Little Vargo stove

look at emberlite too.

I've ordered one, but it hasn't come in yet. A heads up, if you want the titanium version send a pre order before the price bumps up.
 
The Vargo stove is what started me looking at small wood stoves. After a lot of research and comparison, I also wound up with an Emberlit. I am pleased with my choice. But I am still curious to hear from Vargo owners about the pros and cons of that stove. There are some notable differences in how the two stoves introduce fresh air for combustion, one from the sides and one from the bottom. The Vargo, like the Emberlit, is now available in a stainless version and both are priced comparably. I note that the Vargo is slightly smaller and lighter, but the Emberlit "Mini" is again comparable in weight and size.

Regardless of the brand you choose, I think you will appreciate how handy these mini woodburning stoves are. They are very efficient users of fuel and not much of it. Sooting of pots and the stoves are the main drawbacks, but that is so with any wood fired cooking. I keep a green 3M scrub pad in the case with my stove and it cleans up fairly easily.

ETA: This is the type of review results I ran across on the Vargo:
http://www.idratherbehiking.com/vargo-titanium-hex-wood-stove/
 
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I have never needed a wood burning stove, since I have always been able to have a fire. This past year, however, is making me think I should invest in one. We had a moderate drought most of the summer. Thanks for the info, guys.
 
TheGame said:
I have never needed a wood burning stove, since I have always been able to have a fire. This past year, however, is making me think I should invest in one. We had a moderate drought most of the summer. Thanks for the info, guys.
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It is worth noting that in the event that wood fires are banned altogether, these stoves work well with alcohol burners and various chemical fuels. I've boiled water quickly with my Emberlit using two of the Coghlans/Coleman fire starter sticks. I haven't tried it with Esbit, sterno or trioxane, but there is no reason why they wouldn't work as well. A few of the parks I go to prohibit firewood gathering. Charcoal or bbq grille smoker wood chunks work great. I have used hickory chunks from Walmart to make a very hot, long burning fire in my Emberlit. But with a small fallen limb from the hickory tree in my yard, the diameter of my thumb and as long as my arm, I can bake cornbread or boil water.
 
I was actually wondering how well they would work with alcohol burners. I have several of those I could use if it came down to the wood burning being banned. I don't require much cooking time, usually just enough time to boil some water for noodles, or some hot chocolate in the winter. :thumbup:
 
Codger_64 said:
Sooting of pots and the stoves are the main drawbacks, but that is so with any wood fired cooking.
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Not quite, Codger. I don't like sooting up my pots, so I came up with this.

forCoote.jpg


Less efficient, fuel wise, but helps keep everything cleaner. And, of course, the size and shape of the sleeve is variable.

Doc
 
I have a vargo triad that seems to get ripped on from a review stand point. I do not have the XE version...didnt want it! I dont know why for I find it as an alcohol stove quite good. I have a few can stoves which are nice but are so fragile. Plus you need a pot stand (unless you modify your design and place the holes lower. This thread is ironic for me and my son were testing my vargo tonight. I just bought two new kettles so I want to make windscreens for it. So we ran some boil test. My new windscreen I made out of just simple aluminum foil (wondering why other buy screens). I boiled 16oz (typical water needed for a mountain house meal) in my GSI haulist kettle and 16oz in my Stoic TI 900ml cup/kettle. Outside temp was 62 water temp was 44. GSI kettle took 10 mins. Stoic was 8 mins. The stoic just barely fits on the stand. Total burn time with 1oz of heet was 15-16 mins. Prime was about a minute. Not bad!

As for the wood burners...I bought a swiss volcane stove and jam sticks and crap in it. it has a bottle and a cup all integrated alone with the stove. Unfortunately it is all aluminum and old...so the water taste terrible but I keep this in the car for a complete mess emergency. I like the emberlite a lot!! It is on my list!
 
I have both stoves.


img0296dy.jpg



The Vargo is a little smaller and lighter because I have the SS Emberlit. I prefer the Emberlit because it is easier to feed fuel and I think works better. The Vargo works but you need smaller twigs and the door is a little hard to open/close when in operation. I had the Vargo before the Emberlit became available. If I were buying today I would get the smaller Emberlit in titanium. I think it is the same weight and little cheaper than the Vargo.
 
HornyToad said:
I have both stoves.


img0296dy.jpg



The Vargo is a little smaller and lighter because I have the SS Emberlit. I prefer the Emberlit because it is easier to feed fuel and I think works better. The Vargo works but you need smaller twigs and the door is a little hard to open/close when in operation. I had the Vargo before the Emberlit became available. If I were buying today I would get the smaller Emberlit in titanium. I think it is the same weight and little cheaper than the Vargo.
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Thank you for the side by side pic and opinion\experiences. I fired off an email to Emberlit just before coming on here. Getting advice from this forum sure gets a guy through the swamp quicker. Thanks all.:thumbup:
 
You may be in time to beat the price increase. Mikhale just had new embossing dies made to add strength to the panels, and he is working to get the stoves to select stores. So a price increase is on the horizon. I don't think you'll be disappointed with the Emberlit. Please do come back and give us your own first hand impressions when you have it in hand and try it out.
 
