Case Study: Chain For Lifting Heavy Fire Pits

Fire Pit Plaza, a supplier of fire pits operating an online indoor fire pit and outdoor fire pit catalog, does a
lot of heavy lifting. Natural gas tables at Fire Pit Plaza can weigh over 300 pounds and our largest fire pits
can weigh over 500 pounds. We recently needed to select the appropriate overhead lifting chain to lift a
propane fire pit and we had difficulty selecting the appropriate type of chain.
Overhead lifting chain is different than general chain as the chain needs to meet Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA), Government, National Association of Chain Manufacturers (NACM) and
American Society of Testing & Materials (ASTM) specification requirements.
Overhead lifting chain comes in grades 80 and grades 100, with the grades representing the stress on the
chain. We found out that we could not purchase the specialty overhead lifting chain that we needed from
traditional retailers. After researching overhead lifting chain online, we found very little difference
between grade 80 chain and grade 100 chain.
A key factor in selecting chain was the weight of our load. At 300 pounds, we needed a durable chain with
at least a 600 pound working load limit given the weight of the largest fire pits that we lift. The working
load limit of chain is calculated and does not need to match the weight of the load, but does need to
handle the tension applied to the load as well as support the weight of the load and the angle of the
pulling forces. We found formulas online to calculate the appropriate working load limit for our
application and we ended up selecting 9/32 inch chain.
Chain pricing is important for us at Fire Pit Plaza. We noticed a wide variance in pricing between
manufacturers in the United States and manufactures abroad. At Fire Pit Plaza, we use American made
products and we found that pricing for American made chain fell within a consistent brand at various
suppliers.
The major chain original equipment manufacturers in the United States are Peerless Chain, Columbus
McKinnon and Laclede. We could not find a source online for the volume of chain produced by the major
manufacturers, but we understand that Peerless Chain and Columbus McKinnon may be the largest
manufactures of chain in the United States.
After researching chain for lifting heavy fire pits, we decided to purchase several cut lengths of grade 100
chain. We only needed chain because we use our own rigging hooks manufactured by Columbus
McKinnon. Columbus McKinnon has been known for decades as a quality American-made manufacturer
of rigging hooks and other rigging-related products.
When looking for chain online, we first went to our supplier for industrial products, Grainger. Grainger
stocks a broad product selection of products at great prices. We found the specifications below for the
chain we were looking for.
Chain Size
Chain Length
Working Load Limit
Country of Origin

9 / 32
100 feet
4,300 pounds
Could Not Find

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When reviewing Graingers catalog, we had difficulty determining if the chain was American-made. We
also had difficulty narrowing down the selection of products to American-made products. In the past, we
purchased a hoist from Hoists Direct, a small hoist specialist in North Carolina. We were going to hook
our chain to our hoist so looked into chain at Hoists Direct in addition to Grainger. Hoists Direct sells a
variety of American-made products and their staff helped us find the grade 100 lifting chain that we were
looking for at a comparable price.
Source: Grainger Overhead Lifting Chain: https://www.grainger.com/category/material-handling-chainand-chain-accessories-chains/ecatalog/N-mtj/Nttoverhead+lifting+chain?sst=subsetTest&ts_optout=true

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