What You Need to Know if You’ve Just Bought Your Frontier (Original or Plus) Stove…
Adventure is about to hit you in a big way! As you open the box and practice putting your stove together, here are a few nuggets of Frontier Original and Frontier Plus knowledge from our use of these stoves over the years...
1. Practice makes perfect
The Frontier Original and Frontier Plus stoves are super compact and perfectly portable however, as with everything, a little bit of practice goes a long way. Spend some time before your first adventure, practising how to set up your stove and its flue sections so that when you use it outdoors, it is already second nature. Unfold the legs and pin them in, take out the flue sections and fit them together - then disassemble the stove, popping it back into its bag. This will save you time and faff, learning how to do it amidst all the elements!
2. How To Do the Flue
Packing the flue on the Frontier Plus away is a liiiiiiiittle bit tricker than the Frontier Original - so we've made a helpful video showing exactly how it fits back into itself. Always remember, once the 3 narrow pieces have been slotted into their 3 wider counterparts, the spark arrestor piece goes in first (the mesh bit with the sticky outy arms), followed by the adaptor section and finally the section with the flue damper (the little lever that adjusts the airflow). Hayley from Stoves in Coves came up with the idea to use chalk/paint to write little numbers on her flue sections, to make assembly easier.
3. The Sweet Smell of Success
Well, it's not that sweet but when you get your fire going for the first time, what you will pick up is the smell of the paint on your stove curing. Don't be alarmed or concerned - this is perfectly normal and important as it initiates your stove's lifetime, and starts it on the journey through the many adventures that it will accompany you on.
4. Heart of Glass
Frontier Original owners, you can ignore this bit... We love the glass door on the Frontier Plus - it distinguishes the stove from its peers, offers ambience and allows the technically-minded to 'really see what the fire is doing'. However, glass being glass, it can sometimes break in transit. Replacement panels can be purchased from us and, of course, if by some small chance the stove arrived with a broken pane, we'll get another one to you right away. It 'panes' us to know that your stove is not 100% perfect (had to throw that one in there!)
5. Safety, safety, safety
Perhaps this should have been number one, as it is of the utmost importance. Please have a read of our previous post on carbon monoxide and keeping safe whilst using your stove in a canvas tent - the crux of our advice is to make sure you have a carbon monoxide alarm fitted, and to ensure not to leave your stove burning whilst you are sleeping at night. It is recommended that your stove is positioned 600mm away from the sides of the tent and that it is well away from any combustibles.
6. The Reason for the Season
Here's a link to our blog post all about seasoning your stove - we highly recommend you follow our seasoning guidelines to keep your stove gleaming and to get the best use out of your product. You can grab your stove care kit from us, or simply use rapeseed oil to give it a rub down - the oil plasticises as it cures and then creates a stronger barrier against anything that might cause corrosion. Also, bonus: you can use the rapeseed oil in your stove-top cooking ventures too!
7. Get your Grill On
We cook on our Frontier stove. A lot. And we've tried and tested a variety of bbq grids. Because we're a bit pedantic and picky about what we grill our food on, we have decided to make our own. It may be a bit of a way off yet, but if you'd like to be notified when we're ready to roll (grill), add your name to this list. For recipe and cooking inspiration, take a look at some of our vlogs from National BBQ Week earlier this year, when we rocked the bbq vibes every night of the week. >>>
8. The Fire Starter
To save you some frustration, make sure to follow our firelighting guidelines included in the eco fuel pack which you should get with your stove. The long and the short of it is: build the fire right at the front of the stove. This is so key to the fire becoming hot enough to heat the flue, which then draws the smoke up through it. Also, don't suffocate the fire by adding too much fuel to start with, and use our 100% natural, untreated firelighters to get the fire going (when we've run out of firelighters we've been known to scrounge around the house, looking for anything that will carry the spark - candles, cooking oil etc. These have worked in desperate times, but - stick to firelighters!). [arve url="https://youtu.be/pBzshlxi5MU" /] >>> Definitely watch this video, whereby our resident firestarting expert gives you top tips for how it's done - works every time!
9. Adventure Is The Key Ingredient
We honestly love using our Frontier stoves - yes we're biased, and it does come across as a sales pitch, but we live, breathe and feel these products. Our stove comes with us pretty much wherever we go - the beach, the woods and everywhere in between. When we're not off out on an adventure, it's sat in our garden, ready for our next bbq. We really desire for our customers to love using their stoves, and for the stoves to unlock a lifestyle of adventure and outdoor fun, long days and warm evenings that would not have happened without them. Enjoy and please send us your pictures - we get lovely little fluttery feelings every time we see our stoves being used and loved!
