Introduction
The Trail Designs “12-10” and Kojin, and the Zelph Starlyte and Starlyte “Mod” are four lightweight alcohol stoves of interest to our community. They are simple, lightweight, durable, low-cost, and functional designs.
With each of them weighing around 16 g (0.5 oz), the factors to consider in evaluating their performance include fuel consumption and boil time in a variety of environmental conditions. This review investigates and compares the performance of each stove.
Features and Specs
The following table presents a comparison of each stove model (scroll right to see all data if needed).
| Fuel Capacity | Batting? | Primer Pan? | Diameter | Height | Weight (claimed) | Weight (actual) | MSRP (USD) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trail Designs 12-10 | ~ 1 oz | no | yes | 3.25 in | 1.5 in | 16 g | 15.0 g | $11.95 |
| Trail Designs Kojin | ~ 1 oz | yes | no | 2.5 in | 0.8 in | 17 g | 16.1 g | $11.95 |
| Zelph Starlyte | ~ 1 oz | yes | no | 2.875 in | 1.25 in | 16.4 g* | 16.1 g | $12.00 |
| Zelph Starlyte Mod | ~ 1 oz | yes | no | 2.875 in | 1.25 in | n/a | 16.4 g | $13.00 |
* Manufacturer’s claimed weight includes a pot support, which isn’t needed for Caldera Cone use. Actual measured weight is reported for the stove without this pot support.
Batting
Three of the models contain fibrous material in the fuel chamber (“batting”). Some alcohol stove enthusiasts and manufacturers will also call this batting a “wick.” The purpose of this batting is:
- To reduce spillage of fuel in case the stove is knocked over, or during transport, if used in conjunction with a tight-fitting lid;
- To retain unburned fuel in a stove during storage/transport on a trip (requires a lid);
- To improve stove “performance” (by changing the fuel burn rate and temperature by regulating vaporization).
Caldera Cone
For comparison purposes, a Trail Designs Caldera Cone (Sidewinder Model) was used for all stove tests in this review. The Caldera Cone is designed to work as an integrated system with an alcohol stove and cooking pot. Caldera Cones are custom built to work with a particular model of cooking pot. For this review, a K-Mart (Stanco) Grease Pot was used in all tests.
Trail Designs 12-10
- Made of “upcycled” aluminum (repurposed soda cans);
- What’s unique: a simple, one-piece design.
Trail Designs Kojin
- Made using a lightweight aluminum screw-top container;
- What’s unique: A screw-top lid combined with interior batting; low height and small diameter make for a compact package.
Zelph Starlyte
- Made using an aluminum container, plastic press-fit lid included;
- What’s unique: lid is made of plastic and fits very snug to secure any fuel left in the stove.
Zelph Starlyte Mod
- Made using an aluminum container, plastic press-fit lid included;
- What’s unique: reduced burner surface area (relative to the unmodified Starlyte) to slow burn rate for better performance in cone-style systems.
Review Context
I began intentionally practicing ultralight backpacking only in the last two years; my body is less inclined to haul big loads over long miles or steep climbs. Over the past several months, I’ve been researching lighter cook kit options to replace my one-pound cook kit with something lighter and a bit more compact.
Last fall, I started researching and learning about alcohol stoves. I collected a bunch of cat food cans and made some with our Boy Scout troop. It was fun, easy, inexpensive and didn’t take a lot of time to make. However, I felt like after years of enthusiasts using and making stoves for ultralight cooking systems, someone would have thought of a better, more efficient design than something hacked out of a cat food can!
My goal was simple: which alcohol stove offered the best balance between boil time and fuel efficiency for boiling two cups of water? For my Scouts, I was also interested in burn and fire safety: a stove that would minimize the hazards of spills while cooking and filling.
Description of Testing
I performed some experiments to evaluate the performance of the alcohol stoves for this review. Each experiment used the same cook kit.
