Vargo Titanium Triad XE Stove Burn Times...

[The Big Lebowski]

Just bought above stove with a Ti cookset and filling it to the brim (appx 1.75floz) with pure (99.9%) ethanol i'm getting 6.38 mins?

Is using ethanol the problem, or is the run time terrible?

It quotes 15 mins on the site, some people are reporting 20+

Grateful for any advice, al

 

[sapper1]

Did you use a wind shield?This can seriously affect burn times.I have seen reviews where 6.38 minutes is very good.I decided against one of these stoves for that reason,they are light and compact but don't really burn for long enough to heat a useful amount of water.Most companies figures are taken under laboratory conditions to show the best they can do,I've yet to find a stove that lives up to manufacturers claims once you take them into the real world.

 

[Andy T]

get a budweiser stove............free and easy to make on 1.75 fluid ounces you could expect a burn time of around 8 minutes or so

 

[The Big Lebowski]

Well, i just tried boiling 600mls of water in a 700Ti pot/mug and had flame-out before any type of rolling boil.

The windshield was off a swedish trangia both times, so more than up for the job, wanted to time how long the liquid boiled the second time, but didnt make it that far!.... the wind is no more than 2-3mph cross, and the water was tap warm.

Pretty poor effort me thinks, i dont want stupid run times, just enough heat to bring an average amount of water to boil.

Its a rather expensive tea's maid otherwise.

TBL.

 

[Andy T]

a bud stove will get a pint of water to a rolling boil on one fluid ounce of meths in around 4-30 - 5 minutes with a windshield

 

[JonathanD]

a bud stove will get a pint of water to a rolling boil on one fluid ounce of meths in around 4-30 - 5 minutes with a windshield

Yeah, been testing mine that Andy gave me and it is a wicked little burner

 

[The Big Lebowski]

I'll give the company i bought if from a ring in the morning... i know its not really their fault, but maybe something can be sorted out.

Problem is, you cant get back in to fill it up again for several mins, i could live with an open top design but bought this specifically because of video's i'd watched, the flame pattern looked effective, but, maybe not due to the run times.

600mls of boiling water, i actually would be a happy chappy!

TBL.

 

[spiritwalker]

got an older model and have to say its crap i couldnt get a rolling boil with it either ill be fleabaying mine its ok if you put a hexi block in it but expensive way to get a hexi stove lol

 

[tombear]

Just out of interest but the mug /pot did have a lid?

ATB

Tom

 

[The Big Lebowski]

Yeah, my mistake tom... i was just reading i forgot to add that.

Its all new kit, 700ml pot/mug, lid, Triad, and a windshield borrowed off another cookset.

I've sent the shop an e-mail to see if i can do an exchange, it also takes a fair bit of ethanol to prime, and a few attempts.

Somethings eather not right, or its just a bad design.

TBL.

 

[tombear]

I thought you must be using one but thought I'd check before opening my gob and saying what a swizz!

Have you tried decreasing the amount of water to see how much (or rather little) it will bring to the boil on a full fill of fuel?

I hope you get some satisfaction from them!

ATB

Tom

 

[The Big Lebowski]

Thanks Tom... Its a funny old scenario as i had a mail form the shop saying 6.30 is about right, and... 600mls is maybe a little too much to boil in one go. but they happily offered to replace the stove for another version so i cant fault them for that. they have been very good through-out tbh.

I've gone for the vango decagon, as it was the only other meths stove they stock... but its supposed to be better by reviews of actual users and can be filled easier if need be.

I watched a you-tube video today of someone melting (to a rolling boil ) a pint of all be-it frozen water
on a whitebox stove in 14 mins...
If the new stove boils 600ml of water, i'm happy... if not i'll have to accept the limitations for now and scale the liquid volume down.

I'll probably go for a whitebox stove at some stage anyway's as the sheer burn time would make it an ideal base camp stove for multiple meals where no camp fires are allowed, or a bit of sneaky camping.

I'll update the post when the new stove arrives!

regards, TBL.

 

[tombear]

Inspired by this thread I dug out my Vargo Triad and did seven burns with it.

