Stratus Outdoors Firepit Oven – Reviewed & Tested

With countless outdoor meals under her belt, and a weird amount of experience with campfire ovens, Jess knows exactly what makes a campfire cooking set up worth its weight in sausages.

Stratus Outdoors might be a relatively new name on the scene for many campers, so if you haven’t heard of it, I recommend you visit the website and have a squiz. When I got the chance to review the Firepit Oven I jumped at it, because if there’s one thing I love more than eating outdoors, it’s finding gear that makes cooking better, easier, and tastier.

Rather than crouching over my tiny hiking stove while everyone else enjoys the fire, this Firepit Oven becomes the life of the campsite and allows you to cook a huge volume of food at once. But enough spoilers, let’s get into it. 

Let’s cook

Why am I the right person to do this review? 

Aside from running The Hiker’s Nutritionist in my spare time, I grew up in a family of campers and have eaten many, many meals around a campfire. A few years ago, my Dad (a quality-obsessed engineer with a love of the bush) designed and manufactured a pizza oven to his exacting specifications. 

From cakes to stews, and classic damper, he tested and refined until it was perfect, producing a small run that he’s been selling via word of mouth and online Nissan Patrol forums ever since. Suffice to say, I’ve had more conversations about pizza ovens, carry bags, and what you can cook outdoors than the average person!

Quick Specifications

Dimensions: 40cm W x 50cm H x 42cm D
Packed dimensions: 50cm W x 39cm D x 7.5cm H
Oven dimensions: 34.5cm W x 16cm H x 32.5cm D
Weight: 12kg
Fuel: Wood or coals
Materials: 5mm aluminium and 4mm steel fire plate
RRP: $549

Buy Now

Everything you get, cardboard only packaging included

Design

Setting It Up

If you’ve ever assembled IKEA furniture without a glance at the instructions, you’re going to be very tempted to do the same with the Stratus Outdoors Firepit Oven. I must implore you to set aside your lone operator tendencies and take a minute to read them because it’s incredibly easy to do it wrong.

The first time I put it together, I put the steel plate at the bottom (heavy to the bottom seemed logical!), but you actually want that one up top to hold and conduct heat from the fire pit above. This is so important that Stratus Outdoors specifically sent me instructions about it.

The brand has also provided a PDF with instructions, a video on the website, AND printed step-by-step instructions on the inside of the canvas bag. Even after looking at all that, I still put the plate in the wrong spot – despite it being very clear where it should go. Don’t be like me – get it right the first time.

Instructions aside, despite it looking like a heavy, oversized puzzle when you lay it out, it’s not complicated at all once you’ve noted the basics.

I really like that the grill and oven shelves are adjustable with multiple notches available to slide them into, so you can raise and lower your cooking surface depending on the heat or height of the flames in your fire pit.

Portability

At 12kg, the Firepit Oven is far from light, but it’s also not pretending to be. This is made for car camping and backyard cookouts, not for lugging along on a hike. It packs down flat into the included waxed rPET canvas bag that’s made from 18 recycled plastic bottles.

As a bonus, the bag doesn’t get seemingly smaller with every use like some other camping gear, and everything fits in easily, no matter which piece goes in first for a hassle-free pack up every time. The multiple handles on the fire pit make it surprisingly easy to shift it around the campsite once you’ve set it up.

One very obvious downside is that you need to wait for the stove to be completely cold again before you can disassemble and pack it away, and it stays hot to the touch for a long time.

Most of the time, if you’re cooking before dinner on a camp-out, this isn’t an issue, it’s more after brekky the following morning when you want to pack down and the fire pit is still very hot. You can (carefully) use water to cool it faster, but if water isn’t plentiful, this may not always be an option. Not a huge deal, but something to be mindful of if you’re the kind of person who schedules every minute (guilty).

Versatility

The versatility and ability to cook in multiple ways simultaneously is what makes the Stratus Outdoors Firepit Oven really stand out. Not only do you have multiple rungs inside the oven in which you could cook a cake or a quiche – did someone say both? – but there’s a grill plate on top for eggs, snags, and onions, plus the firepit itself for marshmallows or even a handheld toastie press.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but this is really a game-changer compared to most other campstove options out there, and a huge upgrade when cooking for a group. 

You can cook anything on this thing

Note: You absolutely must use a pair of fire-safe gloves when operating this Firepit Oven. The aluminium and steel get very hot, and unlike cookware, there aren’t any heatproof handles. Most of the handles are super close to the flames so they’re among the hottest parts. Granted, you could absolutely learn this yourself, the hot way, but I’m pretty anti-burn, so consider yourself officially warned.

