version: They Are Not the Same Product
Walk into a Canadian Tire in September and the fire tables and the patio heaters are on the same aisle, priced within a hundred dollars of each other, both stamped with a number around 50,000 BTU. That similarity is misleading, and it is the reason a lot of people spend $400 on the wrong one.
A fire table is a burner in an open pan surrounded by a ledge. A patio heater is a burner with a reflector above it. That one structural difference decides everything downstream. Heat rises, so an open pan sends the great majority of its output vertically, where it does nobody any good. A reflector intercepts that rising heat and redirects it outward and downward as radiant warmth — the same principle as the shade over a heat lamp. Two appliances, near-identical burner ratings, completely different amounts of heat reaching an actual human being.
So the honest framing is not which is better. It is: are you buying warmth, or are you buying a place for people to stand around? Both are legitimate purchases. They are just different ones.
Heat Delivered to People vs Heat Delivered to the Sky
Stand beside a running tower heater on an open patio and you will feel it two to three metres out. Five people can arrange themselves around it and all get something. Move to three metres and the effect fades, but it does not vanish, because radiant heat travels in a straight line to whatever it strikes and does not depend on the air staying put.
Stand beside a fire table and the picture is different. Your hands and shins get warm; your back does not. Lean over the ring and it is genuinely hot; sit back in a deep patio chair with a footrest and much of it is gone. The people at a fire table are close to it, which is precisely why it works socially and precisely why it underperforms thermally.
The wind makes this gap wider, not narrower. Convected heat — warm air rising off an open flame — is exactly what an Ontario October breeze carries away. A reflector-driven appliance loses less to wind because a larger share of its output is radiant. A glass wind guard on a fire table helps a great deal here, mostly by keeping the flame upright and stable rather than by adding heat, and it is the single accessory we would tell any fire table buyer not to skip.
Why BTU Is the Wrong Number to Shop On
BTU per hour measures fuel burned, not warmth delivered. It says nothing about the direction that energy travels, which outdoors is the entire question. A 46,000 BTU tower with a well-shaped reflector will make a group of people demonstrably more comfortable than a 50,000 BTU fire table, and both will lose to a modest 1,500 W electric infrared unit pointed straight at someone from a metre away.
What to look at instead, in rough order of how much it matters:
- Reflector geometry, on a heater. A wide, deep dome throws heat outward. A narrow flat disc mostly does not. This is the difference between two towers that look identical on a spec sheet.
- Burner length, on a table. A long linear burner in a 48-inch rectangular table spreads flame along the seating line. A small round burner in a big table leaves the far ends cold.
- Base weight and stability. Tower heaters are top-heavy by design, and the good ones have a base you fill with sand or water. An unweighted tower on a windy October evening is a real hazard, not a theoretical one.
- CSA or equivalent certification. Non-negotiable on any gas appliance sold in Canada. Check the plate, not the listing copy.
- Ledge width, on a table. Discussed below, and the thing buyers regret most.
Propane: What a 20 lb Tank Actually Buys You
A full 20 lb barbecue tank holds roughly 430,000 BTU of usable energy. Divide by the appliance rating and you get the honest ceiling:
- 50,000 BTU/hr fire table, wide open: about 8½ hours.
- 46,000 BTU/hr tower heater, on high: about 9½ hours.
- Either one at a normal setting: considerably longer. Most people run a fire table around half output because a flame at full height in a 44-inch pan is more furnace than atmosphere. Fifteen to twenty evening hours from a tank is a realistic expectation.
Two practical Canadian notes. First, own two tanks. The evening you run dry will be the coldest one of the season, and exchange cages get picked over in the fall. Second, cold weather does not stop propane working — it boils at roughly −42 °C, far below anything Southern Ontario produces — but a nearly empty tank in genuine cold has less vapour pressure available and can struggle to feed a high-draw burner. A tank that seems weak on a −10 °C night is usually a low tank, not a broken appliance.
A clip-on tank gauge costs almost nothing and removes the guesswork entirely, and a hideaway kit — a longer hose plus a side-table enclosure — is what stops a 20 lb cylinder from sitting in plain view next to a nice fire table.
