Vertex Ultralight backpacking stove – 1.8 ounces and packs flat

[Dale Wambaugh]

IMHO, the Gear Deals forum is for deal spotting for the regular readership here. If you are going to allow commercial posts at all, why not add a forum for that, with a commercial membership at a rate that provides advertizing revenue for BPL? That would increase product knowledge and access to gear for the BPL readership while helping to support BPL and foster the manufacturing of new ultralight backpacking products. It also gives a no gray area policy: you advertize, you pay.

Bladeforums.com has done this for years, to the tune of $350/year or $100/month for a dealership subscription. See http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/payments.php

[Ryan Smith]

Kevin,

Very neat design. I like it. I think offering it in titanium would help sales since it's the more sexy material. I wonder if the openings at the top would allow too much wind for Esbit's lazy flame? Yes, no?

Also, we all know the rules are only sometimes enforced in Gear Deals so let's go easy. It's very common for cottage guys to post "Hey, my stuff is in stock!" without offering any deal to BPL'ers eventhough that's against the rules.

Ryan

[Link .]

Except it was not originally posted in Gear Deals,Roger moved it.

[Roger Caffin]

> the rules are only sometimes enforced in Gear Deals
Have I had my morning coffee?
Does this ad get up my left nostril?
Is the ad really relevant to BPL readers?
And finally…
Is the guy selling cheap joggers from Asia?

Cheers

[Ryan Smith]

"Except it was not originally posted in Gear Deals,Roger moved it."

Uh oh. It was posted in the wrong forum. Get a pitch fork and the torches! :) We can use them to pry this ad from Roger's nostril too! I had never heard that phrase, Roger. I may borrow it.

Ryan

[Mike Hutten]

Wow this thread went sideways. Mistakes were made, people were reprimanded. It's done.

Kevin, it's a pretty cool looking stove. By the looks of it your campaign is well on its way to being successful. I personally don't use an solid-fuel stove, but the design almost convinced me to give it a shot. I'm in Canada, so the no international shipping hurts a little. But, you have to do what you have to do. Nice work.

[John Hillyer]

+2 on a titanium version. I use a trail designs tri cone (36.8 grams) for a Evernew .9L pot and a gramcracker stove (3 grams). Your stove may have some benefits over my current setup but I happy enough with what I have now that I would not even consider changing if it means incurring a weight penalty.

[Franco Darioli]

Nice,elegant design, well done !
(of course I have no idea how it works but looks right to me…)
" I'm reminded of the Clickstand stove design"

Same here…
I could not remember the Clickstand windscreen so I had a look.
Without the windscreen the Vortex is still lighter than the Clickstand Ti .
As already suggested a dedicated windscreen would be nice …

[Edward Jursek]

Just list it in "gear swap" forum then "bump" your listing a 1000 times.

---

How to get slammed.
Cheers
:-)

[Mark Ries]

Now that the dust is settling from throwing stones… how much weight will it hold before it collapses, like is it stable with three to four cups of water. It is a bit of a wind screen in itself not enough by itself I'm sure but might do better in winds. Neat idea

[Edward Jursek]

Re: Caffin's edit of my last post – I don't envy the moderator's job. Might be worse then being a pro sports referee or umpire and with less pay and less respect. Keep up the good work!

[Dan Yeruski]

Nice choice to have used a "Storm" match to light the esbit. I find esbit difficult to light so new comers should be aware of that. Use storm type matches or jet type butane lighters like Trail Designs use in their video to light esbit.

I personally like stoves that are one piece.

Your design looks like it's going to be a PITA to assemble. Looks like it has to be flat on the ground to stabilize it while joining the ends. In cold weather with gloves on I don't think it's going to happen. Women/men/youth with small hands can be considered non users. If it's not flat on the ground it's going to be a challenge for sure to get the ends inserted and fixed so it doesn't spring apart. All "sales" videos make it look easy….investors beware. I learned that from someone on this site. Everyone watch the video again. Watch carefully and stop it when necessary to "see" what's going on.

Free enterprise is what it's all about :-)

Go for it!!! and Good Luck :-)

[Ian]

Hi Kevin,

Kudos to you for developing a product and having the stones to put it into production.

Looks like the BPL staff updated the forum guidelines yesterday:

Link

"Commercial Postings: Any postings regarding commercial deals or product announcements should be posted in the Gear Deals forum only, and must include a full disclosure of any vested interest the poster may have in the product."

[BER —]

To the OP: congratulations. Looks like a nice stove. I personally like the design and think it looks pretty easy to put together. It doesn't fit my needs, but that doesn't matter. Kudos for taking your idea and running with it! Best of luck!

