Anevay Horizon Rocket Stove Review

The Stove That Refused to die

In the world of outdoor gear, very few products survive the ultimate test: time. Plenty of stoves arrive with bold claims and flashy marketing, only to end up gathering dust in the garage after a handful of outings.

The Anevay Horizon Rocket Stove isn't one of them.

In fact, this particular stove has been part of my outdoor kit for well over a decade.

It first arrived on my doorstep when I was writing for the now long-forgotten Land Rover World magazine. I was asked to put it through its paces and see whether this rocket stove malarkey actually lived up to the hype.

Around fourteen years later, it's still here, still working and still capable of turning a handful of twigs into enough heat to brew tea, cook dinner and warm a cold campsite. And that's rather the point of this review.

Like most reviewers, I've accumulated enough stoves and outdoor gear over the years to open a small branch of Go Outdoors, and the Horizon has outlasted most of them.

So, what's a rocket stove?

The principle is beautifully simple. Instead of burning large logs on an open fire, a rocket stove uses a vertical combustion chamber and controlled airflow to create an intense, efficient burn.

Small sticks, kindling, hedge trimmings and bits of wood that would barely register on a campfire suddenly become useful fuel.

The Horizon packages that principle into a lightweight, yet rugged, portable steel stove that's equally at home on a campsite, at a green-lane lunch stop or in the garden.

Built like it means business

The first thing that struck me all those years ago was how solid the Horizon felt. There are no unnecessary gadgets, gimmicks or electronic wizardry. It's essentially a carefully engineered steel box designed to survive years of abuse.

And survive it has.

It's been thrown into the back of various vehicles, bounced around on green lanes, left outside more than once and subjected to countless fires. In other words, it's been treated with about as much care as a stolen shopping trolley. Yet it still looks and works remarkably well.

Fire up and get cooking

Some outdoor stoves seem determined to turn lighting a fire into a competitive sport. You spend half an hour arranging twigs with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker before achieving something resembling combustion. The Horizon is refreshingly different.

A handful of dry kindling, a firelighter and a match are usually enough. Once the draft gets going, the stove quickly develops that characteristic rocket-stove roar and produces serious heat.

The gasifying technology allows the wood gases to burn efficiently, resulting in very little smoke once it's properly established and making the most of a surprisingly small amount of fuel.

It's particularly useful when you're travelling light or decent firewood is in short supply. Where others might be feeding armfuls of logs into a fire pit, the Horizon happily gets on with the job using what looks like a bundle of twigs. 

There's serious heat in there

For something relatively compact, the heat output is impressive. Most of the heat is directed upwards, which is precisely what makes it such an effective cooker, but the steel body also becomes seriously hot and throws a surprising amount of radiant heat sideways.

It won't replace a fire pit if you're trying to keep half a dozen campers warm on a freezing winter evening. A traditional fire will always win that particular contest.

For one or two people sitting nearby, though, it creates a very welcome pocket of warmth.

I've spent plenty of chilly mornings perched beside it waiting for a kettle to boil, hands extended towards the stove, appreciating the heat almost as much as the tea that followed.

A proper camp cooker

This is where the Horizon really earns its keep.

I've used it for everything from bacon sandwiches and fry-ups to stews and campsite curries. The concentrated heat makes boiling water and heating pans remarkably efficient, while the stable cooking surface gives you a lot more confidence than balancing a pan over an open fire.

And because you can continually feed small pieces of wood into the combustion chamber, maintaining the heat is relatively straightforward.

The heat can also be surprisingly ferocious. I once managed to buckle a cast-iron skillet while cooking breakfast.

That's either a warning or a testament to the stove's capabilities. I'll let you decide.

Surprisingly practical

At 270 x 245mm and weighing 1.8kg, the Horizon isn't exactly backpacking equipment and it doesn't fold flat.

For vehicle-based adventures, however, that's hardly a deal-breaker. It now comes with a protective bag, making it easier to transport and keeping the inevitable soot and ash away from the rest of your kit.

Its design also makes it relatively easy to reposition around camp as the orange cage around the tunnel always remains cool to the touch. Obviously you need to exercise some common sense when moving anything that's currently hot enough to bend cast iron!

Fourteen years on...

This is probably the most important bit.

Reviewing something after a weekend is easy. Reviewing it after more than a decade tells you considerably more.

The Horizon has proved exceptionally durable. Nothing has failed, its performance remains unchanged and it still does exactly what it was designed to do.

Verdict

The Anevay Horizon Rocket Stove is rugged, simple, economical with fuel, produces an impressive amount of heat and genuinely works as a cooking stove and has survived years of use.

Its size means it's better suited to camping, overlanding, 4x4 adventures and garden use than lightweight backpacking, and you need reasonably dry fuel to get the best from it.

Sometimes the best outdoor gear isn't the stuff you're excited to receive, it's the stuff you still own over a decade later.

Website: https://www.anevaystoves.com/collections/stove-bundles/products/horizon-stove-and-carry-bag

Price: £119.00 - including a carry bag