Frontier Stove As there has been a lot of interest in this stove lately, I have put together this review of the one I have been using for the past couple of weeks.
The Frontier Stoves are made and sold by campingsolutions.co.uk and were originally designed and used in disaster areas by Shelterbox in their humanitarian work.
For general use it is perfect in situations where you need a raised, or are not allowed an open fire and is best suited to car/base camping. You can get flashing kits that allow you to use it in fire retardant canvas tents, tipis, or yurts and kits that are for sheds.
The stove comes in parts which are all contained in the fire box and are stowed back in there after use. It is very easy to put together and the setup/takedown time should take around 2 min at most.The stove is made from steel and has a coating of black heat resistant paint to protect it. The weight of the whole kit comes in at just over 10 kg. The stove was designed to be sturdy so thicker plates were used and hence the weight.
The firebox:
The firebox can burn any solid fuel. I found it deceptive as you can fit a larger fire in it than you first might think. Using longer fuel and making sure the fire is all the way to the back allows you to heat up the top quickly and evenly. The large circular opening that measures 5 ¾” in diameter allows easy access to light and stack the fire.
Door:
The door is 6 1/8th” in diameter. It is attached with a hinged riveted bar that runs through 2 tabs on the stove body.
The handle (outside) and locking bar (inside) are riveted through the door at the centre point. Approximately ¾” from the edge they are riveted again but the hole allows you to lift and drop both to open and close the door.
The bar has 2 notches on it and they slide down a tab on the inside of the firebox to lock it. When you close the door at the first notch you will have a gap of ½” this gives you the air intake. The second notch fully closes the door. Surprisingly the handle didn’t heat up as much as I thought it would. I am thinking off adding a nob of some sort to the handle to give me that little bit extra to hold on to.
Stove top:
The stovetop measures approximately 17 ¾” x 9 ¾”. At the back left corner you have your chimney section that sticks out 2” and runs through the top into the firebox. Next to the chimney section you have 3, 5” indented lines whose purpose is to strengthen the stove top and the last part is the hotplate.
Hotplate:
The hotplate is just under 6” in diameter and is held on by 3 tabs that slot through corresponding notches on the stovetop. The middle of the plate has the dip with the bar to hold it by and you use this to turn and secure the plate.
Ember tray:
The tray is 5” x 2 ¾” and has tabs that let it slot into the holders that are underneath the firebox. This is a great feature as it easily catches any embers that fall out when you open the door making it much safer.
Also another use I found for it is to dry tinder on. Just stack your fire and close the door and the tray dries out the tinder nicely. You just have to keep an eye on it as it will heat get hot after a while of burning.
Chimney:The chimney comes in 5 sections each measuring 16 ¼” with an outside diameter of 7 ½” ( 7 1/8th” at the chamfered end).
They fit together by slotting into each other.
One of the sections has the damper in it which allows you to control the draw. This is a circular plate welded on to a bar that runs through the pipe. It is easy to use as you only have to turn the bar a quarter turn to open and close the flue. It is this section that attaches to the stove top. When all the sections are together and on the stove they reach a height of approximately 95”
It was excellent at diverting the smoke away from us so there was no stinging eyes. I would have to say this is the weakest part of the stove as it can wobble slightly. One of the days we were out was very windy and although it does have a slight wobble it never once looked to be unsecure.
Legs:
The stove has 3 legs which give it a very sturdy tripod base. They are made from strong tubular steel and have welded foot plates on the bottom. They are attached via a pivot bar that runs through a plate that is welded on to the body of the stove. Opening and closing the legs is simple and it is quick.
In the closed position the legs lay flat against the body and they are secured with a pin that runs through the plate and the leg itself. The pin has a sprung bearing near the tip so it will not come out by accident. To open you pull the pin out and lift the leg until it rests against the plate you then put the pin through the nest holes up.
As it is, the stove is very stable but as I had the kids and the dog with me I wanted to make it safer. I put a tent peg through each of the holes on the three feet, which made it much more secure.
You would think that the whole leg would heat up when the stove had been going for a few hours but I found that it only got warm on the top 3rd of the leg .
Tool rest:
On one side of the stove there is a bar that comes out 1 ¼” from the body and runs almost the entire length. This is great for hanging things from such as a poker, your cup and teaspoons at the end of the night etc. I also found it great for drying nettles on to make cordage with but again you just have to keep an eye on it as the bar heats up 2” at either end when the fire is going good.
Carrying Handle:
The carrying handle is a shaped bar like the tool rest and is attached to the body via plates that are welded on. There is plenty of hand room and allows you to carry the whole kit easily. The handle is not loose so it doesn’t rattle about when not in use. It does get very hot after a while burning.
In use:Heating:I did not use the stove in a tent but we still benefited nicely by the heat that it put out. We have a small bit of woodland that we use to camp and although it didn’t heat up the area we were using as fast as an open fire it did keep us perfectly warm and was great to sit around at night. In a tent I could see it being cosy, heating up the smaller enclosed area quickly.
With a spark arrestor, I would happily set it up next to my tarp to ease the bite in colder weather.
Cooking:
Cooking on the Frontier Stove is great. You have plenty of room on top for a few small pans or a medium and small and when you get used to using the door and damper as “settings” you can cook a lot of different things on it and can easily do a meal for the family.
Using the firebox itself when you have embers left will let you do classics like “spud in tinfoil” etc.
If you remove the hotplate, you can fit a Kelly kettle very nicely over the hole and it will boil just as well as if on its base.
The settings I was using :
Door fully open and damper fully open: gives you a fast burn and high temperatures.
Door on first notch and damper fully open: still gives a high temperature but not as fierce.
Door closed and damper fully open: I found this good for simmering and reheating.
Door on first notch damper closed: Gentle heat warming.
I did try out all combination but these worked best for me.
Having the door and damper fully closed gives you a very slow burn. I read somewhere that it can produce charcoal on this setting and low and behold it did ( I will have to use bigger fuel next time). Another thing I like about using it outside is I can take it out into the yard and do all those little tasks that I normally do on the rayburn in the house like making the candle wax firelighters, melting and blending pine sap glue etc.
When we were out I got to thinking about the heat that comes off it from underneath and how I could use this to work for me. So a trip back to the house to grab a few bits of metal and some tools and in half an hour come up with this.
This can be used for defrosting, heating food on, grilling, drying etc. I found I was using it every time I lit the stove for one thing or another. It makes use of the tool rest and carrying handle and I made it so you can either pull it forward or unhook it to put stuff on/ take off with a detachable handle. In addition, I found that the metal itself never heated up.
This has been one of the best bits of kit I have used for a long time. It is strong, portable quick to set up and easy to use and personally, I feel the weight is worth carrying. The workmanship is of a high quality I have found no weak welds or loose parts. Also the team at Camping Solutions are very friendly and quickly answered any questions I had.
Atb
Craig
camping solutions website:
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.campingsolutions.co.uk%2F&rct=j&q=camping%20solutions&ei=U4EyTveDDc6ZhQfGsODbCg&usg=AFQjCNG0X3jOqlQ44jjd_nTI3w4j0C_mUw&cad=rja 
Subject: Frontier Stove 
Sun Jun 03, 2012 4:43 am
