Vargo Titanium
Decagon Stove
Test Series
by
Andrew Preece
Initial Report April 6th 2008
Field Report June 12th 2008
Long Term Report Due August 2008
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Photo courtesy of Vargo |
Contents
Initial Report
Description
Test Plan
My Details |
Field
Report
Summary |
Long Term Report |
Personal Details
Name: Andrew Preece
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Height: 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight: 188 lb (85 kg)
Email: andrew_at_teamgunnparker_dot_com
City: Perth.
Western Australia.
Australia. |
Testing Locations
Bibbulmun Track: Sea level to 1,920 ft (585 m). Within this region I
backpack along old forestry roads, sandy tracks, and purpose built
walking tracks. The south-west of Western Australia allows for hiking
and backpacking from coastal plains to forested ranges. I hike in
varying conditions from forestry tracks, to sandy tracks to single
purpose walking trails, from rock hopping, to beach walking to
completely off-track through open and dense bush country. |
Backpacking Background
I have done a lot of hiking over the years but only now carry a tent and
all the gear for over night stays of one to two nights. I normally carry
approximately 35 lb (16 kg) which includes food and water. My trips are
usually between one to three days duration mainly over weekends. I hike
all seasons with winter temperatures ranging from 39 F (4 C) to 64 F (18
C) including periods of heavy rain at times to summer conditions with
the temperature ranging from 68 F (20 C) to 95 F (35 C) and very dry. |
Testing Activities
During the expected test period I will be going on twelve overnight
trips and trips ranging from one to two days of backpacking. I will be
camping out between eight nights and 20 days between January 2008 and
April 2008. Each over night hike of two nights duration would
involve approximately 21 mi (35 km) and the day trips would be 7 to 9 mi (12
to 15 km). |
Testing Conditions
It is now the start of our winter. Though we are still experiencing some
unseasonably warm days, and yet some mornings with lows of 50 F (10
C) and
highs of 88 F (31 C). In another few months it will be middle of winter and the
cold will set in. Daytime temperatures will range during the testing
period, from a minimum of 57 F (14 C) to 79 F (26 C) during April, to
46 F (8 C) to 64 F (18 C) in July 2008. The average rainfall for this time
of year is, 1 3/4 in (44 mm) in April to 6 in (175 mm) in July. |
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Initial Report
April 6th 2008
The Stove that I am testing comes in one size only.
Manufacturer: Vargo
Year of Manufacture: 2007
Manufacturer's Website:
www.vargooutdoors.com
MSRP: US $29.95
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Manufacturers
Measurements. |
My Measurements. |
| Dimensions |
Bottom plate 4.25
in (108 mm) |
4.25 in (108 mm) |
| Dimensions |
Height 1.25 in (31
mm) |
Height 1.25 in (31
mm) |
| Dimensions |
Main canister 2.25 in
dia (57 mm) |
Main canister 2.25 in
dia (57 mm) |
| Volume |
Fuel Capacity: 1.75
fl oz (52
ml) |
Fuel Capacity: 1.35
fl oz (40
ml), variable |
| Avg. Weight |
1.2 oz (34 g) |
1.31 oz (37 g)
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| The stove and the package tag. This photo was taken
after the stove was used. |
Rear of the tag. |
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Description
This stove is made in China and packaged
in the USA, it is made from Titanium.
The stove has basically a large outer base that rests on the ground or
a table with a fuel chamber rising up from the base. The base has a
series of holes cut into it and another series of ridges pressed into
it. This helps to lighten and strengthen the base.
Along the sides of
the chamber near the top is a row of holes that are the jets that the
flames come out of. At the top of the chamber are three little nubs that
rise up from the top and are the pot stands, where my pot will rest
while cooking.
In the centre of this chamber is a funnel that fuel (denatured alcohol
or in Australia, methylated spirits) is poured. The small hole in the
centre is where the fuel enters the stove itself.
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The stove after a few uses. |
The photo to the right
shows the under side of the stove and shows to my surprise the bottom of
the fuel bowl. I was wondering where all the fuel was going to go.
