capehiker
08-25-2013, 21:10
The alcohol stove bug hit me earlier this year. Since then I've tried a R.U.C.A.S. (good if your pot is 1.3L or wider), a Minibull Bios Micro (kick butt stove but good for 600ml or smaller), a homemade Fancy Feast stove (didn't like how the flame pattern went up the sides), and I dabbled with the tea light stoves for fun. I saw Zelph's thread about the Starlyte merging with the Caldera and figured that would be the answer. So far...it is!
About 2 weeks ago I took it on a 3 day section hike and I fell in love with this system from the first boil. I sprung for the Caldera Ti Sidewinder for the .9L Evernew short pot. Everything fit in the pot which was great.
Here's the weights from my scale:
Sidewinder Ti cone w/ Tyvek protective sleeve: 1.3oz
Zelph Modified Starlyte: 0.5oz
Evernew Ti 0.9L short pot: 3.9oz (advertised weight is 4.5oz)
Fuel measuring cup: 0.1oz
Total: 5.8oz
Add in fuel bottle (empty), ground protector, mini-Bic, Ti spoon, and stuff sack and my total cook kit comes to 8oz. I'm pretty good with that considering last year my weights were about 24oz.
As for boiling times, I used spring water and tap water. I don't have temps but the spring water was noticeably cooler. My slowest rolling boil time was a little over 8 minutes. I was getting a useable simmer around 6 minutes. Flameout time was between 12-14 minutes using 15ml of HEET.
All in all, this is my go-to kit. I really like how everything seems to fit together and it's effortless. I paid attention to the boiling times just to have an idea but I was busy setting up camp while the water was boiling that, in general day to day camping, having a fast cook time doesn't matter to me. If you're in the infancy of alcohol stove systems (like me), the Caldera Ti Sidwinder system should go to the top of your list.
About 2 weeks ago I took it on a 3 day section hike and I fell in love with this system from the first boil. I sprung for the Caldera Ti Sidewinder for the .9L Evernew short pot. Everything fit in the pot which was great.
Here's the weights from my scale:
Sidewinder Ti cone w/ Tyvek protective sleeve: 1.3oz
Zelph Modified Starlyte: 0.5oz
Evernew Ti 0.9L short pot: 3.9oz (advertised weight is 4.5oz)
Fuel measuring cup: 0.1oz
Total: 5.8oz
Add in fuel bottle (empty), ground protector, mini-Bic, Ti spoon, and stuff sack and my total cook kit comes to 8oz. I'm pretty good with that considering last year my weights were about 24oz.
As for boiling times, I used spring water and tap water. I don't have temps but the spring water was noticeably cooler. My slowest rolling boil time was a little over 8 minutes. I was getting a useable simmer around 6 minutes. Flameout time was between 12-14 minutes using 15ml of HEET.
All in all, this is my go-to kit. I really like how everything seems to fit together and it's effortless. I paid attention to the boiling times just to have an idea but I was busy setting up camp while the water was boiling that, in general day to day camping, having a fast cook time doesn't matter to me. If you're in the infancy of alcohol stove systems (like me), the Caldera Ti Sidwinder system should go to the top of your list.