Aesthetics

I love love love the laser cut phrase ‘Protect the Adventure’. Was this necessary? Not even remotely. But does it make the oven feel that much cooler? Absolutely.

The single colour, puzzle-like pieces are fun to put together, and it looks a bit like a metal card tower. The design is innovative in its space-saving simplicity. Not many ovens pack down flat, and this feature makes it feel even more modern and practical.

The slogan looks awesome when the fire is raging

The bag is also slimline and just as easy to fit in the backseat of my Honda Jazz as the back of a ute or 4WD. 

Care & Maintenance

To extend the life of the unit, Stratus Outdoors recommends oiling the 4mm steel fire plate after each use to prevent rust, and rinsing it in fresh water if it’s been exposed to salty air or water. Even before doing those, you should brush down the unit to remove ash, and remove food with soapy water and a scourer as needed. Each piece should be dry and clean before being packed back into the carry bag.

Phew. That’s a lot of work. Most of the time when I go camping, I just take a couple of my hiking stoves so I can cook simultaneously and clean up is a breeze. This is a whole new level of clean up. But, given the versatility of this unit, it really is just one of life’s small inconveniences. Share the work with your fellow campers, and you’ll be done in no time.

Admittedly, every time I’ve used this, I haven’t bothered with pack-down at camp but have just tipped out the ash, given it a quick wipe and popped it in the car fully assembled to deal with at home. So far, so good. 

‘Deal-with-this-at-home’ mode

Performance

Durability

The very first thing I noticed about the Stratus Outdoors Firepit Oven was that it’s solid. It’s made from 5mm thick aluminium and a chunky 4mm steel fire plate, which makes it strong and robust. While it feels like a rickety house of metal cards as you set it up, once you lock in the final piece, there’s nothing that’ll knock it over (not even a branch falling from above, which attempted to take it out on my last cookout!).

Incidentally, that moment convinced me that I’ll never compromise on camping trips by taking my tiny hiking stove again – it would’ve been obliterated! 

I really like that (except for the laser-cut brand name and slogan), nothing has been added that doesn’t need to be there. Fewer moving parts equal fewer ways for it to fail. I’ve been racking my brain wondering what could break here, and realistically, the only thing that’d really go would be the canvas carry bag – and quite honestly, it’s more heavy-duty than any tent or gear bag I’ve ever used, so I’d still be surprised.

Stratus Outdoors is very confident that the Firepit Camp Oven will be in your kit for the long haul (the generous three-year warranty and lifetime repair service is testament to that). This feels like a true Buy It For Life item.

This thing is built tough

Cooking a Meal

Not only can you utilise one of three potential oven shelf locations (or all three if you purchase additional shelves), to bake something inside the oven, but you can use the included half-width grill plate (or buy a full-sized one), or whack a frypan or billy straight on the fire to cook – all at the same time! 

I was pretty thrilled by this versatility, so naturally, I had to try cooking as many things simultaneously as I could. I opted for eggs, snags, and a pizza. Overall, I was more than impressed – and so were the other campers who wandered over for a sticky beak. 

Party up top, party down low, party all over!

The grill plate is half solid, half open, so flames can reach up and lick your food. This proved the fastest way for sausages, but I’m itching to get a steak on there next time – after seeing what it can do, that’s going to make a very bougie and delicious meal! The snags cooked perfectly. The egg was slightly trickier and sadly, some ran off the back of the plate, so I can see the benefit of a small lip to keep it contained. 

For ideal pizza results, you need to build up your fire in the fire pit first, so the steel plate can get nice and hot before popping your plate in the oven on the highest shelf. The first time I cooked a pizza in the oven, I used the middle shelf and chucked it in before it was hot enough. It wasn’t a disaster; it just took about 25 minutes, and the hunger set in far quicker than the pizza cooked! 

Make sure it’s super hot before your pizza goes in for the best result

One criticism of the oven is that, with all the heat coming from the top, I found it quite tricky to get the base of the pizza to crisp up without it being soggy. It wasn’t the end of the world, we ended up just folding it over and making calzones (how bloody good are calzones!) – but having the option to build up coals or fire underneath the oven too might solve that problem.

I also tried crisping the base by popping the tray above the fire briefly, but was worried that the metal might be too thin, so I didn’t do that for long. The larger grill plate you can buy from the website would be the better choice for that. 