The Cook Kit: Each stove was used in a Caldera Sidewinder Solo cone combined with a K-Mart (Stanco) Grease Pot (5.6 in diameter x 4.0 in height, 32 oz capacity).
Ambient Air Temperature: Nature dictated the ambient temperature from experiment to experiment. However, each stove was tested at the same temperature during any single experiment. Ambient temperatures varied from 43 deg F (6 deg C) to 56 deg F (13 deg C).
Water Temperature: Starting water temperatures during all experiments was approximately 65 deg F (18 deg C).
Four experiments were performed:
- The Boil Control Experiment. This test is what it sounds like. In my wind-free garage (with an open door for ventilation), I tested the time required for each stove to boil two cups of water with the lid OFF. I filled each stove with 1 oz (28 g) of fuel and measured the weight before burning and after boiling to measure how much fuel was used to reach boiling point.
- Low Wind Experiment. This test was administered under the same conditions as the Boil Control Experiment but with the added variable of a low-speed fan used to generate an artificial breeze. The fan produced a constant wind of 2.5 mph directed to the cooking system from one side. The cook pot lid was ON during this experiment, although I also tried the experiment with no lid on the cook pot, none of the stoves were able to reach a boil.
- High Wind Experiment. This test worked the same as the Low Wind Experiment, but the wind speed was increased to 6.6 mph. The cook pot lid was ON during this experiment, although I also tried the experiment with no lid on the cook pot, none of the stoves were able to reach a boil.
- Outdoor Experiment. This test was conducted in the Hell’s Half Acre Lava field West of Idaho Falls. With constantly gusting winds in a climate so dry that it makes Idahoan potatoes famous, this was an ideal proving ground outside of the laboratory conditions of my garage. Even though the wind was frequently gusting up to 5.5 mph (8.9 kph), I was able to use rocks as a wind barrier so that the wind speed hitting the cooking system was effectively 0 mph. The cook pot lid was ON during this experiment, although I also tried the experiment with no lid on the cook pot, none of the stoves were able to reach a boil.
Performance Assessment
First of all, let me say that all of the stoves performed to my expectations for how an alcohol stove should perform (for my needs). This series of experiments essentially pits four well-performing stoves against each other to see if any one of them is clearly superior to the others.
Depending on the distance of a hike or how arduous a hike is planned to be, you may want to focus on pinching grams (whether as part of your cook kit or fuel requirements) where you can. That end objective is one of the goals of collecting stove performance data like this.
Raw Data
With that in mind, here is the raw data from my experiments (scroll right to view all data if needed):
| stove | test | weight (start) | weight (boil) | fuel used | boil time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12-10 | boil control | 39.9 g | 19.1 g | 20.8 g | 10m 36s |
| Kojin | boil control | 45.1 g | 21.0 g | 24.1 g | 8m 29s |
| Starlyte | boil control | 36.8 g | 19.8 g | 17.0 g | 12m 35s |
| Starlyte Mod | boil control | 37.1 g | 16.2 g | 20.9 g | 17m 10s |
| 12-10 | low wind | 36.3 g | 19.4 g | 16.9 g | 11m 30s |
| Kojin | low wind | 30.3 g | 11.3 g | 19.0 g | 11m 29s |
| Starlyte | low wind | 36.0 g | 13.7 g | 22.3 g | 21m 31s |
| Starlyte Mod | low wind | 35.5 g | 15.2 g | 20.3 g | 17m 56s |
| 12-10 | high wind | 40.6 g | 19.0 g | 21.6 g | 16m 38s |
| Kojin | high wind | 33.8 g | 11.1 g | 22.7 g | 11m 57s |
| Starlyte | high wind | 34.5 g | 13.0 g | 21.5 g | n/a* |
| Starlyte Mod | high wind | 38.1 g | 18.1 g | 20.0 g | 19m 08s |
| 12-10 | outside | 40.6 g | 23.4 g | 17.2 g | 8m 03s |
| Kojin | outside | 32.9 g | 15.5 g | 17.4 g | 7m 34s |
| Starlyte | outside | 33.8 g | 17.5 g | 16.3 g | 10m 07s |
| Starlyte Mod | outside | 35.6 g | 15.5 g | 20.1 g | 15m 52s |
*The Starlyte struggled in high winds. At 16:38 or so the flame burned out, and the temperature of the water had only reached 184 deg F.
