What "Color" is Your Caldera (Cone)?

“The Caldera Cone is a proven and effective ultralight alcohol stove system -- but there are a lot of options.

Today, I thought I'd take a look at a couple of different versions of the Caldera Cone system.


If you're interested in alcohol stoves, perhaps this brief look can help you decide What Color is your Caldera?
(with apologies to What Color is Your Parachute?) :)

HJ”

“Mine's the color of invisible.....”

“That must make it really ultra light. ;)

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

“Yeah but I can never find it...”

“lol. Talk about "stealth" camping.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

“Post some info on this site.”

““Post some info on this site.”
Stovie

This time I will back Jim...he did at first and you guys pounded him.”

“I bought my daughter one of these for Christmas. The .9 liter short Evernew nonstick, very nice! I found a used one in excellent condition for a good price.
Are there different burners? Have you experimented with a trianga or any other stove to improve efficiency or simmer?”

“HJ, I wondered if I jumped the gun when Alameda Frank emailed me last July about the REI clearance .9L pot and an add'l discount if I signed up for their Gear Mail. I believe it is a good size and only a tad heavier than a few smaller sizes if those can be had to use with the Caldera Cone. I can also fix ramen in the pot and have room to avoid spillage, which keeps all my cooking stuff clean. Nice in bear country. I want to get a wood fired pot next, I'll wait for the dust to settle on all the brands coming out.
Duane”

“How about the Kelly Kettle? www.kellykettle.com”

“Those are heavy Gremlin. Over on Backpacking Light, there are a few topics on these types of stoves and plain of sorts wood burning stoves. The most anticipated is the Backcountry Boiler. Lighter than the KK, very similar though. They talk about them and not to let them run dry if cooking on them.
Duane”

““I bought my daughter one of these for Christmas. The .9 liter short Evernew nonstick, very nice! I found a used one in excellent condition for a good price.
Are there different burners? Have you experimented with a trianga or any other stove to improve efficiency or simmer?”

Good job if you found a good used one. I think they're a little pricey, but then again they are a good system.

You can use any burner you want, but I have tried dozens of burners in a Caldera Cone. By far, the best (efficient, clean) burner is the one that came with the set up, the 12-10 burner. You're dealing with a low air-flow, high heat system. You need a little different burner than for other systems. I don't think it will be easy to find something more efficient.

Now, for simmering, that's a different matter. I'm working on that subject and should have a blog post in a few weeks. For now, I've seen people rig up a simmer ring for the Kitten Stove and use that (you should be able to Google the Kitten Stove).

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

““HJ, I wondered if I jumped the gun when Alameda Frank emailed me last July about the REI clearance .9L pot and an add'l discount if I signed up for their Gear Mail. I believe it is a good size and only a tad heavier than a few smaller sizes if those can be had to use with the Caldera Cone. I can also fix ramen in the pot and have room to avoid spillage, which keeps all my cooking stuff clean. Nice in bear country. I want to get a wood fired pot next, I'll wait for the dust to settle on all the brands coming out.”

Duane,

I think the 0.9L pot is a good choice. I certainly prefer my 850ml pot over my 550ml pot. I like the flexibility to boil up a little more than just 2 cups at a time. Nice if you've got a friend along or are making something more water intensive at the same time you want a hot beverage.

The 550ml size is for someone who want to be an uber minimalist. It definitely boils over. I can't get it to NOT boil over if I put two cups in it.

Can't comment yet on wood stoves even though I'm very interested in them.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

““How about the Kelly Kettle? www.kellykettle.com”

They're pretty cool, but they're pretty heavy for backpacking.

They're also really a different class of stove. The Caldera Cones I've been showing will work with alcohol or ESBIT, but the ones I've been showing will NOT work with wood. The ones I've been showing are aluminum and will melt. You need to get the titanium version for use with wood.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

“Like this? http://www.packafeather.com/stove.html”

“I've had my eye on one of those Packafeather stoves for a while. They look really nice. They look like they've got all the right features in all the right places for a good alcohol stove. Definitely looks like they've got what it takes in the simmering department.

The only down side I've heard about them is that the pot supports are supposed to be fairly easy to bend.

I've got a Packafeather cap on my main alcohol bottle, and it's a really good piece of gear.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

““Post some info on this site.”

Oh, come on, Stovie. Doesn't a hike recommendation and photos from a recent hike count? By the way, there's a photo of a very attractive female on that last thread.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

“That Packafeather does look nice and you could remove the pot supports in favor of the cone..
I may have to try one.”

“From what I can tell, it is a Chimney design, which would work well inside a Cone. A lot of my DIY stoves work fine in a normal rig but don't do so well in the low oxygen environment of a cone. The Featherfire should do well.

We're moving at the end of the month, so I'm desperately trying not to buy more stoves right now. :)

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

“Ah, the American dream. That will be great HJ.
Is your stove collection one less yet that has to be moved? :)
Duane”

“He's a stove hoarder.... Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Actually HJ I'm honestly impressed with your fascination with the subject. You really know your stuff.”