Covered Porch vs Open Sky — and the Clearance Rules
This is the section where the cheaper product wins outright, and it is worth being blunt about it.
Under a solid roof, buy neither propane appliance. Fire tables and tower heaters are certified for outdoor use in open air. Their manuals specify minimum overhead and side clearances that a low porch ceiling, a solid-roof pergola, or a patio umbrella will typically violate. More importantly, burning propane produces carbon monoxide, and carbon monoxide needs open air above it to disperse. A three-sided porch with a roof is exactly the geometry where it does not. This is not a manufacturer being cautious; it is the reason those appliances carry outdoor-only labelling in the first place.
The right product for a covered space is an electric infrared heater. No combustion, so no exhaust gases at all. Far smaller clearance requirements, and many models are designed specifically to be mounted to a ceiling joist or wall where a freestanding unit would be in the way. It costs less than either propane option, and on a covered porch it will make you more comfortable than either, because a roof holds warmth in and radiant heat has nowhere to escape upward. The only real requirement is an outdoor-rated circuit within reach.
For open-sky patios, the working clearance rules are straightforward:
- Roughly a metre of clear space on every side, and nothing overhead — no umbrella, no awning, no branches, no pergola slats.
- Propane cylinders stay upright and outdoors permanently. Never in a garage, never in a basement, never in a shed you also heat.
- Soap-test the hose and regulator connection every spring. Bubbles mean stop.
- On composite decking, mind where the radiant heat lands. Composite scorches at a lower temperature than most owners expect, and the mark is permanent.
- Never move a lit appliance, and let a fire table cool fully before covering it.
Sizing a Fire Table: 28 in Through 52 in
Diameter is the number on the box; ledge width is the number that decides whether you like the thing. Sizing by what the table actually has to do:
- 28–30 in round. An accent piece. The burner opening eats most of the top, leaving a rim too narrow to trust a wine glass to. Two people can warm their hands. If this is the size your budget reaches, buy a propane fire bowl instead and spend the difference on a cover — you will get the same flame without pretending it is furniture.
- 34–44 in round. The sweet spot, and where most Canadian buyers should land. Four to six seats around it, a genuine ledge on all sides, and a burner large enough to look like a fire rather than a pilot light. The 44-inch end of this range is the one we would buy.
- 48–52 in rectangular. Six to eight people along the long sides, wide ledges either end of a linear burner, and a shape that suits a narrow patio far better than a circle. Heavier — plan on two people to position it — and long enough that a wind guard stops being optional.
One more sizing check people forget: measure the gap between the table and the seating. A fire table you have to lean across to feel is a fire table nobody uses, and deep-seated patio furniture with footrests pushes everyone farther back than a set of dining chairs would.
Lava Rock vs Fire Glass
Both exist to diffuse the flame across the burner pan and to hide the burner itself. Lava rock is cheaper and gives a more natural, campfire-ish look. Fire glass is tempered, comes in colours, reflects the flame, and stays clean-looking for years.
In Canada there is a practical reason to lean toward glass: porous lava rock absorbs water. Rock that soaks up an October rain and then goes through a hard freeze can crack, and rock still holding water that gets heated quickly can spall and throw fragments. Tempered fire glass does not absorb water. Neither material is maintenance-free — both want to stay dry under a fitted cover through the off-season — but glass is the more forgiving one in a freeze-thaw climate. If you like the look of lava rock, keep it and just be disciplined about the cover.
The Mistakes Canadian Buyers Actually Make
- Shopping on BTU. Covered above, and it is the big one. Two appliances at 50,000 BTU can deliver wildly different amounts of warmth to a person.
- Buying a fire table to heat the patio. It will not, and no amount of turning the knob up changes the physics of an open pan.
- Putting a propane appliance under a roof. Covered above. Buy the electric infrared unit instead.
- Skipping the cover. A $60 fitted cover is the difference between a fire table that lasts eight seasons in Ontario and one that has a rusted burner and a seized ignitor by year three. Freeze-thaw and standing water kill these things, not cold.
- Not weighting the base of a tower. They are designed to have sand or water added. An empty base plus a gust equals a tipped, lit appliance.
