Mini Review: Caldera Ti Sidwinder w/ Modified Starlyte

[capehiker]

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.

[zelph]

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.

That's quite a weight reduction

Spring water temps are usually around 55 degrees. I'm impressed with your boil times and fuel usage with such cold water temps.. The Caldera Cones really are efficient windscreens.

You'll like the "no spill" feature of the StarLyte and also the lid to retain any unused fuel. No need for a primer in cold weather and is compact in size.

Thanks for your Mini Review.

[capehiker]

I was happy with the boil times. The flame was perfect under the pot. The burner was cool to the touch in about a minute. You have a great product.