Cascade Designs looks to re-launch innovative CFV stove

After a few fits and starts, Cascade Designs Inc. and Vapore Inc. (www.vapore.com) have reached an agreement giving Cascade the exclusive rights to manufacture the Capillary Force Vaporizer for portable stoves. CFV technology enables a stove to operate with the performance of liquid fuel and the convenience of canister fuel, providing high heat output without pressurization.  

Under the agreement, Cascade will immediately set up a CFV manufacturing line at its facilities in Seattle, Wash.  

During the past last 11 months, Cascade and Vapore have worked together to build and field test CFV stoves under funding provided by the Department of Defense Combat Feeding Directorate’s Equipment and Energy Technology Team at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass.  

Cascade Designs plans to re-introduce the stove to the commercial market in 2006 after fulfilling its commitments to the Army. To read what the military thinks about the stove, click here.

SNEWS® View: When Cascade announced the new CFV technology last year at this time, the stoves quickly became the talk of the show with retailers placing strong orders. Trouble was, while Vapore had no problem manufacturing the ceramic disks in small quantities for production samples and such, it didn’t have the necessary production wherewithal to ramp up and generate quantities in sufficient numbers to fill even small order runs, catching Cascade completely by surprise. That required Cascade to perform a sudden about-face and quick time it back to the drawing board. Now, thanks in large part to the partnership with the military, Cascade (read MSR) will finally be able to produce a ceramic disk no larger than an antacid tablet that promises to offer stove ignition convenience similar to a canister stove, without the cold-weather or altitude drawbacks of a non-pressurized or canister stove.