“HJ must have more than me, but WAY less than Doc Mark.
Duane”

“Stratd00d, I'm a light weight. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff these guys have.

Duane here is holding out on you. He has some [i]sweet[i] stuff including, get this, the original model of stove that MSR produced in 1973. He's got stuff that makes me salivate.

I may have numerical superiority, but Duane has a very high quality collection.

Our friend Mark may have as many as 1,000 stoves. There's a guy who's shoe laces I can't even untie.

I'm pretty good with the science end of things, and I have fun tinkering and fiddling. Apparently somebody likes my blog. I've been getting about 800 hits a day the last couple of days and will finish the year with about 70,000 hits. I think I'm just filling a void. Nobody is posting stoves in detail the way I'm trying to do. Just takes a freaking lot of time though. It's like having a second job.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving”

“Thanks HJ. I think my stoves are cheaper than your little girl will be. :)
Duane”

“lol.

I have updated my post so that it now includes a table of weights (in both grams and ounces) for both set ups.

Have a look: What "Color" is your Caldera?

I think your Evernew version is fine. There isn't that much of a weight penalty.

HJ”

“So we finally got to try out cooking on the caldera cone my girl got for Christmas. I was really disappointed in the nonstick aspect of the evernew titanium pot. I tried to make pancakes and cornbread in the pot to no avail. Used olive oil, Bacon/sausage grease...still would stick in the center. Even holding the pan and heating just the edges it would burn the centers..

The cone I love tho... We were eating leftover dehydrated stuff I had, chicken, beef and beans and rice on tortillas. I rehydrated the chicken rice mix with some cold water while we hiked. We put the mix in a titanium coffee cup sitting in water in the cone's pot. Lit it off and let it go...used the steam to heat the tortillas while the mix heated inside. Really worked nicely! Efficient on fuel too and didn't burn the chicken and rice mix at all. We did have to drain some water out of the mix, covering the coffee cup may be a good idea but really I think it aided in rehydration.”

“Oh, shoot. I wish I had posted a copy of my recent "Cooking Report" earlier. I post a lot, and I don't always get a chance to post a link to everything that I write. Sorry about that.

The great thing about Ti is that it's really strong. So, with Ti you can make the pot really thin. Now, you've got a strong, lightweight pot. Great for carrying, poor for cooking. :(


Thin pots are good for one thing (in my opinion): boiling water. Real cooking requires real cookware (which is what I conclude in the above linked blog post).

So, the Cone is fabulous for ultralight stuff where you're doing boil in the bag meals, rehydration, and simple cooking.

Pancakes and cornbread might not work so well. :(

Now, there are ways to reduce the heat in an alcohol stove which will allow for improved (improved, not perfect) cooking. I'm working on some stuff right now, but I'm not ready to post anything on the blog yet. I need to do some more tesing.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving
”

“I even tried cooking the pancakes over a cannister stove holding the pot the whole time just heating the edges...still failed. Why bother make a nonstick pot? My advice would be don't waste your money on any titanium non stick, it's all hype.


The one egg wonder is my go to backpacking frying pan because it is thick and as a bonus, cheap. Easy to turn out perfect pancakes and cornbread without using too much fuel, but still you'll lose some efficiency over boiling water.
To me, quick breads are a perfect match for dehydrated meals. Makes them seem more like a meal and fills you up. YMMV.”

“don't waste your money on any titanium non stick, it's all hype. That... is really good advice.

Personally, I think selling non-stick Ti cookware is only one step away from an outright scam. If you want to cook, you need something that will diffuse and distribute the heat better, something like, say aluminum.

The one thing I haven't experimented a lot with yet is a heat diffuser. The old MSR stoves in the 70's came with the lid from a can, the type of can you'd get fruit or beans in. You put that over the flame when cooking something more "sensitive" and it would diffuse things. Not the most efficient, but while crude, effective.

That's the only thing I can think of that would help with Ti. Haven't played with it yet.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving
”

“Get one of these for scorch free cooking.

http://www.backpackerspantry.com/InventoryD.asp?loc=100&item_no=167204&category=test&subcategory=”

“I carry a simple nonstick pan that goes over my old aluminum pot as a lid and fries up whatever need frying. It's a bit of a weight penalty but I like fried fish. The alternative is to bring my purcell trench backpacking grill when fires are a possibility and do those babies up flambe style.”

“Jim, I just checked out your site. I found some interesting articles to read. keep it up”

“Thanks.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving
last edited: 1/13/12 7:47:53 PM”

“Hey, Sticks,

I've seen those Scorch Busters before in the store. How much do they weigh?

HJ
Adventures In Stoving”

“HA! You are definitely asking the wrong person for that because I am not a gram weenie. I have not weighed any gear EVER! If I were to guess
I use a left right balance scale. LMAO”