Help Deciding which Caldera Cone

You should do some "test cooks" to determine what size your typical meals will be, then get a pot at least 25% bigger than this. For us we need 2 litres (AGG 2qt/2L pot), but many get by with 1.3L pots or even less.

What Lynn said.

Many here will recommend a 1.3L pot for two people. But, like Lynn, I find it much too small and need a 2L pot for two people.

It depends partly on what you are cooking and how you are cooking it. If you're just boiling water you can get away with something smaller. I make fairly large meals in my pot (and not just boiling water) and don't like it to be filled to the brim.

The AGG 2L pot only weighs around 165g including a lid. If you're unsure, this is a good way to go. Slightly too big is much better than slightly too small. But we find 2L to be just about right.

If I hike with my girlfriend or a friend a 1,1l pot is enough, as we just use it to boil water, rice, noodles, couscous, etc. and we either eat both from the pot or one from the pot and one from a plate. If we're still hungry, we just cook more food.

Anyhow, if you don't have a pot yet, decide first on the pot and then on the cone. If you got a pot, and its fine size wise, just get the appropriate cone for it =)

If you use meals that require only 12oz of boiling water, then a MLD 850ml Ti. mug would work for you, for two person's.
The Cone and alcohol stove nest inside the mug. Any of the other T.D. Cones will not nest inside the pot, so you have to carry the larger Cone Caddy that comes these systems/kits.
If you wait a bit, I believe TD will be coming out with Ti.Cones that will nest inside Tall mugs or pots. They will require you to use 2 Ti. wire stakes for pot support, but will have the capability to burn Esbit, alcohol or wood(small sticks).

We use a Caldera cone for the 0.85L MSR Titan if we are doing just freezer-bag type cooking and heating hot water. We use a Caldera + 1.3L Evernew Ti if we will be doing some actual cooking, including simmering (with a simmer ring on the 12-10 stove)…we find it is plenty big for two.

If we are planning on extensive cooking we skip the Caldera and bring a Pocket Rocket or similar stove with MSR 2L and 0.85L pots. It is really nice to have the extra small pot for two-part meals or for heating hot water for cleanup, but I wouldn't call this UL.

MLD has their own cone designed to nest inside their 850ml pot. The cone was manufactured by TD exclusively for MLD’s pot. The only negative is you must use the included stove and can’t use a stick fire.

Cone weighs .7 oz. and the stove weighs .3 oz.

LINK

I'm with Lynn and Ashley on this one. Every meal I've cooked requires (and fully absorbs) ~500ml/16 ounces of water. Cooking for two, then, requires at least 1000ml capacity just to barely contain the water. If you decide to cook meals in bags, then, something in the 1.3L range might be acceptable (Evernew 1.3L Ti is great). However, I find it much more convenient, cleaner, lighter and more to cook my meals right in the pot. So I'm adding a couple packets of food to the pot already full of a liter of water. Also consider the need for enough "slop" room in the pot to contain boiling water and stirred contents. For me, a 2L pot just makes sense. Rand made a cone for my MSR 2L Ti pot; that could be another option for you.

All:

There were a couple of emails here referencing a cone that fits inside the MLD 850. That line of products are called the "Caldera UL Compact". As noted, it requires two stakes to hold the pot up, and does not completely enclose the pot. Also as noted, we will be offering more sizes in the future….and for the moment, the MLD 850 is the only one out there…..but not technically "exclusive".

Rand :-)

My wife and I currently have a Trek 1400 (1.4L) and 900 set. For winter though I think a pot like the MSR 2L would be superior for the wider bottom surface area and larger volume for melting snow.

What's the lightest larger pot/lid combo at or close to 2L? Would it be the MSR 2L?

Rand at Trail Designs kindly suggested the following: "Larger pot suggestion – Everybody has their own needs in a pot…..titanium v aluminum, handles v gripper, coated v plain, lid styles, tall v wide, etc. With all that said, here are the two most interesting choices in the backpacking arena. The AntiGravityGear 2qt pot is very inexpensive, very popular, very light, and great for melting snow. It doesn't have a handle and is aluminum. The other choice would be the Evernew 1.9L pots (ECA419 and ECA424) are titanium, large and have handles. " No idea yet what those models weigh.

I'm about to order a Tri Ti Caldera Cone (or two) and so this thread is very timely.

For 3 season solo use I'd stick with the 900 or find a similar lighter setup.

For 4 season solo use I guess I could use the Trek 1400 pot for the extra volume for snow melting, or if the weight is close to a 2L Ti pot, also use the 2L Ti pot for winter solo use.

Anyway trying to figure out whether to order one or two Caldera Cones depending on my uses.

