Tripod Torch

You get no complaints from me; that would definitely be the pot calling the kettle. Anything to save us from replicating the Mr Heater Trouble-Shooting Saga.

If wood fires are going to be passe, increasingly impractical or impossible, I'm wondering if some sort of holographic / AI solution to evening campfires is in our future.

 

The solostove really does check most of those boxes. If you want to burn logs, you can, then of course you can add the pellet insert, which is nothing more than something to let a little more air get into the pellets...

I'm the designated person in my group—if the smoke is going to blow, it's going to blow to me. The Solostove is 95% smoke-free—and often higher than that. I'll get a little when its just starting, but after its rolling the re-burn (burns the smoke) is nearly 100%. When I use it for wood or pellets, I don't smell like a chimney. It's the best solution I've found so far except its big and you still have to have fuel.

The propane fake fires are all pretty equal, methinks. A gallon of propane is going to produce a maximum of 91,452 BTUs. The "campfire in a can" or the "torch" is going to be in that same range (assuming 100% of the propane burns) The mock-logs may have a little radiant heat, this is probably what will be most missing from the Torch.

I need to grab a full propane bottle and a scale and dedicate 60 minutes to this!

The one big downside of all the gas fires --- is they hiss. And the torch is no different there.

Its also a minor thing, but the torch edges are SHARP. They need to run an emery cloth to the edges of all the parts. I cut myself fairly badly (not needing stitches) on the edges of the legs. Hope they've fixed that by now.

 

Yeah, I looked for the burn rate on the Tripod Torch website, but didn't really find a BTU rating for it, but they did claim a 10-15 hr burn on what they called a 5 gallon (20lb) LP tank, so it will be interesting to see what your observation is.

I liked the low smoke aspect of the Solostove, and similar stoves, but what gave me second thoughts when I was considering adding one of them to our camp equipment are as you mentioned, the packing size, the need for either poor quality campground approved firewood, or carrying bags of pellets along with you, the wait for the burn down once fueled and fired up, and the clean up after use, all issues that the propane fire pit seemed to answer to a certain level.

I really didn't notice a hiss sound, at least not like you would hear with a propane torch, when mine was running, mainly the sound of the lapping flames themselves, but I'll admit not really being tuned in to listen for that either. The size is fairly compact with the legs folded under ( about 7" tall, and 17" around ), so not too hard to pack up with.

These are just my observations up until now, but since I haven't really used it in the field yet, a true review would be premature at this point, but I'm optimistic that it will fit our needs.....but then as they say, different strokes for different folks, and YMMV, so take from it what you will at this point, and I'll try to update both the pro's and the con's of it that we find as we get a chance to use it little more.

 

"I can't let you do that, Dave..."