Caldera UL Compact – Complete Lineup

[Rand Lindsly]

All:

Trail Designs has just posted the complete lineup of the all the pots supported by the Caldera UL Compact. Thanks go to Ron Bell at MLD for being the early adopter of this system!

Take a look at our web page here:

http://traildesigns.com/caldera-ulc.html

The UL Compact is designed to be a lower cost, entry level product that provides most of the performance and stability of the Caldera Cone, with the added attraction that it will fit in your mug/pot.

Due to the design restrictions, this product will only work for the taller/skinnier pots and requires two titanium (or stainless) tent stakes. One advantage is that one cone can work over a number of different pots since the tight tolerances required to suspend the pot by its lip are removed.

If there are any questions, please don't hesitate to ask….

Rand :-)

[Dean F.]

What about the Vargo 750mL Ti-Lite mug? It isn't on your list. Since it is sized to fit a Nalgene bottle inside- just like the MLD 850mL pot- I would have assumed that it would work. Are the handles placed too low? Or is it not deep enough to hold the cone, or something?

And, while I'm here, do you make the UL Compact in Titanium? Or would it be a Bad Idea to burn wood in such a low cone?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

n/m

[Rand Lindsly]

Dean:

Well…..as it turns out….you are about the 5th person to ask about this size range…..so we are quickly pulling together another version. In case you didn't know, the Vargo Ti-Lite, the Snow Peak 700, and the original Alpkit My-Ti-Mug are all dimensionally identical for the purposes of fitting into a cone. So, we're getting one together for this size range and hope to have it up on the website next week. Let me know if you need something shuttled along sooner.

As to wood burning/titanium, we are still mulling that over. The main decisions with that are around the opening that would have to be cut out somewhere to allow wood to be fed in. With traditional Calderas, the handle cutout is naturally there and is easily modified for the Ti-Tri to facilitate wood feeding. With the UL Compact, the pot sits higher, so there was not originally a need for the handle cutout….so we didn't even go there. With questions like yours…..as usually happens….the BPL community usually drags us where we need to be.

Rand :-)

[Jeff Antig]

Rand,

Myself and many others have been waiting ages for an economically friendly version of the Ti-Tri. This may be your chance. With the UL Compact, you may be able to establish this ;)

[Willem Jongman]

Now that you are at it, designing new variants…. As a cycle tourist who likes to have a lighter load I have obviously been interested in the Caldera Cone. Touring by bike has its own problems, and one of them is finding fuel on longer trips. In practice alcohol is often the easiest fuel to find. Shopping for food is also different from long weekend backpacking from home, in the sense that you can often easily restock on fresh food. Indeed, you want to cook real meals, but on an ultralight stove. The snag is that most ultralight stoves are fine for boiling water, but lousy at simmering and frying (the Trangia is the exception but it is obviously very heavy).
The ideal stove would accommodate a sizable frying pan (15 cm or preferably more). In terms of the Cone, this means a cone with a large top diameter, and a pot plus frying pan/lid set with the same large diameter. The pot would thus need to be a rather shallow one. As a material, I think hard anodized aluminium is probably preferable. The new Trangia ultralight pans show this does not need to be any heavier than titanium. It is certainly a lot better for slowly poaching fish or frying chicken.

[Dean F.]

Cutting a hole to feed wood into a Ti-Tri that otherwise didn't need the hole to accommodate handles is… esthetically unpleasing to me. The cutout HAS to weaken the integrity of the cone, somewhat. Given that the UL Compact needn't fit a given pot as tightly as other cones, couldn't you just lift the pot off and toss a handful of twigs on? (With a regular cone, often the cone gets lifted with the pot.)

Oh, and, don't let me push you into any more work. I'm seriously considering the MLD 850mL pot, anyway. It's lighter. :o) I'm thinking that pot with a titanium UL cone might be the Perfect Stove System.

[BlackHatGuy]

Hey Rand,

Does this mean that you shouldn't burn wood in the UL Compact?

And if that answer is 'no, it's fine to burn wood in the compact', then would you use the separate wood insert in the compact?

Thanks,

Doug

[Dean F.]

The basic UL Compact is aluminum. My understanding is that you cannot burn wood in any of the aluminum cones. They will melt or otherwise degrade. That's the whole reason he developed the titanium cones, and why I'm wondering if he can make the UL Compact in titanium, too.

edited for grammar

[BlackHatGuy]

Got it. Thanks Dean.

[Rand Lindsly]

All:

Thanks for keeping the conversation lively! :-)

1) As noted….none of the aluminum cones should have high heat applied to them…..like wood fires. This includes the UL Compact, Caldera Kegs, and Caldera Cones. The Ti-Tri is the only one designed to hold up to high heat for the moment.