2 Person:
-setup for 2 person 3 season: Trek 1400 or 2L Ti with Caldera Cone and alcohol or esbit stove
-setup for 2 person winter use: 2L Ti pot with Coleman Xtreme stove with aluminum windscreen

Solo:
-setup for solo 3 season: Trek 900 or lighter with alcohol or esbit stove with Caldera Cone or windscreen
-setup for solo winter: Trek 1400 or 2L Ti with Coleman Xtreme stove with aluminum windscreen

Rand at Trail Designs also said that he could adapt a 1400 Caldera to also work with the 900 (though this is less than perfect for the 900 as the seal around the pot won't be tight: "As you probably know, the cone is made to fit one size pot at a time perfectly. As the pot slips into the cone, it is suspended by its upper lip. If you got a 900 cone, the 1400 wouldn't go in it at all, or if you had a 1400 cone, the 900 would not be able to be supported by the lip. Now, the best we could do would be to make a 1400 cone, and then add some stake holes through the body that you could use to prop the 900 up on stakes when you wanted to use that pot. Hope that helps!"

Very much appreciate thoughts of those blessed to spend far more time in the backcountry than me lately.

Rand

When are you going to do an UL compact in Ti? We can weld tabs to the pot, so you dont need tent stakes, and include Ti wire pot supports to raise the pot off the top of the cone for wood burning. Hu?, hu? can I have one Pleeeeaaaase!

Josh

I have two cones- one for a BPL SUL-1100 and also a Caldera Keg-F system. Both are fantastic- you're buying the right stove!

I mainly do dehydrated meals, soups, and oatmeal. I use the Caldera Keg for solo work, two-person trips, and some three-person family trips. I use the SUL-1100 for whole family trips (4) or trips with more than 2 adults. But that's me.

I love the Caldera Keg system- it includes two functional bowls, the cone, and the Fosters mug all in a great package. It's genius.

A typical dinner includes a boil and into one large dehy meal. I then do a second boil for coffee in the mugs. The boil is about 5 minutes so a second boil is not a big deal.

This is snow peak 700 mug with bail handle, stove, (will burn alcohol,
esbitt, bio mass) with wind screen, heat exchanger and pot cozy. All from titanuim

We have a very strict rule here that when advertising a product you must do a full disclosure about your vested interests in the item. You must make it clear that you own the Four Dog company and are selling the stoves in any posting about them. Since you are new to BPL this is not yet clear to readers.

In addition, we would prefer that you do not hijack a thread about item X to advertise your competing product Y. Let a thread about X stay about X and start a new thread about your product Y.

Finally, if you wish to start a thread about your stoves, you should do so in the Gear Deals channel, not in GSpot. GSpot is for discussion by readers about gear which they are not selling. The Gear Deals channel is commercially-oriented and it is where you would be quite welcome to mention your stoves.

I have left this posting here but deleted the two other postings you made about your stoves from this GSpot thread. Feel free to visit the Gear Deals channel.

Cheers
Roger Caffin
Online Community Monitor
Backpacking Light

Thanks Doug, very helpful, which pot/stove system you use for winter solo and 2 person?

UL Compact….in Ti…..spot welded tabs to the pot….hummmm….good idea Josh! Would this be for and through Ti-Goat with the mugs DJ is currently stocking? Not sure the geometry will work for those pots…..not tall/skinny enough. What pot were you thinking about buddy?

Rand :-)

EJ,

I have a Ti Tri Rand made me that works with 2 pots, a 1L and 1.5L MSR Titan set. The lid for the pot set fits both pots. The cone is designed to work with the 1.5L and then using the stakes for fire mode in a secondary position it supports the 1L pot at a height that lets the lid seal the pot and the cone. Slightly less efficient alcohol burn but not enough to notice. I think Rand calculated a 5F difference in water temp. for the same amount of water at a given time intervals.
I love this thing and I only had to buy one cone.

1.5L set up
1L exposed
1L covered

I highly recommend the Caldera Tri-Ti with the new (not yet on the market Rand?) Inferno stove. Gives you all the options…esbit/alcohol/wood…but this system makes the lightest option – work great!

Check out this review http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/reviews/display_reviews?forum_thread_id=23493&cat=Stoves%20-%20Other&cid=21

Correct…..the Inferno is not officially "on the market"….as in not on the website….no product literature…no sexy studio glamor shots….poorly thought through pricing structure….etc. However, we are responding to direct pleas to turn folk's Ti-Tris into a gassifier and have shipped out a bunch since the review noted above was posted.

Rand :-)

Patrick, that's similar to the setup that Trail Designs had offered to design for our Trek 1400 and 900. It's cool that your lid fits both of your pots, which I don't think is the case with our Trek set.

Did your MSR 1.5 and 1 liter pots come together as part of a set, and if so, what's it called, and how much does each pot and the lid and pot grabber weigh (if you use a pot grabber)?

Rand

I'm pretty sure an UL compact cone with a shorty stove would work good with the 750ml TiGoat mug, but the pot I'm thinking of has not been built yet. Just not enough days in the week for all the projects. As for sales and marketing, thats not my department :-)

Link to Don's setup http://www.fourdog.com/index_files/bushcooker.htm

How you doing Don?, been a long time since I've spoken with you.

Josh

EJ,
Its called the MSR Titan 2 Pot Set. There's a Spotlite review BPL. Has the weights and what it includes.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/msr_titan_pots_spotlite_review.html