Portable Fire Options

Should you use a portable fire pit or wood stove?

With all the restrictions on open fires in many of Australia’s national parks, more people are starting to use contained fireplaces. And rightly so. Camping is just not the same if you can’t sit around the fire at night.

This obviously doesn’t apply if there are Fire Bans or restrictions in place but contained fireplace ideas have developed quite rapidly, with many examples being both made at home and commercially produced. Snow Peak and Darche are some good examples of super light-weight folding fireplaces, but our favourite is the heavy-duty folding fire pit from Aussie Campfire Kitchens.

These portable campfire pits are becoming more and more popular. Some of them, such as Snow Peak and Aussie Campfire Kitchens, are now almost complete kitchens based around a contained fire pit in the middle. Camping and cooking in the bush is changing as people experiment with new, innovative gear.

Which leads us to another alternative: the portable wood stove. The difference between the portable wood stove and portable fire pit is that the wood stove is more contained. It’s also often heavier and you can cook off it in different ways compared to the slightly more traditional fire pit.

The Ozpig is one of the more recognisable brands in this niche, but other brands are starting to develop portable wood stoves as well. Wooshka is another frontrunner, as is the Frontier Stove and the OZtrail Outback. What we love about the Ozpig is the sheer number of accessories that are now available, including the very popular add-on smoker unit that takes camp cooking to another level for those who love to roast and smoke meats in this way.

So what is the best? Well, we still love the good old cast iron camp oven on the coals, but it isn’t always practical. Both portable fire pits and portable wood stoves are finding their place in mainstream camping gear and it comes down to personal preference. Most have a large range of options, so make your choice based on how you like to cook, and the price you are willing to pay. Or why not have both and change it up a bit from trip to trip?

For our money though, and if you like a more traditional approach, the Aussie Campfire Kitchens gear is a winner and will last a lifetime. It’s also made in Far North Queensland, so we are probably a bit biased.

Our customers are also finding the Expedition134 box a great fit for their portable fire pits and wood stoves. The below time-lapse video was sent in to show us what a great fit the box was for the Wooshka stove and a second customer has managed to neatly fit in the Ozpig.

This means that everything is protected and contained in the Expedition134 box and doesn’t rub holes in anything else you have packed around it when you are on an extended trip or battling the corrugations. Because we all dread that horrible sound of things moving and crashing around in the back. Or maybe that’s just us.