The rear of the card that is attached to the stove has a little
information about the stove including introduction, features,
instructions and a warning. |
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Introduction:
The
Vargo Decagon Titanium stove was designed to be a sturdy alcohol stove
that can withstand the abuse of being used everyday while hiking for
many months without fear of breaking. There are no movable parts and the
large centre hole makes filling the stove a snap. Once primed, simply
place your pot directly on top of the stove covering the filling hole.
The bottom stability plate keeps the stove stable and prevents your pot
from tipping. |
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Features: |
The under side of the stove. showing the bottom section of the fuel
bowl. |
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*Easy to fill and empty. |
*Requires virtually no
maintenance.
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*15 minutes burn time |
*Strong durable design. |
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*Boils 2 cups of water in
5-6 minutes. |
*Simple to use with
reliable performance. |
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*Stability plate prevents
tipping. |
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Instructions:
Carefully pour alcohol into the centre funnel, ignite fuel by placing
match at hole opening. Allow the stove to prime about two minutes. Once
primed, flames will shoot out of the side holes. Place pot onto the top
covering the large hole. To extinguish simply blow out the flames and
allow to cool before touching. Drain unused fuel by tilting the stove
vertically over fuel container. Air dry before storing in backpack. |
Warning:
The stove is designed to burn denatured alcohol ONLY. Attempting to burn
other fuels such as white gas, kerosene, unleaded gas, etc. will cause
explosion and possible serious injury. Add alcohol only after stove has
cooled thoroughly to prevent injury. Never use stove indoors.
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First impressions:
When I opened the package and first looked at the stove I thought, wow
this is light and at 1.31 oz (37 g) it sure is. The base of the stove
was slightly bent when I received it and I was able to bend it back into
shape just with my hands, but I thought then that the stove is strong.
It took quite a bit to bend it so the stove is not flimsy at all.
Use of the stove:
This stove is very straight forward to use. Just pour fuel into the
centre funnel and down into the hole that is there, I half fill the
funnel area with about 1.35 fl oz (40 ml) and then light the fuel in the
funnel. Once the fuel in the funnel area starts to burn and heat up the
stove fuel vapour is forced out through the jets and ignites. This takes
about two minutes. When this happens I place my pot over the centre hole
and onto the pot rests and wait for the contents to heat.
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Test Plan
My initial testing will
begin at home where I have a table set up out on the back veranda and
here I can measure fuel volumes, burn times, boil times and so on
accurately. I will test the items listed below plus anything else that
pops up.
Then I will take the stove out hiking and camping with me, Here I will
test actual cooking on the stove. I like to eat dehydrated evening meals and so
will rehydrate my meal in camp and then heat it up on the stove. My
morning meal is usually porridge with a cup of coffee or two.
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My home test bench.
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1.
The main part of the stove
is 2.25 in (57 mm) in diameter, where my pot is 5.5 in (140 mm) in
diameter. Will this mean that the flames will only touch the bottom of
my pan and lead to quicker or slower boil times? |
2.
Will this stove run on less
then a full chamber of fuel? How much is a full chamber? Can I half fill
the stove and just heat enough water for a coffee and not worry about
boiling the water? I do not need to boil water just to make coffee, I
cannot drink boiling water after all. |
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3. How much will
wind effect performance of the stove? |
4.
What is the real burn time
out side in camp? |
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5.
How long will it take to
heat my meals? |
6.
Can I pour unused fuel
back into my container? |
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7.
How much fuel will I use over a one night, two day hike? |
8.
Will my pot with the larger diameter be unstable? |
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I will be also checking
anything else that comes up while out in the bush and using this stove. |
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Back to top
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Field Report
Summary of
use.I have
now been using this stove for about two months, and during this time I
have been out five times on overnight trips. I have had two nights at the
Helena Hut along the Bibbulmun track and I have had a three night, four
day trip South of Perth near Dwellingup along the Bibbulmun Track. I
have also spent many nights on my back verandah at my test bench
checking boil times and fuel volumes.