As an aside, it’d be awesome if Stratus Outdoors put together a recipe book for this bad boy with cooking times. I’m just going to leave that here in the hope they see it and get one made (maybe it’s already in progress?). Here’s hoping!

Read more: STOV Flatpack Portable Gas BBQ – Reviewed & Tested

Sustainability

While it isn’t a B Corp or signatory to 1% for the Planet or similar initiatives, Stratus Outdoors has made a demonstrable commitment to protecting planet Earth. The company uses 100% recycled cardboard packaging from production to shipping – a commitment to recycling that not many brands have made. It has outlawed single-use plastics across the entire business, which is a real demonstration of its commitment to protecting and preserving the environment.  

No Stratus Outdoors product has single-use plastic

The recycled canvas bag isn’t just a gimmick either. It’s genuinely tough and repurposes plastic in a useful way. Plus, the long-lasting rugged construction and amazing number of ways you can use this means you’ll never need to buy another camp cooker OR fire pit for the backyard or campsite. Better for the bush, your wallet, and your conscience.

The sustainability page doesn’t go overboard; it simply highlights Stratus Outdoors’ two key approaches in detail. Pair that with a durable product, and Stratus Outdoors is doing more to ‘Protect the Adventure’ than most brands you can buy from.

Price

This isn’t a budget buy. It’s a premium piece of kit, and the RRP of $549 reflects that. But considering the durability, functionality, and sheer cooking flexibility, it’s genuinely good value if you’re a regular camper. And for the very few comparable models out there, it’s middle of the pack in terms of price. With the exception (of course) of my Dad’s custom firepit camp oven, this is the best one I’ve seen on the market.

As always, value ultimately comes down to how often you use it. Right now, in the middle of winter, my usage hasn’t been that frequent. But come summer, when the nights are long and everyone is keen to get amongst it, I’m anticipating many more pizzas, baking experiments, and bougie brekky fry-ups with all the trimmings. And I can’t bloody wait. Despite the high initial outlay, I think it’s worth it for quality, well-intentioned design, and a product built so strong it’s probably bombproof (certainly branchproof!).

Not cheap, but you won’t have to buy another one… ever

Final Thoughts 

The Stratus Firepit Oven is modern, streamlined, and as versatile as it gets. It’s practical, portable enough to get from your car to campsite, and absolutely levels up your camp cooking game. Sure, it’s heavier than all the dumbbells I use to work out, and it costs more than the average fire pit from Bunnings, but it also offers a heck of a lot more. You can grill a steak, boil a billy, sauté green veg, and bake scones without switching equipment. And you’ll never need another one.

It’s perfect for car campers, vanlifers, glampers, and backyard stargazers. Once you’ve had pizza cooked in one of these, you may never buy takeaway again, so it’ll probably save you a tonne of money in the long run too (or maybe that’s just me…).

FAQs Stratus Outdoors Firepit Oven

Can you use the Stratus Outdoors Fire Pit Oven in a national park campground?

Many campgrounds now require fires to be off the ground, so yes, this setup actually ticks a box for compliant fire use. Just always check local restrictions and total fire bans.

What can I cook in the Stratus Outdoors Fire Pit Oven?

Basically anything. I’ve done pizzas in the oven and eggs and sausages on the top grill plate. Once I get a cast iron pan I’m pretty keen to sauté some veggies over the fire, and bake a cake in the oven. 

What other accessories does Stratus Outdoors have for cooking?

You can also grab plates, cups, and bowls. I wasn’t expecting much of these, but they’re light, super easy to clean, and the bowls and plates are stackable. Oddly, the cups aren’t (which would have been nice!) but they’re fabulous for wine and clean easily. 

Can I take the Stratus Outdoors Fire Pit Oven hiking?

Not unless your idea of a hike includes a wheelbarrow. It’s best suited to car camping, backyards, or slow weekends where the esky’s full and an afternoon cooking a meal outdoors is the only logical use of your time.

Is the Stratus Outdoors Fire Pit Oven hard to clean?

There are a few steps, but it’s pretty simple. Wait until it’s cool to touch before you shake out the ash, wipe it down, and use a brush if needed. Wash food scraps off in warm, soapy water and dry each piece completely. Oil the cooking plate to prevent rust, then pack into the canvas bag until next time.

Where can I hear more about or buy the reviewer’s Dad’s pizza oven?

Shoot Jess an email at thehikersnutritionist@gmail.com, and she’ll give you all the details. Limited supply so if you’re keen, don’t wait.