Field Report

Field Report

March 28, 2005

Vargo Triad Alcohol Stove

Manufacturer: Vargo Outdoors, LLC

URL: http://www.vargooutdoors.com/

Year of Manufacture: 2004

Listed Weight: 1 ounce/28 grams

Actual Weight: 1.1 ounces/31 grams

Product Description: An alcohol-fueled backpacking stove made from titanium. The body of the stove is a cylinder which measures 0.75 in/1.9 cm in height and just over 2.5 inches across. The top of this cylinder is ringed with small pinholes - the burner holes. The center slopes down into a bowl shape, and in the middle of this bowl (in the center of the stove) is a larger hole (which I will refer to as the fueling hole). Attached at three equidistant points around the outside of the stove are six "legs" - three on the top of the stove, three on the bottom - which fold out to a 45-degree angle and act as stove legs and pot supports. The height of the stove with the legs and pot supports extended is roughly 2.25 in/5.7 cm. The ends of the leg bases/pot supports are just under 3.25 in/8.25 cm apart when fully extended. The stove is actually reversible and designed to be used two ways - when used with the "bowl" side up, it is fueled with denatured alcohol. When it is turned flat-side-up, it is meant to be used with fuel tablets (Esbit or comparable fuels). Please see my Initial Report for an even more detailed description.

Field Conditions: The Triad has been used exclusively in California during the test period so far. Locations included the Sierra Nevada, Mojave desert, and low-elevation forest about 11 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. Elevations have ranged from 9,834 feet (2997 meters) to as low as 394 feet (120 meters). Conditions ranged from windy and dry to damp and cold. Temperatures from the low 40's (5 C) to the mid-70's (24 C).

Prologue: I feel that this report needs to be prefaced with some necessary information. First, a bit more about me, so you understand the perspective this report is written from. I have been using alcohol-fueled stoves exclusively for the last two years (I don't do snow). I currently own four other alcohol stove models - a Brasslite Turbo II D, an antigravity gear alcohol burner, and two other models of "pop-can" stoves. Each of these models has its own benefits and drawbacks and I have yet to find the "perfect stove," and this report is not going to be a shootout or a comparison. But my opinions about the Triad stove will be influenced by my experiences with these other alcohol stove models. Also, I always, always, always use a windscreen with the Triad. Without one, this stove (and any other alcohol burner) would just not be effective.

Second, some information about a problem we BGT testers experienced with the stove (and why our Field Reports were delayed by about 4 months). I was having trouble with burning fuel leaking out through the bottom seam of the stove and down the legs, which as you can imagine caused me some concern. In my Initial Report, I described this as happening after water had gotten into the body of the stove, but it also happened multiple times after that, and at those times there was no water in the body of the stove - only fuel. I had begun to feel that perhaps the stove wasn't safe to use and was musing over reporting it to our test monitor. At that time, I was browsing in a small local outfitter's shop and found some Triads for sale. I looked at them and was surprised to see that they were constructed differently than the Triad I was testing! Allow me to explain.

The Triad's body is made from two very short cylinders - one nests inside the other, creating one very short cylinder. The halves did not appear to be welded or sealed together. The fit is very tight and the halves cannot be separated (at least I couldn't do it by hand). The Triad I have is constructed so that the top of the stove (the half with the burner holes and fuel pooling area) slides over the bottom half (the flat-bottomed, unfeatured half that is intended for use with fuel tabs). The Triad I saw in the store was constructed the opposite way - the bottom half slid over the top half. I immediately recognized that this method of construction would eliminate the problem I was having with burning fuel leaking out through the seam and spilling down the legs - the fuel wouldn't leak upward! I went home, contacted the monitor and moderator in charge of this test, who then contacted Vargo. Vargo replied that we BGT testers had inadvertently been sent stoves that were "unsealed," and asked us to return them for sealing. The test was suspended until all three testers received our sealed stoves, at which time the test reporting dates were re-set. And that is why I'm writing this Field Report six months after my Initial Report.