During my trips the
weather was quite good with average temperatures in the 41 F (5 C) to 73
F (23 C) range. The weather was mostly dry with only a little rain on
the first day of the three night trip. The altitude range was from about
656 ft (200 m) to 1640 ft (500 m).
I did not want to use a
thermometer while checking boil times as I wanted to treat the stove as
I would while in camp, so I looked for bubbles rising from the pan and
looked for hot water that had reached a rolling boil which would tell me
the water was hot enough for a cup of coffee or to make my
porridge. Test bench results of my testing at home were a little hit
and miss because of the wind. My patio has walls on two side with a tin roof over the top
and is open to the elements on the other two sides. This means that any
wind that happens to be blowing would blow right into the test area just
as it would in camp.
The wind plays such a
big part in the performance of this stove, any wind at all affects the
flame and thereby the boil times and the results. Shown below are some
of the
results of my bench testing which was done over many nights in different
conditions, just as I would expect out on the trail.
I tested the stove with
1.35 fl oz (40 ml) of
fuel and with my round pot with lid. In the future I will be testing
with half of that amount of fuel to see if I can boil just one cup of
water in half the time.
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location |
conditions |
prime |
steam |
small bubbles |
lots of bubbles |
rolling boil |
boiling |
total burn |
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outside |
breezy |
1.55 |
3.40 |
5.30 |
11.52 |
no boil |
no boil |
18.34 |
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inside |
still |
1.52 |
7.16 |
8.39 |
10.30 |
11.15 |
16.00 |
19.30 |
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outside |
breezy |
2.33 |
8.20 |
9.00 |
10.15 |
11.00 |
18.35 |
22.44 |
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outside |
slight wind |
1.50 |
6.00 |
7.13 |
9.00 |
11.30 |
15.00 |
20.14 |
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Average |
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1.73 |
6.19 |
7.46 |
10.24 |
11.15 |
16.45 |
20.06 |
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My use of the
stove over this period is made up of a morning cup of coffee and a zip
lock bag of porridge or a cup of coffee followed by a rehydrated can of
baked beans and bacon. For the porridge and coffee this involves measuring and
boiling two cups of water then pouring my coffee and pouring the balance
of the water into the zip lock bag containing the porridge. My evening
meals are a rehydrated meal that I have prepared at home. When I get
into camp I will add water to a zip lock bag of food, it could be beef
stroganoff or any one of a few meals I enjoy out on the trail. Then when
it is time to eat I pour the contents of the bag into my pot and heat to
a very high temperature on the stove before eating out of the pot. When
I have finished using the stove it then packs inside the pot or cup and
there is enough room for a lighter and my measuring cup (film canister).
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The stove packed into the cup with headlight, pocket
knife and lighter.
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When I
have coffee and porridge the 1.35 fl oz (40 ml) of fuel is a little more
than I need to boil two cups of water, and I would normally have fuel
left in the stove. The instructions state to blow out the flames then to
up turn the stove and pour the remaining fuel back into the fuel bottle.
Try as much as I like I always find that any remaining fuel does not
come out of the filler hole but out of the jets, much like water from a
watering can. So unless I carry a small funnel I am not able to reclaim
any left over fuel at all.
I also found that if I
am having a cup of coffee and I am reheating some baked beans, I start by
boiling one cup of water. Then pouring my coffee, then pouring the
rehydrated beans into my pot to heat on the stove. The stove then ran out
of fuel before the beans where hot enough to my liking. When this did
happen I was forced to use my hiking buddies gas stove and continue to
heat my breakfast rather than start over with the stove. One night at a camp called Mt Wells which is an old
bush fire lookout hut which has a door and is fully enclosed I started
to reheat a rehydrated meal and part way through heating my meal I found
the stove just went out. I had to wait for a moment and relight the
stove then wait for it to prime again before resuming my cooking. After
the relighting of the stove it ran well and was able to heat my meal
fully to my liking.