- Assuming it fixes the bug problem. A warm patio in September is a patio you sit on later into mosquito hours, which is the opposite of a fix. More on that below.
When the Cheaper Option Is Simply the Right Call
Three cases where we would talk someone out of the expensive purchase:
You have a covered porch. The electric infrared heater is not a compromise here. It is better, cheaper, and safer, and it is the correct answer even if you can afford the fire table.
You have a small deck or a balcony. A propane fire bowl gives you the flame without the footprint, at well under the price of a table, and a tabletop heater in the 10,000–12,000 BTU class does more for a bistro-table setup than a full tower would in the same corner. Condo and townhouse balconies also frequently have rules about open flame — check yours before you buy anything, because the electric option may be the only permitted one.
You want the fire more than the table. A plain wood-burning pit costs a fraction of any of this and produces more heat and more atmosphere per dollar. What you give up is smoke, ash, wood storage and a twenty-minute start-up, and what you gain — genuinely — is the only version of a backyard fire that has any effect on mosquitoes at all. That trade-off is the whole subject of our guide to whether fire pits keep mosquitoes away.
Ontario Winter: Covers, Storage and Cold-Weather Propane
Neither appliance needs to come indoors, but both need to be shut down properly. Disconnect the cylinder and leave it outdoors, upright, out of the sun. Cover the appliance with a fitted, breathable cover rather than a tarp, which traps condensation against steel. Make sure the burner pan is dry before the first hard freeze, and if you use lava rock, either bring it in or trust the cover completely.
Plug or screen the burner opening if the unit will sit all winter. A dark enclosure that smells faintly of gas is exactly the kind of place a mouse decides to spend January, and a nest in a burner tube is a spring problem you will not enjoy diagnosing. Come April, soap-test the connections before the first light.
Where to Buy in Canada
Both categories are seasonal in Canadian retail, and the season is short and strange: fire tables and patio heaters land in stores in late spring, sell through summer, and then get discounted hard in September and October — which is, awkwardly, exactly when you actually want one. Canadian Tire carries the widest range of both, including its own house brands. Home Depot Canada and Rona stock fire tables and tower heaters through the patio season and clear them in the fall. Costco Canada rotates larger fire tables through in late spring, often at strong value, and then they are gone.
Amazon.ca is the channel that carries the whole range year-round, which matters most in October when in-store selection has already been picked over — and matters again for the accessories, since covers, wind guards, hideaway tables and hose kits are frequently the parts that no local store has in the size your particular model needs.
The Bottom Line
Buy the tower heater if the problem is that your yard goes cold and unused after Labour Day; its reflector is the only thing in this comparison that reliably warms people standing more than an arm’s length away. Buy a 34–44 inch fire table if the problem is that the yard has no centre, and buy it for the ledge rather than the BTU. If your seating is under a roof, buy the electric infrared heater and no propane appliance at all — that is a safety call, not a preference. On a small deck or balcony, a fire bowl or a tabletop heater beats both. Add the cover and the wind guard at the time of purchase, own two propane tanks, and keep the whole thing out from under anything overhead.
And if it turns out the reason nobody uses the yard was never the temperature, the appliance was never going to fix it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Patio heater or fire table — which is better for a Canadian backyard?
A propane tower heater is better if the goal is warmth; a fire table is better if the goal is a place to gather. They are not really competing products, and the BTU numbers on the boxes hide that. A tower heater has a reflector above the burner that pushes radiant heat outward and downward across a rough 2 to 3 metre radius, so four or five people standing around it all feel it. A fire table burns in an open pan, so most of its output rises straight up and only the people within roughly an arm's length of the ring feel meaningful heat on their hands and shins. If you want the deck usable through a cool Ontario October, buy the heater. If you want the evening to have a centre of gravity and you are dressed for the weather anyway, buy the table. Plenty of Canadian yards end up with both, for about the price of one good fire table.
How many BTU do I need for a patio heater in Canada?