I couldn't get it to boil 600ml at first but after playing with it I found that I got best results when I only put 15ml of meths in it (full it took 20) and didn't over prime it.

At first i was sticking a whopping 2ML of meths on a folded bit of tin foil under it and priming it up too much so i lost a lot of fuel with the burner flaring up at the start but when I started priming it by burning less than 1/2 a ml under it and even then pulling that away as soon as the main fuel caught light there was no flaring at all and I was getting a decent boil time of 7 or 8 minutes for 400ML and the burner flaring out at between 10 and 12 minutes.

http://www.vargooutdoors.com/Titanium-Triad-Alcohol-Backpacking-Stove

shows him priming it by overfilling the tank and lighting the pool in the middle but I got flaring when I tried that.

OK its a difererent stove but similar in meny ways.

As a comparison I stuck 20ml of meths in my Evernew burner, in a clickstand and that boiled 400ML in about half the time , 4 mins 15 seconds, with no priming and finally flared out at 8 minutes plus so would have easily brought 600ml to a rolling boil. Guess which I will be using! I'm consistantly getting better times with that than with a Trangia or one of those stainless steel clones. Shame about the stupid price

I quite fancy a whitebox
http://www.whiteboxstoves.com/
myself but a bit worried about the stability

ATB

Tom

 

[The Big Lebowski]

Interesting reading tom, and cheers for the detailed reply

The stove i had was the newer generation meths/solid fuel version with a removable 'puck' as they call it in the centre.... you prime the stove by pouring some alchohol down the side of the filled and sealed puck,
which in turn heats up the metal and vaporises the achohol contained in it. This seemed generally a clumsy affair, taking sometimes 2-3 attempts and a fair amount of fuel to get the priming going!

You could not place the pot onto the stand before flowering, as it would extinguish the stove, basically the squirt of fuel would run out before the vapor expanded and caught.

I should have the other stove in the next day or two, which is suppoed to burn hotter than the triad, but not quite as effective as the whitebox, or thats how the company compared the outputs anyways!

Fingers crossed it does the job, i understand these are little stoves designed for ultra light cooking, but performance seems to go from terrible to outstanding, hopefully i've found the middle...

We'll see.

Regards, TBL.

 

[eel28]

Problem is, you cant get back in to fill it up again for several mins,

not a problem, but a requirement for all meths stoves if you value your fingers that is! NEVER refill a hot meths burner, ALWAYS wait until it is cool enough to handle. the heat alone from a burner COULD ignite the fumes from the fresh meths as you pour it in!

 

[bikething]

not a problem, but a requirement for all meths stoves if you value your fingers that is! NEVER refill a hot meths burner, ALWAYS wait until it is cool enough to handle. the heat alone from a burner COULD ignite the fumes from the fresh meths as you pour it in!

the PROBLEM is that while you're waiting for the stove to cool.. your food/brew is cooling also...

the burner on the XE has a push fit lid which is a tight fit to start with and gets tighter as the burner heats up, So you can't get the lid off to refill it while it's hot (and sometimes it's a struggle when it's cold! ).

that's why I only use the base as a hexi cooker now

 

[zarkwon]

the PROBLEM is that while you're waiting for the stove to cool.. your food/brew is cooling also...

Not too much in one of these.... http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63655

 

[bikething]

Not too much in one of these.... http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63655

I've played with pot-cosies (sp?) .. it helps if you can get the food hot to start with, before you put the cosy on

 

[spiritwalker]

same conclusion then really its useless apart from a light weight hexi burner shame really as it promised to look good

the PROBLEM is that while you're waiting for the stove to cool.. your food/brew is cooling also...

the burner on the XE has a push fit lid which is a tight fit to start with and gets tighter as the burner heats up, So you can't get the lid off to refill it while it's hot (and sometimes it's a struggle when it's cold! ).

that's why I only use the base as a hexi cooker now

 

[bikething]

same conclusion then really its useless apart from a light weight hexi burner shame really as it promised to look good

Pretty much. I was going to try making a very short minibull stove to replace the 'puck' but haven't got round to it yet