Frontier stove water boiler

Sorry no pics again, but hey is anyone out there?

This weekend I bought the accompanying water boiler that goes around the chimbley on the Frontier Stove. It's stainless, very nicely made and comes in its own bag which clips to the main stove bag. Tidy.

It holds a couple of litres and has a lovely brass tap. Price anywhere is around £80. Fit on the stove is perfect.

OK field test, well my patio. There isn't much to say about function. it's a can which heats up. Hot water is hot water. So how was it?

Honestly? I cannot think I have ever used such a slow and inefficient way to heat some water in my life. Even my gerbil powered generator could warm water faster than this. It took about half a sack of softwood logs, all burning at the back of the stove on full draw to get the water to the point where it would be determined as being hot, not warm. OK OK, it's free heat and if left to its own devices will warm up and chuck out heat in the night like a radiator, but if you want a quick cuppa, forget it. It took nearly an hour.

Grab your Kelly kettle and be sipping pine needle tea in minutes. It's rubbish. Lovely to look at, great fun if you like watching water (not) boil. If I could get my money back, I probably would.

Save your money. Got a long term test coming up in May when I go to a weekend do over near Wales. Let's see if I manage a cup of tea.

HW

OK for those absolutely desperate for an update, over a weekend with some decent wood on the fire and my new spy-hole draw vent in the stove door, the boiler did OK. One night I managed to keep the fire in all night and in the morning was able to reach over from my bunk and pour hot water onto a tea bag. It certainly stayed warm well after the fire had gone out. This meant having fairly hot water which I could pot into the kettle and boil in a very short time.

So, not as rubbish as I first thought. A nice nic-nac but not essential camp equipment.

HW