Best size UL caldera cone for solo?

How many people is this for? Just one?

Many solo backpackers keep their pot size around 600ml or 750ml. A few let it go up to 1L or slightly larger. Very few shrink it down to 500ml or less.

Lots of recipes call for 500ml, so a 600ml pot is convenient for that.

–B.G.–

Yes solo Bob. I was looking at this one:

http://www.traildesigns.com/cookware/evernew-titanium-ultra-light-600ml-pot-eca251

It is heavier though. I liked the small cone design of the 400ml sidewinder setup. Can I get away with a 550ml pot for boiling two cups of water or does it just not work?

Pot here:

http://www.rutalocura.com/Ti_Pots.html

I prefer a .9 litre or even a 1.3 litre pot as I often boil extra water for tea or coffee before cooking my main meal. They really don't weigh much more, and add flexibility to the cooking business. I am by the way, almost exclusively a solo hiker.

500ml gives you no head room to boil 2 cups. If you just need to boil water for rehydrating look to the Keg-F setup, uses a 750ml Foster's can as a pot that weighs 0.88oz on my scale.

I forgot to mention, I don't drink tea or coffee so I just need two cups of water for rehydrating food.

Matthew,

given this forum, I assume you are referring to weight. If that is the case you might want to look into the Caldera Keg-F. Whenever I’m counting grams instead of oz for a solo trip I use that setup.

For longer trips where I want to have the option to use wood for cooking in addition to using my alcohol stove, I bring a titanium mug. My preferred setup is the Snow Peak 600 with the Ruta Locura Lid and the Classic Ti-Tri Caldera from Trail Designs. The Snow Peak 600 is versatile in more than one way. One reason for me to pick the Snow Peak 600 was its ability to stow the Snow Peak LiteMax stove and a gas canister inside, because several of my hiking areas don’t allow alcohol stoves any longer.

So it all depends on your definition of “best”. What is it you want to optimize for?

Depends if you want to rehydrate in that pot or not.
If you just need 400ml to rehydrate your meal in a separate pack and eat from there then the smaller is obviously fine.
If you need 400ml for your ramen or whatever and you then add the ramen to the pot, then 600ml is very minimal/only just ok. Just stirring that amount and not spilling is doable, but you'd have to do it with a bit more care. A 900ml is more relaxed, especially if you want to add some extra stuff in there like throw in rice, or beans, or add your own dried veggies or whatever. My Evernew Titanium Ultra Light 600ml Pot weighs 107gr. while the 900ml weighs 119gr. on my scale. But that is pot only of course. Not sure what the weight savings will be on the actual wind screen (mine weighs 49gr. I think).

I bought a selection of brands of dehydrated meals for a 2 week trip recently. 3 needed over 400ml of water. I have that evernew 400. a fun object, but not realistically useful as a cook pot for me.

Personally I think 550 or 600 is the smallest I'd like

I'd suggest it's not gonna save a noticeable amount of fuel using a 400 over a 550pot.

I believe the guy on here who "invented" the 400ml caldera cone kit said he routinely used 350ml of water for his homemade dehydrated meals.

So either those meals weren't completely dehydrated (i.e. his system was "baseweight smart, packweight stupid") or he eats small meals and runs a calorie deficit while taking shorter trips, or the guy is horse-jockey sized. :)

For the most part, the dehydrated food that I have to re-hydrate isn't a significant source of calories for the day. Calorie wise, it's really unnecessary and the only reason I boil water is for morale reasons as I like a hot meal at the end of the day. I usually eat other non-cook items to get calories into my body so it wouldn't be a big deal to split a Mountain House meal in half and eat it over two days.

All this said to say that a 400ml mug may make sense for some people. I prefer a 550ml to 600ml mug/pot for solo hiking. I have the TD sidewinder paired with the Evernew 600ml pot. I think it's a great kit but I prefer mugs so it doesn't see much use and I just hang on to it as a loaner for friends.

By design, all of my dehydrated meals require 12oz (355ml) or less of hot water. I don't drink a hot beverage while on the trail. Hence, I've settled on a 500ml pot. I probably could go as small as 400ml but it's a tight fit to get 355 ml of water hot and then transfer it to a freezer bag without spilling any.

Is pretty much perfect for me. The only time it starts to get tight is when I cook up one of my ramen concoctions in the pot (i.e. noodles, cheese powder, dried peas, tuna packet!) but it still fits!

I imagine on thru-length longer trips I may want the 900…but for everything I've done so far this is plenty.

That's were I landed too. Just right, most of the time.

How many oz does your whole 600ml ti-tri sidewinder setup (caldera cone/floor/pot/stove etc) weigh?

Pot is 3.3oz
Starlite stove is .6
I just use the cone and don't have the floor or inferno insert. The cone weighs 1 oz. in its' Tyvek sleeve

Since I started dehydrating my own meals, and have more control, I pretty much seem to need no more that 1-1.5 cups for re-hydration (in a different vessel) so now my size bottleneck is how much coffee I like to drink, which is about 2 cups (500 ml)

I have a 3 cup pot (anodized aluminum) Sidewinder stove set, including the Inferno wood burning option.

For me the 3 cup size is just right and the wider bottom of this pot makes it more efficient than a tall mug type setup. Efficiency is important when using ESBIT, which is my most common fuel with the Sidewinder.

For winter camping I like the Inferno wood burner to save on fuel weight and to make the long nights a bit cheerier. The cone keeps flying sparks to a minimum as well.

Ultimately depends on what you eat, these days my main meal is Ramen noodles, mash potato with a hot drink, so I need 750 ml of water which means a 900 ml pot.

My gas system uses a Mini Trangia pot (860 ml), but due to the excess weight of the stove and cannister, this unit only gets used for trips over three or four days or when the efficiency work's in it's favour, but I still eat the same things.

All of these suggestions use a Caldera cone:

For weekend trips, go small and light (Esbit) with no cooked food but hot beverages in a Fosters beer pot. On longer trips, take freezer bags for rehydrating using the same pot to heat water using Esbit or alcohol.

As a retiree, most of my trips are 4-5 nights and I want to eat better. My 3 cup anodized aluminum pot has boil room in it, so the full to the rim volume is within a fluid ounce of the Toaks 900ml 130mm diameter pot. For that volume, get the no-handle aluminum pot as it weighs the same as the Ti pot which has 12 gram handles. The aluminum is $30 cheaper than the Ti, and is easy to drill for a light weight, thin wire, bail handle.

Toaks sells a 1300 ml pot with the same 130mm diameter as the 900 ml and the 3 cup Al pot. There is your winter pot using the same Caldera cone with stakes to elevate the bottom of the pot above the stove.

I'm in the same position. My 400mL is super cool, but a little too small. I think a 600 or 900 is in my future. A couple of questions.

I think the Ruta Locura pots are made by Toaks. I'm not sure, but they are visually identical.

Is Toaks titanium comparable to Evernew? I've never seen them side by side.

Does REI still carry Evernew? Dont see them on their website.

I'm leaning towards the Toaks 900 wide pot with a TD sidewinder, using Esbit or Coglans fuel pellets. Any experience with this set up?