Did I see that you put a bend in the side of your Evernew pot? Is that a pour spout that you added by bending it? Also, how much alcohol do you use in your Kojin stove to bring 16 oz. of water to a boil? Will you try to get the water warmer before boiling it if possible by putting it inside your jacket or anything like that? Just curious about how much alcohol you use in a day? How many ounces of water do you boil per day? Thanks!
Nice video, thanks for sharing. I have a Trail Designs' Sidewinder system with an Evernew 1.3L pot, and the 12-10 alcohol stove. I bought it with a titanium simmer ring, and it works great for baking muffins and stuff. I think I bought it in 2009 or 2010, and it's still one of my favorites. I use it when cooking for two. Trail Designs makes some awesome gear. I have other smaller set-ups for solo hikes, but just last week I decided to invest in another Sidewinder kit for my Toaks 700mL pot, and it came with the Kojin included. Unfortunately for me the Kojin, as flat and shallow as it is, it's not shallow enough for the 700mL Sidewinder system, because the titanium cone is very short (it has to be because otherwise it would not fit inside the pot). So with that system, there are only about 2cm of distance between the Kojin and the bottom of the pot, and that's not enough room to allow the flame to develop properly. It took more than 11 minutes to boil two cups of water. I didn't give up though, so I took part of the ceramic fill out of the Kojin and put it inside an empty tin of Vick's VapoRub, 12g. It works great! The water boils in a little over 6 minutes. As I said I have other systems, faster ones too. But I think this one is the lightest, and although the pot is small, it's still wide enough that allows me to rehydrate my homemade meals in it, with enough room to stir the food around and eat from it like a bowl. Overall great system, I think it's my new favorite, but Kojin has been a bit of a disappointment.
Thanks Underdog - The Caldera cone is a great system a trail bubby of mine uses it. My Versu Ti windscreen weighs 29g - and was available in Australia at an affordable price. I get a bit obsessive about efficiency ie how much Alcohol they use. I think you would find the Fosters can uses more alcohol. The Trail design stove is ridiculous efficient. I have explored solid fuels as an alternative to Metho but they all leave carbon everywhere!! I haven't tried Esbit cube but i might give them a go... but its hard to compete with Metho, clean cheap and energy dense. Tel
👍👍👍 .. nice 😊. I've put together (an ongoing development) some sets that do very much the same. Perhaps not as efficiently (could be close though), but then it costs me almost nothing .. mostly salvaged material. Flame / Heat Control .. I'm playing around with 'simmer' rings that I just chuck on top of the burner. Results so far are encouraging. For a reduced heat output, I also use Whiskey / Similar, Bottle Caps filled with Ceramic / Glass Wool. They burn long enough to finish off whatever and anyway, refilling isn't that much of a schlep. Stirring constantly and removing the pot regularly from the flame for short periods, goes a great way in preventing the contents from burning. Thanks for the share .. cheers ..
Hi Thomas - Since I've made this video - a lot of people have suggested solving the lack of simmer problem by resting the pot in a Pot Cosy. My pack a Gossama Gear Mariposa allows me to store my cook system on an external pocket - so when i hit camp at the end of the day I can cook my Tea straight away and allow to stand for a period of time to allow my food to rehydrate by time rather than a timer ( or a combination of both). I really enjoyed getting your thoughts and hopefully I bump into you on the trail one day. Next week i am doing 10 days on the Heysen Trail. Regards Tel👍
Hi - they are only available from Trail Designs in the USA- they ? 12 dollars But shipping expensive!! May be able to get something similar in Australia- avoid carbon material in stove as they burn away!! This white insulation material lasts forever!! I like the screw lid!! Thanks for your question🤙🏽
I used to do that using my sleeping bag to (carefully) wrap up my cook pot immediately after bringing it to a boil if all it needed was simmering. Worked very well.
I have pretty much the same setup except I use the vesuv stove which is the same as the kojin but with black felt. Its very fast! Looking to make a simmering ring so I can fry by putting the pan on top of the wind shield.
Good to know, and we all have to be prepared for electricity outages. Light is so important, do you have a torch in your first aid kit. Of course no I need one x thx tel tez
After using VSUV kone for a while I can tell that it would be helpful if it had the lower holes on one side olny. This would make the whole system more wind protective and still give enough air for burning.
