The purpose of the present paper is to determine experimentally the axial limitations of various types of copper heat pipes operating at vertical inclination. For a vertical position, it appears, from our experimental study that the wick structure used over the evaporator does not affect the axial power limit. This power varies very little between this position at the 45° inclination to it. Moreover, after a drying out the evaporator, the heat pipe, which is in vertical position and gravity assisted, re-starts in operation