I talked to him about a week ago. The price of the stainless will stay the same for the foreseeable future, or possibly go from 35 to 39, with an included small pot adaptor. Which is actually a dollar less then both of those things would be right now. But if you want titanium, send him an email soon before the price goes up dramatically from 55.
 
Codger_64 said:
You may be in time to beat the price increase. Mikhale just had new embossing dies made to add strength to the panels, and he is working to get the stoves to select stores. So a price increase is on the horizon. I don't think you'll be disappointed with the Emberlit. Please do come back and give us your own first hand impressions when you have it in hand and try it out.
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Yes I would love to use this little stove with the local materials around here, sucks that I'm not in the far north anymore. I will wait until all the feathers are smoothed out with patents etc., as I have read the Facebook posts. My wife likes to snowshoe and considering that I have gained way too much weight, 6'2, 258 lbs, that we have decided that I'll get snowshoes this year also. Try to burn off some of my teletubby. I think that after the Xmas mail system rush I'll grab one or two of these lil boogers. I'm not that concerned about getting the early bird deal actually. No rush on this end.
 
Munky88 said:
I talked to him about a week ago. The price of the stainless will stay the same for the foreseeable future, or possibly go from 35 to 39, with an included small pot adaptor. Which is actually a dollar less then both of those things would be right now. But if you want titanium, send him an email soon before the price goes up dramatically from 55.
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Yes I saw that the Ti stampings may bring the unit cost up to $79 initially. Then unit costs should go down later. I'm fine with the stainless actually. If I find the weight burdensome, I figure that the stainless can go in the trunk and the Ti in a bag. You never know.......... Sure would be fun and handy to have either of them.:thumbup:
 
upnorth said:
Yes I saw that the Ti stampings may bring the unit cost up to $79 initially. Then unit costs should go down later. I'm fine with the stainless actually. If I find the weight burdensome, I figure that the stainless can go in the trunk and the Ti in a bag. You never know.......... Sure would be fun and handy to have either of them.:thumbup:
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I am experimenting in broadening the use of mine by topping it with an oven, packable like the stove itself. Results so far have been encouraging. I never dreamed the Emberlit would put off enough heat to melt sheet aluminum though. I put the oven on too early in the burn and pegged the thermometer at well over 750 degrees. This aluminum alloy melts at around 1100 degrees. 350 was my baking goal. I did get it to balance and maintain though and cooked several good items. Who wouldn't like cornbread, pizza and baked potatos, corn on the cob and fish on a campout?
 
HornyToad said:
I have both stoves.

The Vargo is a little smaller and lighter because I have the SS Emberlit. I prefer the Emberlit because it is easier to feed fuel and I think works better. The Vargo works but you need smaller twigs and the door is a little hard to open/close when in operation. I had the Vargo before the Emberlit became available. If I were buying today I would get the smaller Emberlit in titanium. I think it is the same weight and little cheaper than the Vargo.
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Like HornyToad, I have both as well; actually I have the SS and Titanium versions of the Emberlit along with the Vargo. I really like the design of the Vargo, but the Emberlit works better. Another important factor is that Vargo has holes in the bottom and burning coals/ash will fall out and burn the ground; not so with the Emberlit. The Embrlit is easier to feed and hold a little more fuel and the "cross slats" make it more functional when placing different containers on top. The Vargo is in back up. The Titanium Emberlit is really an awesome little stove for it's purpose. As mentioned, the larger Trangia Alcohol stove works very well in the Emberlit where it's just too big for the Vargo stove.

ROCK6
 
Codger_64 said:
I am experimenting in broadening the use of mine by topping it with an oven, packable like the stove itself. Results so far have been encouraging. I never dreamed the Emberlit would put off enough heat to melt sheet aluminum though. I put the oven on too early in the burn and pegged the thermometer at well over 750 degrees. This aluminum alloy melts at around 1100 degrees. 350 was my baking goal. I did get it to balance and maintain though and cooked several good items. Who wouldn't like cornbread, pizza and baked potatos, corn on the cob and fish on a campout?
Click to expand...

Jumpin jeehosiphat that little thing kicks out the heat ! This is quite facinating to me and the idea of making a finer meal than boiled noodles is quite intriguing.:thumbup: It will be interesting to me to see how these stoves perform at -20 or worse.
 
ROCK6 said:
Like HornyToad, I have both as well; actually I have the SS and Titanium versions of the Emberlit along with the Vargo. I really like the design of the Vargo, but the Emberlit works better. Another important factor is that Vargo has holes in the bottom and burning coals/ash will fall out and burn the ground; not so with the Emberlit. The Embrlit is easier to feed and hold a little more fuel and the "cross slats" make it more functional when placing different containers on top. The Vargo is in back up. The Titanium Emberlit is really an awesome little stove for it's purpose. As mentioned, the larger Trangia Alcohol stove works very well in the Emberlit where it's just too big for the Vargo stove.

ROCK6
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I came within a hair of snatching up a Vargo until I saw posts in this thread. Also while doing some Google fu it hit me that the bottom air vent holes were 1. A possible fire hazard. 2. A likely PITA, related to one. 3. That side venting would allow better air flow. So yes, I see attributes in the Vargo. But as you said, the Emberlit appers to be the better design. I'm going Emberlit when everything settles down. I actually prefer to wait until there is snow on the ground here before using it anyway, one less fire hassle.
 
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