Vargo returned the exact same stove to me (at least the Esbit burn marks on the bottom sure looked the same). The only difference was that the bottom seam of the stove had been sealed with some sort of clear epoxy-type glue. I assume it is J-B Weld, but I don't have any confirmation of that. Looking at Vargo's website, it appears that the Triad they have photographs of is constructed the same way as the Triad I saw at the store - top piece fitted into bottom piece. Now that my model is sealed, I can't say that performance would differ significantly between the two models, but I feel that our readers deserve to know the specifics of this small discrepancy.

Performance: The Triad works, no doubt about that. I can achieve a boil within time periods that are acceptable - 16 oz. (473 ml) of water usually boils within 8-9 minutes after the stove has fully primed. The flames burn strongly and the flame is generally very even, but it does start to sputter a bit as the fuel begins to burn out. However, since the stove will burn for fourteen to fifteen minutes on about 1.25 oz. (37 ml) of fuel, boiling is easily achieved well before the flame starts to weaken. In fact, once I boiled around 12 oz. (355 ml) of water, added that to my freeze-dried dinner pouch, and then set another 8 ounces (237 ml) of water back on the stove and boiled that for hot cider, all before the stove burned out. That particular burn involved an agonizing three-minute wait for the stove to prime fully, then fourteen minutes of burn time, with the flame getting steadily weaker for the last minute. It was a shiveringly cold and damp night, which may have contributed to the three-minute wait time for the stove to prime, although one of my test burns at home also had a priming time of at least three minutes as well. Overall, I have found that the "prime time" is not consistent and ranges from one-and-a-half minutes to a bit over three minutes. On its own, this unpredictability doesn't bother me much, but when combined with other necessary delays & requirements, I begin to see that using the Triad can be a time-consuming experience.

For example, when filling the stove the fuel must be poured very slowly, or the bowl will overflow. Then, waiting for the stove to prime. Then, if I decide to extinguish the stove once I have achieved a boil, it's necessary to wait a few minutes for the stove to cool sufficiently to be safe for handling. That's OK, because that time can be used for mixing dinner & water. Then, while dinner is reconstituting, I can go back to the stove and attempt to salvage the remaining unburned fuel. Here's where things get tricky.

Salvaging the unused fuel is a neat trick in theory, but in practice it requires... well, a bit of practice. The first couple of times I tried this, I spilled fuel because I didn't know what sort of flow rate to expect and I just didn't have the technique mastered. But on probably my third attempt, I managed it nicely and was able to start measuring how much fuel I was able to salvage. On my last field burn, I filled the stove with the required amount of fuel (it takes perhaps a little less than 1.25 oz./37 ml of fuel to fire up the stove), boiled 12 oz. (355 ml) of water, extinguished the stove, and easily salvaged over 1/4 oz. (7 ml) of fuel. But what happened after I salvaged the fuel merits inclusion in this report as well.

I poured out as much fuel as I could, shaking the last drips back into my fuel bottle. But the Triad has a design element that prevents all remaining fuel from being salvaged - there's a fabric or fibrous pad inside the stove that is intended to distribute the fuel evenly to the burner holes. If the Triad is extinguished, rather than allowed to burn out, and even if it is drained, this pad retains fuel. A surprising amount of fuel, as I discovered after I savored my hot chocolate, then picked up the stove to fold it and put it away. As I turned the stove over, fuel poured out through the burner holes. I wasn't expecting that and so the fuel splashed out, spilling onto both my pack and jacket! My guess is that as I let the stove sit, fuel dripped from the pad and pooled in the bottom of the stove. Now, since alcohol evaporates fairly quickly I didn't panic, but the reality is that if I attempt to be fuel-efficient while using the Triad, I'll end up carying around an open-burnered stove that is still dripping with unburned fuel.

I emailed Brian Vargo to ask him about this, and he suggested carrying the stove in a zip-closure plastic baggie when it is not in use. But I just don't like that idea - I'm still carrying around a fuel-saturated stove. He also suggested a trick to prime the stove using less fuel overall - he told me to fill the stove with the minimum amount of fuel that I felt I needed to achieve a boil, and then to block the fueling hole with a washer or a dime, so that I could create a priming pool in the bowl of the stove but wouldn't have to use an excessive amount of fuel to do so. I have tried this trick at home and twice in the field, and have never been able to make it work. The priming pool burns out and leaves me with an unlit stove full of fuel. So I have reluctantly returned to filling the Triad with close to 1.25 oz. (37 ml) of alcohol and accepting the waste of fuel that results. But I'm not happy about it.