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Breakfast of coffee and porridge at Chadora
hut.
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| On the very first
morning of my trip I filled the stove from my fuel bottle which had
stood on the table over night and it took quite some time to light the
stove and even longer to get to a prime. The temperature could have been
about 41 F (5 C) which is what we were expecting and so the fuel could
have been very cold and thereby refusing to light easily. Once lit and
primed properly the stove performed as it should.
I found my pot with a
diameter of 5.5 in (140 mm) was too large for the stove with a diameter
of 2.25 in (57 mm) and if I am not careful when placing my pot on the
stove it would easily over balance. I did not have the same trouble with
my small aluminium cup, both are shown in the photo
above. I will have to change my style of cooking so that I can use
the smaller cup as it is too much trouble to make sure the larger pot is
balanced well.
So far with this stove I
like and dislike the following.
Like:
Just how light it
is.
How strong it is.
How small it is.
It fits into my small cup.
Dislike:
The low power output
of the flame.
The hit and miss reliability, due to wind.
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Back to top
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Long
Term Report
August 10th 2008 |
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Over the last couple of
months I have used the stove to cook about four more meals. There is
really not much more to add to this report other than to say that this
is a very sturdy stove that will always be there ready to cook a meal or
boil water. The stove is so light at 1.31 oz (37 g) that there is no
reason not to pack this stove. I was a bit put off by what I though was
the weight of fuel (denatured alcohol or in Australia, methylated
spirits) but after weighing an amount of methylated spirits I find that
it is thirty percent lighter than water. This means for me a weekend
away cooking one evening meal and one breakfast is only 3.77 oz (107 gm)
plus weight of fuel bottle I could not ask for better.
One thing that I feel must be repeated is the need for a good wind
shield. I went out North of Perth along the Coastal Plains Trail and
when I got into camp it was very windy, so windy in fact that the stove
went out about three times while boiling some ramen noodles for tea.
I had forgotten my wind shield so I found a couple of pieces of log that I
tried to make do with but found it was just no good. After the third
time that the stove went out I moved it and my pot into the hut that I
camped near and tried to find a wind free corner. Once inside I was able
to finish cooking my meal. |
My timber
wind shield.
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One more test that I did run at home was just how much fuel I would be
able to reclaim after the water had boiled. I set up two tests boiling
cups of cold tap water and this is the result.
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2 cups of water |
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remaining fuel |
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0.51 fl oz (15 ml) |
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1 cup of water |
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remaining fuel |
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0.64 fl oz (19 ml) |
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Here I am at Helena Hut
waiting for the billy to boil.
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I used a funnel to collect the fuel poured from the stove into a
measuring beaker. After this test I am very tempted to get myself a soft
sided light weight funnel to collect unused fuel and I am sure with time
and use I can estimate just how little fuel I will need for my trips.
One thing I must add as a warning to anyone reading this review and
thinking of saving unused fuel as I did. Be very careful not to get
burnt or set fire to a table or the bush. I’ll explain exactly what it
is I mean. When the water in my cup had boiled and I removed the cup I
then had to blow quite strongly to get the flames to go out. And what
happened next was a surprise; the fuel that was left in the bowl blew
out across my table cloth and spread flames over the outside of the
stove and onto my table. It did not take much to put the flames out but
in an outdoor situation the ending could have been different.
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My cup is almost boiling
and noodle lunch is waiting.
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So am I going to recommend this stove to my friends? Yes I am but, I am
also going to tell them that they need to take their cooking speed down
a level. Maybe take a bit of time out to rest while waiting for the
water to boil, or enjoy cooking and having to stir the food while
chatting to friends. Sure, if it is too windy the stove will blow out,
so what. Just relight it and start again.
I would also recommend a good wind shield that wraps all the way around
the stove which will help to keep the stove alight.
I must say a big word of thanks to Vargo and Backpackgeartest
for the opportunity to test this stove which has become a permanent part
of my hiking kit. |