This whole controversy about disclosure is so full of Bull. I think people should be honest and disclose when they have a vested interest. But I don't see Mr. Caffin disclosing to the newbies that he has a vested interest in producing stoves and tents every time he comments on someone else's. I don't see any of our cottage manufacturers having some identification that they own X company or produce X gear with every post they make. Dan Yeruski, (sorry Dan, like your stoves and all your involvement in stove design here on BPL, but I'm using you as an example because you just posted), provides criticism to the Vertex design but doesn't have to disclose that he produces stoves that fit a similar market niche and could be seen as a competitor.

If BPL wants people to disclose their financial interest in product discussion, they need to be much more consistent about it. Make people have a signature line that say Henry Shires, owner of Tarptent, Dan Yeruski, owner of Zelph Stoves, Tim Marshall, owner of Enlightened Equipment, Roger Caffin, owner of highly over engineered brainiac camping gear (or whatever). If you want transparency, BPL should practice what it preaches rather than jumping on new arrivals.

[Delmar O’Donnell]

> "Commercial Postings: Any postings regarding commercial deals or product announcements should be posted in the Gear Deals forum only, and must include a full disclosure of any vested interest the poster may have in the product."

Question: shouldn't a posting to Gear Deals be a deal, not just an announcement? Maybe I'm different, but I don't read Gear Deals to pay retail on new-to-market gear, of which there are potentially thousands of items each year. I think the statement needs to be qualified that even new gear announcements should offer some reduction in price to BPL'ers if posted in the Deals section. That's the point of the Deals subforum, I thought.

I agree that new product announcements don't really belong (unless they are deals, reductions, introductory lowered price, etc, in which case, absolutely they belong here).

My point being: trying to head off unintended consequences. Don't think we want Gear Deals becoming New Product Announcements.

[BER —]

This whole post did not make sense. Thanks Delmar for correcting me.
Gear
Gear Deals
Gear Swap

Got it now.

[Dustin Short]

+1 the deal aspect. I'm also a big fan of transparency but I get REALLY frustrated when I see "Hey buy my new shiny" and it's at full retail in the deals. I don't buy anything retail if I can help it, much less a new widget that looks promising but has a high potential for not delivering.

If it's a new product and you can't offer a 10% discount, at minimum, don't post it. You're running a business and that means making smart choices on the price and value of a product, figure it out before you mislead a very loyal but very demanding customer base like BPL readers.

[Delmar O’Donnell]

> If the intent is to sell an item from one BPL member to on other using BPL as the platform for the sale, then put it on Gear Deals.

What? No! That's what Gear Swap is for! Gear Swap has no injunction that it must be a "deal." (Although it often is, because it's mostly used gear.)

Gear Deals is for Gear DEALS, generally understood to be new/refurb items (whether big mfg or small cottage) at discount prices.

[BER —]

Whoops. Yes you are correct Delmar. Gear SWAP. Guess I didn't even know we had both Gear Deals and Gear Swap. Will correct my above post. Still think that moving a product discussion to Gear Deals is silly. If it was just an announcement, yes. If it is a discussion on design elements, then why not leave it in Gear?

[Bob Gross]

"I am amazed at some of the comments on here about the stove being to heavy! Nearly died laughing."

Scott, that was no joke. Apparently you didn't understand.

–B.G.–

[Noel Tavan]

Does this stove burn wood?
This stove is designed to burn solid fuel tablets or connect to the Trangia alcohol burner. Wood produces ash and hot coals, both of which can be problematic on bare ground without a protective ground-cloth underneath. In keeping with the "leave no trace" philosophy and minimalist approach of this stove, I decided to just avoid that problem altogether.

Is that a yes or a no? If i use something underneath to collect the ashe and coals, can I use wood? I found it more minimalist to use ready available wood rather than esbit which comes in aluminum and plastic packages.

thanks!

[Dan Yeruski]

Noel, it looks to be too small for wood. It also looks too small for a Trangia alcohol burner.

The stove looks to confining to use a Trangia. Too much radiant heat coming back to the burner would cause over heating. Just saying!!!

The stove looks nice, professionally printed identification on stove and nylon stuff sack.

The stove needs to be on a flat surface to assemble because of the tension that applied for assembly. Looks like that could be a challenge to folks with small hands.

I agree, leave no trace.

[McDowell Crook]

Great to see new ideas and innovation. Best of luck!

[Matt Allen]

thanks for notifying us. Don't let the criticism get you down.

[Dan Yeruski]

Butterfly….It's all constructive :-) I hope everyone gets in on the deal….help him out, not much time left.

[Author]

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