For an open Ontario patio, a full-size propane tower in the 40,000 to 50,000 BTU class is the standard answer, and going higher rarely buys you much because the limiting factor outdoors is not output, it is how much of that output reaches a person before the wind takes it. What matters more than the number is the shape of the appliance. A 46,000 BTU tower with a wide reflector delivers far more usable warmth than a 50,000 BTU fire table, because the reflector aims the heat at people instead of at the sky. On a small balcony or a sheltered corner, a 10,000 to 12,000 BTU tabletop heater or a 1,500 W electric infrared unit is genuinely enough, and both are easier to live with than a full tower.
How long does a 20 lb propane tank last on a fire table?
A full 20 lb barbecue tank holds roughly 430,000 BTU of usable energy, so a 50,000 BTU/hr appliance running wide open drains it in about eight and a half hours. Almost nobody runs a fire table wide open, though. Turned down to a normal flame height, which is usually somewhere near half output, the same tank commonly stretches across fifteen to twenty hours of evening use, or several weekends. A tower patio heater running at 46,000 BTU/hr works out to roughly nine hours on high. The practical advice for Canada is simple: own two tanks. Refilling in November is a chore, and the one evening you run out will be the coldest one.
Can I use a propane fire table or patio heater under a covered porch?
Only if the manual explicitly allows it, and most do not. Propane fire tables and tower heaters are certified for outdoor use in the open air, and their manuals state minimum overhead and side clearances that a low porch ceiling, a pergola with a solid roof, or a patio umbrella will usually violate. There is a second and more serious problem: propane combustion produces carbon monoxide, which needs open air to disperse and will accumulate in an enclosed or three-sided space. If your seating area is under a solid roof, the correct product is an electric infrared heater. It produces no combustion gases at all, needs far less clearance, and many models are designed to be mounted to a ceiling or wall. That is one of the few cases in this comparison where the cheaper, less impressive-looking product is unambiguously the right buy.
What clearance does a propane fire table need?
Follow the number in your own manual, because it varies by model, but the working rule for Canadian yards is to treat a fire table as needing about a metre of clear space on every side and a wide open sky above it. Nothing overhead: no umbrella, no awning, no low branches, no pergola slats. Keep it off combustible surfaces unless the manual permits them, keep the propane tank upright and outdoors at all times, never store a tank in the garage or the house, and check the hose and regulator connection with soapy water at the start of every season. On a wood or composite deck, put the appliance where the radiant heat is not aimed at a railing, and be aware that composite decking scorches at a lower temperature than most people expect.
Is a fire table worth it, or should I just buy a cheap fire pit?
A fire table earns its price on three things: no smoke, no wood to buy and store, and an instant on-off that lets you use it on a Tuesday evening for forty minutes. If those matter to you, it is worth it. If they do not, a plain wood-burning pit costs a fraction as much and delivers more heat and more atmosphere per dollar. There is also a middle option people forget: a propane fire bowl gives you the same clean flame in a smaller, cheaper package without the table surface. Buy the table only if you will genuinely use the ledge, because the ledge is most of what you are paying for. A 28-inch model with almost no usable rim is the worst value in this category.
Do fire tables and patio heaters keep mosquitoes away?
Barely. A clean propane flame produces almost no smoke, and smoke is the only part of a fire that has any real effect on mosquitoes. Heat is not a repellent either. In fact mosquitoes track body heat as one of their cues, and a warm patio in September simply keeps you outdoors for longer during the hours when Culex mosquitoes are most active. If bites are the reason you stop using the yard, the appliance to add is not another heater. Steady moving air from an outdoor fan, a screened structure, or a treated yard are the three things that actually change the outcome.
Can I leave a fire table outside all winter in Ontario?
You can leave the body outside under a proper fitted cover, but do three things first. Disconnect the propane tank and store it upright outdoors, never in a garage or basement. Empty the burner pan of lava rock or fire glass, or at minimum make sure the cover keeps it dry, because rock that soaks up water and then freezes will crack, and wet rock heated fast in the spring can spall and throw fragments. And seal or plug the burner opening against mice, which will happily nest in a warm-smelling enclosure over the winter. Freeze-thaw cycles are what kill fire tables in Ontario, not cold itself. The cover is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy for one.