Comparison Results: Boil Control Test
Observations:
- Most “powerful” stove: The Kojin was the most “powerful” stove – in that it boiled water the fastest, but consumed the highest amount of fuel to do it.
- Most “fuel-efficient” stove: The Starlyte was the most fuel-efficient stove in the test, but at the expense of boil time – it required more than four additional minutes to boil the water.
- Head-to-head: For similar amounts of fuel consumption, the 12-10 boiled water much faster than the Starlyte Mod.
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Discussion
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On a recent campout with the Scouts, I boiled water for three meals and had much faster boil times and lower fuel consumption.
I measured wind at 5.5mph and came to a conclusion. Anyone who tries to cook in this without using some kind of windbreak (I used my backpack on its side) probably deserves to wait extra long for their meal.
Even though the Cone is designed to act as a windbreak, I like to think of it as a seatbelt. It’s nice to have just in case but two car lengths of distance are even better!
The way you worded that sounds like this was an official BSA activity. It makes no difference whether you use it or a Scout does. Or this was one of those non-BSA campouts that happened to include mostly Scouts?
During my BSA scoutmaster training they spoke about the ban on alcohol stoves for scouts. I asked if it was ok for adult leaders to use them and my council trainers responded that it’s fine for adults to use them and even thought it would be useful to demonstrate them to scouts so they were aware of their use.
I was using a Zelph Fancee Feest stove at that point and asked them about the DIY aspect. They both thought it was fine because it was made by someone who had somebody lots of r&d. I think the detail that pushed them over the edge was that I mentioned the inner steel piece had been spot welded. In truth, I think a Toaks or Vargo stove stove would meet the non-diy stipulation better. That’s not a dig on Dan but even his site says something to the effect of “we diy it so you don’t have to.”
David, it’s interesting that you chose the Starlyte to use while on the camp-out with the scouts. What do you attribute to the faster boil times and less fuel consumption?
Was it Trail Designs or Backpackinglight that asked you to do the comparisons of stoves/burners?
@ Mike K
BSA policy does not ban alcohol stoves. The chemical fuel policy prohibits stoves that are mot commercially manufactured AND liquid alcohol fuel is not recommended. So I take that to mean homemade stoves are banned but commercially made alcohol stoves are approved but not recommended. The my own Zelph Starlyte looks commercially manufactured to me. So does the Kojin. I might have a hard time convincing a liability lawyer that the TD 12-10 was commercially manufactured. I I think it would be a bad idea to allow younger Scouts to alcohol stoves. But if older, experienced Scouts have been trained on the use of Trango, Starlyte or Kojin stoves and they are allowed by land management agency, I see no reason to avoid them.
in reference to showing the Scouts how they work. I think it would be OK during a Troop meeting to do a demonstration. But on outings, the leaders should comply with the BSA safety policy. Otherwise we are telling our Scouts is OK to disregard rules whenever they feel like it.
As a final note, and a topic not talked about much, but it is my layperson’s understanding that when Troops or adult leaders go outside the pale of BSA safety policy, they also risk putting themselves outside the coverage of any volunteer liability insurance policy in effect by the Troop, local Council, or National.
Cheers
David, it’s interesting that you chose the Starlyte to use while on the camp-out with the scouts. What do you attribute to the faster boil times and less fuel consumption?
Was it Trail Designs or Backpackinglight that asked you to do the comparisons of stoves/burners?
David H, why did you include the 12-10 in your comparisons of 2 wick style stoves/burners?
David, where are you, need your assistance. Inquiring minds want to know
Sorry Dan Y, I don’t get on the computer much throughout the week.
