SilverFire Hunter Chimney Stove

I considered several Rocket / Frontier stoves. I decided that this one would best suit my needs, with a chimney and stable body / pot stand. I am so glad that I did. It has not disappointed... it is FANTASTIC.Load it with sticks & twigs, bundled upright in the burn-chamber. Add a little squirt of BBQ lighter gel on top, then a lit match and it's going... EASY. Smokey at first, particularly due to damp and/or barky sticks. I don't mind a bit of that rather than the effort of removing the bark (which is burn material too). I put a pot/pan on it (water to boil, not dry), one that I don't mind getting a sooty bottom, to cover the aperture so that smoke only comes out of the chimney. Once it is up to speed, control the air inlet as needed, it stops smoking (even without a pot/pan on it) and what appears like an almost clear heat haze is all that emanates from the chimney top. It just takes a few to several minutes to get to this state (and can boil one or two 1-gallon pans of water by then). Now it will provide approx 10-20mins of frying, followed by approx 10-20mins of grilling, followed by approx 10-20mins of simmering. Without adding more sticks & twigs (or fir cones), this stove can burn for over an hour and then the steady glowing embers can give another hour or so of warmth. It gasifies so efficiently that only a small handful of ash powder remains when lt has completed one load of just a couple of handfuls of sticks.Note: when handling the removable flue-elbow and stacking chimney sections, as the metal is of a thin grade, their edges are slightly sharp, so take care not to cut your hands & fingers on them. Also, I would advise to not let them become completely cold before separating the flue-elbow and first chimney section, else they will be hard to take apart (from my first experience which resulted in slightly cut hands & fingers). Not enough to detract much from what is an excellent concept/design/product.This takes Rocket/Frontier/Survivor type stoves to another level.

I would endorse everything said in the excellent review written recently by Jackson Swift.In addition though I would say that although excellent, this stove has room for easily made improvements if the manufacturer would care to address what I feel are some weak points.Firstly, the back, base and vent cover are not made from shiny and rust free stainless steel as you might have expected, but galvanized steel sheet. It's a shame to introduce a material that has a potential to rust into an otherwise damp proof product. I'm sure the decision was made on cost saving grounds, but I'd be happier personally to pay a bit more more for a completely rust proof stove.The second issue is the manufacturers packaging, or rather the lack of it. Only 10mm of foam sits between the stove and the cardboard box it departs the factory in, leaving the stove VERY prone to denting in transit. Nor are there any corner stiffening inserts as one might expect for packaging a heavy item like this. My own purchase was afflicted with denting from transit damage twice, before the third one shipped got through unscathed. Silverfire really NEED to address this failure as it's surely costing both them and their dealers a lot of wasted money.Thirdly, the vent cover: Whilst it looks curvy and fine visually, the screw that it hinges off sits rather proud of the stove face, mainly due to the spring it holds. It's a poor design in my view in that it easily catches and gets bent. If it comes loose the spring flies out too, and could very easily be lost, resulting in a loose, flappy useless vent cover. All three stoves I received have had screws bent in transit, one of them to destruction. It will continue to be a problem when storing the stove between use. Far better to change the design to a sliding door in my opinion, recessed flush with the stove wall in the same manner as the excellent side mounted handles. Doing this would design out complexity and weakness and design in more robustness and reliability.Don't get me wrong, this is still a very good and worthwhile stove, and one that I'd recommend. It works very well indeed in the manner of the other review. It just hasn't been developed yet to it's full and most robust potential in my humble opinion.Better packaging, full stainless and a simple flush vent cover would earn it a full five stars without question.