2) First order of business is to flesh out the UL Compact line as best we can. Initially, that means getting the 700ml class pots supported. We've taken a crack at a design and hope to have it up on the websites next week.

3) Second order of business…..while not directly related to this thread….does have an impact. As most of you know, we have kinda leaked out the Caldera Inferno to a few of you via word-of-mouth. What this means is it is not on the website, doesn't have printed instructions, material planning, etc etc etc. Well….the word of mouth has begun to turn into more of a loud holler and we need to get on top of this. So, before we tackle a UL Compact Ti-Tri, we will probably need to tidy up this little corner of our world.

4) Thanks for all the idea to just do a wood feed by removing the pot….good one. Again, not really going to do the deep dive into that space yet….but keep the ideas coming.

5)Willem…..thanks for laying out your needs. Not 100% sure how your request is different that what the Caldera already does. We have people with pots that have frying pan lids out there cooking real food right now. Here are a couple pictures. Let me know how this differs from what you are thinking….apart from the fact that the pans are not aluminum…..

[Dean F.]

Well, Rand, I did just order the MLD 850mL pot and aluminum UL Compact cone. But I am still INTENSELY interested in a titanium UL Compact cone. Sigh. I suppose I can wait for you to get you house in order, per se, regarding the Inferno.

But once my gear catches up to me (it is being shipped from Europe) I'll probably order a UL Compact for the Ti-Lite, too, if you have produced one by then. I'm thinking that setup will make a decent Christmas present for a buddy of mine who is starting to consider UL.

[Rand Lindsly]

Dean/All:

Thanks for the continued interest and pressing us into new designs! As promised, we just manufactured and posted the Caldera UL Compact for the Snow Peak 700, Vargo Ti-Lite, and the old Alpkit MyTiMug (all pots dimensionally similar). They can be found at:
http://traildesigns.com/caldera-ulc.html

Thanks again…..now to see if I can unravel this Inferno excitement!

Rand :-)

[Juston Taul]

Rand,

I'm just now learning about this product. I was going to order the Caldera UL Compact from MLD… but now i've seen rumors about a Ti version. Having the ability to use wood to cook food greatly interests me. This would be my first alcohol stove so I want to make sure I get what I need before I make the purchase. What should I know? Thanks!

Juston

[Rand Lindsly]

Juston:

Sounds like you are getting a pretty good lesson on your other thread "School me…". As far as the ULC in titanium, we have a couple early-visibility units in the field, but haven't really pulled it together as a full on product yet. Good chance we'll productize that soon. If you have any specific questions feel free to email me at rand AT traildesigns DOT com.

Rand :-)

[Dean F.]

For those of you who remain unaware- as was I until recently- the Perfect Stove System is a reality! Rand and the other wizards at the TD skunkworks are now marketing titanium versions of the UL Compact. It is listed on the website as the Caldera ULD Tri-Ti and they will even add one of those Inferno inserts Rand mentioned for higher wood burning efficiency if you like. About $120 for a complete kit including firepan and Infero, though you can forgo either of those to just get the cone, stove, and accessories for $70. Needless to say, mine is on order…

Seriously, though, I'm discovering that my (new) MLD 850mL pot is about the perfect size- enough to boil water for a meal and still have enough left over for a decent cuppa, all in one go. Or, alternatively, it can cook two meals for a pair of hikers. With the UL Compact being stored inside the pot one avoids the occasional frustrations of trying to pack the full-sized (but more efficient) Caldera Cone, and the multi-fuel option is a winner. Alcohol, Esbit, or wood for under three ounces. What more can you want from a stove? (Not to mention that alcohol stoves are simply more FUN to fiddle with and more esthetically pleasing than those soul-less pressurized gas stoves.)

So, IMHO the 850mL ULC Tri-Ti with inferno just may be the Perfect Stove System (PSS).

I retain my 1.3L Evernew Tri-Ti for group outings.

[Chris Morgan]

Anyone know what happened to this?

Did it die because of efficiency?

[. .]

The Ti-tri ULC is still there: http://traildesigns.com/caldera-tt-ulc.html

I have the MLD-850 ti setup and find it reasonably efficient with alcohol (~15ml Al. per 250ml boil – from memory?).

[Paul Davis]

I'm looking for the compact AL one, too. Any ideas?

[Rand Lindsly]

The Aluminum ULC did go away…..sorry. The issue was that the exhaust gasses didn't cool off enough before they escaped through the top vents, and caused a few cases in the field where the vents "disfigured" due to the heat. Titanium stands up to the heat much better.

Rand :-)

[JJ Mathes]

Paul- what size are you looking for?

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