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Outdoor Ashtrays Buying Guide

Looking For The Right Commercial Cigarette Receptacles?

Getting the right cigarette receptacle for your needs shouldn’t be difficult or break the bank. While there was a relatively limited selection of items in the past, nowadays there is a wide selection of colors, materials, and styles for every need. Whether you are purchasing cigarette ashtrays for commercial space, residential areas, stadiums, parks, restaurants, or any other public space, this guide aims to give you the information you need to purchase the right cigarette receptacle for your needs.

4 Reasons to Buy a Smoking Receptacle

1. Reduce butt waste: Keep the front of your office, residential, and/or public space neat and presentable.

2. The Law: In many states, smoking receptacles are now required by law. Additionally, keeping patrons a certain number of feet from doors and walkways is also required.

3. Concentrate Smokers: Cigarette receptacles help smokers congregate in one area of your choosing.

4. Complete fire protection: Trash can fires are messy, dirty, and always a pain in the neck to clean up. Save your facility staff, or yourself, the pain and make sure that cigarette receptacles are wherever smokers congregate.

A Quick Introduction To Cigarette Receptacles

What is a cigarette receptacle?

Cigarette receptacles are essentially purpose-built trash cans just for smokers. They reduce litter, prevent fire, and keep smokers away from areas where they might bother others.

What kinds of cigarette receptacles are there?

Floor Standing Ash Urns

Floor standing ash urns are the type of cigarette receptacle you are most familiar with. They are the classic look and type of ashtray that most people think of when it comes to ashtrays. While they have grown less popular in recent years with the advent of more materials and technology, this is still the dominant type of ashtray many smokers, particularly older smokers, will look for.

Smokers Stations

Smoker stations have become extremely popular in the last few years for their portability, fire safety, and ease of emptying for grounds staff. These are particularly useful if local regulations make ashtray placement difficult.

Wall Mounted Ashtrays

Wall mounted ashtrays are less common than floor standing models. They’re more discreet and save space. This means they can go unnoticed by smokers and grounds staff. 

Ash & Trash Combination Receptacles

While these are still common in many parts of the country, the popularity of ash and trash combination receptacles has waned in recent years. The benefits of a combination system are that you are assured that butts will get emptied frequently along with the trash and they take less space. The downside is that the combination of both ashtray and trash can increases the chances of fire or debris clogging up the ashtray.

How To Choose The Right Smoking Receptacle

Questions to ask before buying a smoking receptacle:

1. How many people are likely to use this ashtray and thus how often will I have to empty it?

2. Where are people already smoking? Where should they be smoking?

3. Where are the major arteries between buildings in a complex, or into the building?

4. Which direction does the wind usually blow within my space?

5. Is fire danger a pressing threat?

6. Does it rain often? Can it get extremely windy when it does?

7. How worried am I about theft? 

8. Is my new ashtray going to be completely stationary?

Given these questions, here are some major considerations and advice for ideal placement of an ashtray and purchasing the right one.

1. Ashtray Capacity vs. Maintenance Frequency

The number of smokers using the area will result in a certain volume of cigarette waste, thus requiring either a high capacity cigarette receptacle or high  frequency of maintenance. On the other hand, an underused and overly large ashtray might have cigarettes lying in it for months, causing a stale cigarette smell that may bother some pedestrians, visitors, or tenants unnecessarily.

2. Usability, Visibility, & Convenience

The placement of cigarette receptacles plays a vital role in their value and use. Careful consideration should be made to place the receptacle in compliance with fire regulations and natural traffic flow to maximize safety and comfort for everyone.

Wind

As we mentioned before, if you’re considering the wind patterns of your area, you want to make sure that the lobby of your building, entrance of your restaurant, or the main center of offices isn’t predominantly downwind of where you place the receptacle.

Regulations & Usability

Effective cigarette urn, snuffer, and receptacle placement can truly reduce any risk of fire danger, especially in dry climates. Local regulation may also require certain distances from doorways or windows. Waste run-off regulations may also apply.

Of course it is easy enough to place a cigarette urn or smokers outpost in the middle of nowhere, but the key is observing where you find the most cigarette waste, and where there is the highest amount of visitor or pedestrian traffic. Within this high usage zone, make sure your placement is visible while conceding to legal regulations, wind tunnels, and the comfort of visitors.

Weather

It is also important to consider the weather. If your area experiences a lot of rain, a traditional outdoor ashtray with silica sand may not be the best option. Instead you ought to consider the smokers oasis, the smokers outpost, or a similar receptacle with a restricted opening to limit exposure to bad weather.

3. Aesthetics: Is This The Right Ashtray for My Building?

A key factor in picking out the right ashtray, besides considering your budget of course, is what your building looks like.

If you’re buying for an office park for example, and the general look of the building is modern, you might want a black glossy smokers post or polished aluminum and brass ashtrays, depending on the particular colors.

At the same time, if you were buying an ashtray for an outdoor restaurant with a sandy stucco look, you would want a concrete ash urn to match the style, rather than something that would stick out like a sore thumb.

Of course, this is ultimately a matter of judgment and personal taste. If you ever need suggestions on common or popular styles, feel free to contact us.

4. Theft 

You want to consider whether you are worried about unwanted waste collection or theft. If you have ever experienced a fire or theft in the past, then specialty models are definitely worth considering so you get the most value out of your money. When it comes to theft most of our larger ashtrays aren't going anywhere. But for the smaller smokers outpost, getting a tether and padlock can be an easy way to deter would-be thieves.

5. Fire Concerns

Starting with fires, consider a flip top, smokers oasis, or metal snuffer style ashtray for fire prevention functions.

You can help prevent ashtray fires by:

1. Placing ashtrays (and where possible, trash cans) away from obvious fire dangers, like dry brush.

2. Making it difficult to put trash into an ashtray, or smoldering butts into a trash can.

6. Ideal Cigarette Disposal Method

There are multiple options for choosing the right kind of disposal method:

1. Sand: Silica-based sand provides an ideal solution if smoke control and high capacity is a concern, as smokers can quickly snuff their cigarettes in sand and more people can easily use this style of ashtray. While there are obvious benefits to sand, it can sometimes be messy to empty, clean, and replace the sand periodically.
2. Receptacle, snuffer, and smokers post styles: For the most ideal ease of use, it’s best to get a model that takes a fire-retardant bag, or has a simple cylinder that you need to empty once in a while. While these models can be good for preventing fire and limiting the issue of lingering smoke, they also may take a little more time for the average user to use, which may cause the smoker to disregard them.

Our Expert Facility Managers’ Top Picks

Here are some of our recommendations based on years of our own experience, what other customers buy for given uses, and what we have learned over the phone helping people:

Ideal Smoking Receptacles for Office Buildings

The Best Smoking Ashtrays For Rainy Environments

The Best Smoking Receptacles for Public Parks, Stadiums, and Universities

The Right Smoking Receptacles for Outdoor Restaurants and Convenience Stores.

The Optimal Smoking Receptacles for Residential Buildings

Thanks for reading this guide. We hope it provides you with all the information you need to select the perfect outdoor ashtray for your facility. Please let us know if you have any questions. Over the past 10 years, we’ve helped hundreds of people make their public spaces clean and safe with proper cigarette receptacles. Let us know how we can help you today.