Limits of the Caldera Cone?

Is it necessary to boil all five cups of water at once? Lots of alcohol stoves can boil 2 or 2.5 cups of water.

–B.G.–

Lot's of alcohol stoves can boil 5 cups of water.

There are some spreadsheets that you can find on the internet that have fuel usage figures for different types of stoves (alcohol vs. canister, etc) so you can figure out what is the lightest solution for your length of trip.

For me, 1 ounce of ethanol can boil about 4 cups of water, at a starting temp of 70 degrees F.

Care to clue me in? I'm driving myself crazy trying to make this work.

Contact Trail Designs. They have a cone system compatible with
– Evernew 1.2 L Pot (ECA184)
– Evernew 1.3 L Pot (ECA253, ECA418, ECA423)
– Evernew 1.9L Short Ti Pot (ECA424, ECA419)

Regarding:
"For me, 1 ounce of ethanol can boil about 4 cups of water, at a starting temp of 70 degrees F."

That is what I find as well. Temperature of water and air can make a big difference.

I know Zelph makes alcohol stoves that hold at least 1.5 and maybe 2 ounces.

Another option is to use whatever your stove's capacity is, let it burn out, add more alcohol and light again to finish. No biggy with most stoves.

I personally do 1 litre (4cup) boils as my standard and I find the Caldera Cone Alcohol mode not quite powerful enough to do this with a reasonable amount of fuel. This is not a typical occurrence, according to TD, so your mileage may vary. However, I still use the cone as my primary burning method because wood mode is awesome, and I have some esbit as backup.

If you're at all interested in burning wood, the Ti-Tri cone is amazing and you really can't go wrong. For a dedicated alcohol burner, I'm not sure, but then again, I'm not a dedicated alcohol user.

FBC (the way I do it…) involves bringing water to the boil adding that to the bag (or the Caddy in my case now) and then waiting for 10-20 minutes to re-hydrate.
So as Bob is suggesting (I think…) you first boil the water for the meal (say 3 cups) then boil the water for your drinks (2 caps) .
About 6-7 minutes after the first boil and in the middle of the re-hydration process you can enjoy your hot drink.
BTW, it usually takes more than twice the time to boil 4 cups than 2 cups at a time.. (with alcohol)
Franco

I have the evernew 1.3 with the Caldera and routinely boil that setup filled to the brim, no problem (4 people in our family) just over an oz of fuel. Great setup.

I used the Caldera Cone last year on the Wonderland Trail for me and my boyfriend. Actually, I have 2—one for my AGG 3 cup pot, and one for my AGG 2L pot. I found that using the 2 L pot, and running 2 boils on the stove, one for food and one for hot drinks, worked great. Each time, I measured how much water I'd need, rather than filling the pot– 1 1/2 cups for drinks, 2-3 cups for meals. We preferred to make coffee and tea first, then enjoy our hot drinks while waiting for food to re-hydrate. I have tried using the 3 cup pot and stove, and found I preferred the taller pot for more carrying capacity (berries!) and it was easier to bake muffins or cupcakes in the taller pot with the Faux Baker that Sarah has on her Trailcooking website. the stove cools pretty quickly, so I never had any issues about dumping more fuel in–just make sure it truly is out!

I have a CC Sidewinder for the 3 cup pot. I also got the Inferno option for woodburning. This is an inverted inner Ti cone sitting on a 1/4" screening base. The setup improves combustion by supplying heated air in a downdraft as well as sucking in cooler air from the outside.

With this in mind the idea came to me that using the Inferno inner inverted cone with either the alky burner or the ESBIT Gram Craker may improve the efficiency a bit – or not. But it bears looking into.

If you have a regular CC you could make an inner cone from aluminum roofing flashing for an inner cone. You'd have to punch or drill some strategically placed vent holes in it to get the combustion air to heat and come in from the top. It works for wood but may not be so great for alcohol. Just a thought.

An inner cone made out of aluminum isn't going to last very long for a wood fire, is it? That's what the titanium version is all about. Also, part of what the Inferno insert does is to funnel the burning wood into a more concentrated lump, which boosts the temperature. That wouldn't have any meaning in the alcohol case.

–B.G.–

Bob,

We both agree that the Inferno insert cone is Ti because it is made for wood. I was just saying that for alky and ESBIT that the inverted cone MAY help but I dunno. And since it's just alky or ESBIT temps that aluminum is fine as an alternative material for an "aftermarket DIY" cone.

The Inferno inverted Ti cone is not just to "funnel the wood". It's main purpose is to create a double wall stove so some of the combustion air gets very hot and helps the in burning more of the gasses given off by the wood, just like a Bushbuddy and Bushcooker. It's the same double wall principle and that's why the Inferno cone fits tightly to the outer cone at its top. The Inferno option is not just a fancy hobo stove.

My thought was to suggest that possibly this double wall principle would work with alky and ESBIT. I may try some controlled tests myself to see if using the Inverno cone helps with ESBIT. I won't test with the alky stove that comes with the Sidewinder B/C I'm not an alky user. Someone else can try that one.