I chose the Starlyte stove because I like the way the lid fits on a little bit better than the Kojin. It also performed better during the testing (if only slightly).
Without a doubt, I attribute that faster boil times and lower fuel consumption to the ambient temperature and the fact that I left the lid on. Even though there was wind, it wasn’t as cold a wind, and I set up a windbreak so that there was virtually no wind on the stove.
Backpackinglight asked me to do the review. It was really nice because I didn’t feel compelled to favor one stove over another and the team at Backpackinglight was really great to work with.
It was also Backpackinglight who asked for the 12-10 to be part of the study. I really liked that stove for many reasons. It’s only two downsides are that it can’t fit in the pot during transportation and you need to empty or burn off any unused fuel.
About the Scouting issue. During my four-month internship with the local BSA council, I spoke with the Council Executives about a lot of stuff including the use of alcohol stoves. They felt that it would be ok for leaders to use an alcohol stove and to teach boys how to make DIY cook systems.
I realize that each council will interpret rules a little differently. If I were to move to a new council next week then I would surely get the lay of the land and find out how they felt about an alcohol stove before taking one on a BSA activity.
Thank you David.
You left the lid on? Did you not have the lid on your pot when you did initial testing/evaluation of the stoves?
The first round of tests in my garage with no wind I had the lid off.
During the wind trials and outside I had the lid on.
Altitude question – : does anyone have success at upwards of 10k feet? I recall only twice using my sidewinder caldera at 10k / 40f with a 1.3L titanium evernew pot to boil a liter of water. It worked and I think I used less then 2.5oz total. I recall having to refill the starlyte-mod both times once.
And thanks for the sanitation reminder – I totally didn’t boil long enough to get to sanitation levels thinking back.
I’ve used a Starlyte/Caldera combination above 12k ft many times with satisfactory results. Can’t say there’s no drop off in performance but if there is, it’s not large enough to be a problem.
A quote from my website concerning the use of the Starlyte at altitude:
Oops, forgot the photos:
When using larger pots the Starlyte XL3 is better suited:
http://www.woodgaz-stove.com/starlyte-xl3.php
The XL3 is on the left:
Why BPL did not include the XL3 in the tests is interesting.
Thanks for the altitude responses. I’m hitting Yosemite and Hoover late June and I’ll be above 10k for 2-3 meals. I have the starlyte xl3 and i did buy it with the thought of not having to check and refill it as often. But after the info you all noted about distance from flame to pot – – now I suspect that my sidewinder 1.3L set up designed for the 12-10 will likely work a little faster (though I don’t know about efficiency) with the taller starlyte xl3. I wonder if that’s part of the design intent. Anyway since I have no way of testing I counted up the difference between the least efficient and most efficient. It’s a couple oz of fuel. So I’ll just pack a few extra ounces so I don’t have to post in the ‘stupid light’ forum about how I ran out.
By the way – the last time my buddy and I used one of these starlytes we used a flat stone to put the flame out. Turns out when you are super tired, playing hide and seek with your stove under rocks is a great way to hike 10 miles before realizing you never picked it up!
We should have a review compassing the 12-10 to the XL3 pretty soon. I’m excited to try that copper wick!
How are you coming along with the XL3 review?
In the mean time I’ve come up with a new, no spill design that has a capacity of 2 ounces and also has a simmer cap.
Technical:
Dimensions:
body: 2 3/4″ (70mm) diameter at lid x 1 1/4 “(32mm) tall
opening: 1 3/4” (45mm)
Weight w/lid: 1 oz (27g)
Capacity: 2oz (59ml)
Rigid aluminum body
Stainless steel wire mesh prevents wicking material from falling out
Spill-proof
Tight fitting flexible plastic lid prevents fuel evaporation (not to be used to put out flame)
Flame can be blown out
Wicking material pulls the fuel upwards for a more efficient burn as compared to carbon felt and pink fiberglass insulation that just absorb the fuel
Great for use with pots 900ml or larger
Great for use with cone shaped windscreen/pot supports
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