As a fellow Tasmanian long-distance hiker who loves trekking through very isolated parts of the world, yours is the only video I've found that covers the situation of LONG timeframes between re-supply... RU-vid is chokka-block full of folks from the Northern Hemisphere who do hikes in places that have a town every 50-or-so kilometres and food drops every couple of hundred kilometres, hence why they can get away with using these flimsy ultralight 40-50L packs. Us Southern Hemisphere people in AU/NZ, South America and Africa don't get the convenience of such food drops and rivers/lakes everywhere. Subscribed for further videos - Keep up the good work...
Function I could agree more. Your right our thru hikes don't have trail towns everywhere - this teaches Australian Hikers a discipline with regards pack weight and reliability of equipment. It also makes you really think hard regarding all your equipment. clothing, navigation and communications choices. This is what I love about Australian Hikes - Their is no Whimping out on a hike!! (or its hard to do) Warning this cook system is addictive - Once you have converted to a lightweight Alcohol stove like this their is no going back. Thanks for your comment - i really appreciated it Mate. Tel
I achieve simmer on my alcohol setup by swapping out the burner with a one with a smaller diameter. There are a few examples on my channel. I find that a burner, same style as the one you are using, 35mm diameter burns one millilitre of alcohol for one minute which make timing a summer straight forward. Hope some of that is of use..
First time I've seen a windshield that attaches by metal snap poppers. That will be handy in making my own! Caldera cone style seems so much harder to make than that. thanks! :D
to simmer with such a stove, I used the lid on top of the burner. My burner is a DIY so idc about the paint, but you might. If that's so, you might want to get an alternative metal piece to place on top. Anything like a quarter, to limit the suface area on top could work. I place the lid on top and it forms a half moon shape. Burns much slower.
I agree and thank you for you input. I’m not in any hurry, so if I need to simmer then I bring to boil then let it run out of fuel then I leave it for 4-5 minutes then put 1 or 2 mls in and bring to boil again and usually that’s enough but if it’s risotto then repeat again and in time it ends up cooking perfectly! On a normal meal (say pasta) my cook system may take 20% longer than a gas system and for risotto maybe 40% longer but this is the only downside to a remarkably good system for cooking and boiling!
Well, the way you do it you'd really benefit from using a pot cozy - since you're basically letting heat do its thing over time. I do that too, bring to a boil and put in cozy. perfect for rehidrating food, but also works well with any dry stuff like rice, pasta etc. @@Tel-the-Hiker But that's a good system alright :)
Hi the setup in the video all fits in my pot too! I did check out the Xboil - it’s almost identical to the cook system suggested in my video! I really love XBoil’s light weight alcohol bottles!! Next time I’m in Europe I will definitely get some of those! I’d love to try the Xboil system on a real world hike! Thanks for you input Tel the Hiker 🤙🏽
I've got the picogrill 85. it's the lightest of all twig stoves. I use an alcohol stove inside but the pot height isn't ideal like in the Xboil. But it packs flat and weighs 100g with case, so i carry it everywhere.
I don't know how much that kojin stove cost you but you need to be made aware that these stoves are complete scams I reckon you could easily make the exact same thing with one of those vaseline things and put a bit of wick inside
You make a good point!! I did buy some makeup cases on eBay- and was going to make a homemade Kojin stove! However the cases were a slightly different shape and I still had to buy the firebox material!! So I bought the real Kojin stove for 12$ You can watch plenty of RU-vidrs doing tests on alcohol stoves and the Kojin stove is usually the most efficient (or close to the most efficient) alcohol stove on the market!! I hike in remote areas and cannot afford to have equipment failures so the $12 cost is cheap insurance!! As I’m not buying a copy that may or may not perform as well! Thanks for your message Tel the Hiker
That's what I did. Tin was free. wick too cuz I had an old wood stove's fiberglass rope to act as wick. Both carbon felt and fiberglass would work perfectly. Insulation would require some sorta mesh to keep it down and compact, so rope is easier and cheaper.
When I arrived at Whitelaw Hut ruins, there were 3 guys sitting there who gave me two litres of water so I didn't have to go looking for it which was good.