I have not used the Triad with Esbit tabs since I wrote my Initial Report, because of the problem that I noted with my test burns at home - even set down on a flat, even surface, the Esbit tabs will migrate across the stove as they burn. They need to be contained or they will eventually slide right off of the stove.

Summary: The Triad is a fantastically clever idea in theory - a lightweight, dual-fuel burner with integrated pot supports - but in reality I think it needs some design changes in order to be a truly useful stove. Unless my mind is somehow changed during the next 4 months of field testing, I will likely stop using the Triad once the test period has ended.

Positives

Light
Stable, provided pot diameter is sufficient
Compact - easily fits in my smallest mug
Easily extinguished
Unused fuel can be salvaged (to a point)
No additional pot stands required (for big enough pots)

Negatives

Wasteful - requires excessive fuel in order to prime
Priming is sometimes very slow (occasionally over three minutes)
Must fill with fuel SLOWLY or risk overflow
Easily extinguished
Unless burned dry, stove body retains fuel & will leak fuel through burner holes
Cookpot must be over 3.75" (9 cm) in diameter

Changes I'd Like To See

The fuel-tab half of the stove needs either a raised "fence" or an indentation, to keep an Esbit or similar fuel tab from sliding across the surface as it burns. It is currently flat and smooth, so as the outside of the burning tab liquefies, the tab migrates across the stove.

The opening into which fuel is poured could perhaps be enlarged. As it is currently designed, fuel must be poured into the stove slowly or else the stove will overflow. Actually, I'd prefer to see a body design much closer to that used for most "pop-can" stoves - with the fuel well simply a large hole in the middle, surrounded by very small drainage holes to allow fuel inside of the stove walls. This would allow the stove to be used with the minimum amount of fuel necessary for the job at hand, and would eliminate the need to reclaim unused fuel and leave a saturated fabric pad inside (assuming the pad stays as a vital part of the stove design).

Eliminate the pad inside the stove. If the stove is put out, rather than allowed to burn out, the pad retains fuel, which necessitates that the stove be stored either in a zip-close baggie or in some other fluid-proof container. The retained fuel will slowly pool in the bottom of the stove and can actually splash out when the stove is picked up to be packed away. The pad is intended to improve fuel distribution to the burner holes, but based on my experience with other alcohol stove models I'm not convinced this is necessary.

It would be nice if Vargo could find a stable way to allow pots with diameters smaller than 4" (10 cm) to be used with the Triad. I'm still mildly irked that my Snow peak trek 700 mug is just barely too small to sit stably on the pot supports. I can set the pot supports straight up (perpendicular to the top of the stove), but unless fully extended, the pot supports are wobbly and tend to give in one direction or another, resulting in the cookpot falling off. Perhaps a solution would be to evenly tighten the pot support legs - this would allow the Triad to be used with a wider variety of cookpot sizes. I occasionally go on quick overnighters where all I want to cook is a cup of hot cocoa in the morning and so all I carry is a small mug, an alcohol burner, and a windscreen. I couldn't do this with the Triad.

Tester Name: Colleen Porter
Gender: female
Age: 30
Height: 5'8"/1.73 m
Weight: 150 lb./68 kg
Email address: tarbubble at yahoo dot com
Location: Orange County, CA

Backpacking Experience: I have been hiking for fifteen years, backpacking for eight. I've only been serious about it in the last two and a half years. I mostly hike on established trails – bushwhacking is rarely planned. I like gear to be simple and light, and I do make some of my own equipment. On my own I pack pretty light (about thirteen lbs/6 kilograms base weight) and am always trying to get lighter, but I am often on family trips with my two-year-old son and the weight usually doubles. My 3-season backpacking haunts are the San Gabriels, The Santa Anas, the Sierra Nevada, and the Grand Canyon, and winters find me in the Mojave and Colorado deserts.

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