What is the best alcohol stove for the Caldera Cone? 

I like how scientific your test method is .thank you for being so effective.

Happy New Year! Thanks for the exhaustive testing of a good variety of burners, very informative. 👍

Great video! Very helpful to those deciding on which stove to purchase

Great series Mark. Thanks for doing all the leg work. I have been tinkering with this stuff for a bit as well and now going back to the drawing board as well. Learned a bit about refractory / absorption between ti and al as well as lemant heat etc. I can go down the rabbit hole on backpacking light for hours. you would think it’s rocket science man. Keep up the good work. 🤘

Happy New Year, good stuff, your package should be there anytime now burned it a couple of times to get the liner out, you took the words out of my mouth at the end on modifying the short one and testing it really enjoying this series

I have Caldera Cone paired with my Evernew 600 and the 12-10 stove. Over the years it has performed flawlessly! I might have to wait a minute or two longer for my lunch or carry an extra cup of fuel, but I think the 12-10 is a beautiful stove!!! Stay safe, kind regards from deepest Dorset England. Of course some of the issues we face here is not all companies will ship to the U.K. ☹️ Zelph’s for one and at the moment I’m waiting to hear back from even Trail Designs! 🇬🇧🇺🇸

God bless you, sir, for doing such a good job with this.

Thanks for doing all the hard work testing and sharing your results. In case people don't realise you can order a titanium cone from Trail Designs.

Great review sir. I appreciate the efforts you put into these tests. You obviously have a passion for chasing perfection. I’ve wanted a Caldera Cone for a long long time, but could never decide which pot should get one (I have too many and bounce around). Anyway I’m now going to wait for your Ti windscreen results. I just subscribed. IMO you’re Hiram 2.0. 😉

I like the stove vids and I know this was a couple months ago but have a couple comments. I DIY'ed a cone and a stove and found that the distance from the top of the stove's flame to the bottom of the pot make a big difference in efficiency and boil times. I use a 550 pot and found that a small V-8 (8 oz?) can for the stove with a 1" spacing worked the best. The stoves you used all were a bit different in flame height and that may be a factor in the test results. Keep it coming man- I'm watchin'

I'm guessing I should just go ahead and order a caldera cone. Great series.

I'm a big fan of the 12-10 *with* the simmer ring. With mine, I can bring 2 cups of water to boil fast, then throw on the simmer ring (which weighs nothing) and cook pasta at a low boil for 10-15 minutes. I'm also a big fan of the zelph modified starlyte, though I think stoves like that and the Kojin have ignition problems at low temperatures. I love how easy the 12-10 is to light, and it never needs more than a few seconds to bloom. Bottom line - caldera cones are awesome.

I was going to suggest doing an efficiency test with canister stoves but you already did one with the two that I own. Lots of good information on your channel!

This is an awesome series. I'm in the market for a cone and the starlite. I typically boil 3 cups every burn so I'm looking for something light but economic enough for the job. I'm really looking forward to seeing your cone build and how light/compact you can make it.

Interesting findings! Yeah I think the caldera cone has the vent holes in the right places. Air goes in the bottom and out the top and the flame is protected laterally. All of the flame contacts the pot. It’s basically the way a Trangia works. (I know you love Trangia systems) It’s a different tool, but they work the same. That other one doesn’t work that way.

What a great video. Love this channel :) one thing. It could be interesting to compare this system to the sidewinder caldera cone, to see how much the wider pot improve boiling time. I would think that it would make less of a difference when using a cone, because the cone traps the heat on the sides, but I again I dont know. Would be great if someone could borrow you the sidewinder so we could have some propper test made. Personally I will probably go with a narrow pot, because it can store in the side pockets of my daypack which is a great + for me

Excellent review and Happy New Year! Have you seen the stacked cones? I like the idea of it all nesting into your pot. Extra step, but would save some space. Also, with the diy titanium cone you're going to make, I would think you could use wood fuel if needed 👍🏼 Really want to see that one.

Mark, Happy New Year! Thanks for doing these tests. It's wonderful information. Where did you order your titanium sheeting from? I'm having trouble finding something wide enough to make a caldera. Thanks again, Tony

I saw your mini bull design stove lasted 17:00! The carbon felt must have made a difference!

I used to watch all of Hiram's videos- I love these stove tests! Also, thanks for adding the Gnome . (Good to know about its cap limitations) Did you Google doc these results?

I have that same setup with a Kojin. If you raise the burner about an inch, it will boil with 15ml of fuel.

Good stuff 🤙🏼

I would like to see if the "stormin screw UTD" does better than the Kojin with the Caldera Cone. Do you have any theories why the UTD is so much more efficient?

Great videos but can you compare your best choice vs Trangia in a caldera cone? Nobodies done this yet!

Awesome video, thanks

Other tests show the distance bottom of pot to top of burner impacts burn rate - larger gap = more air can get in = burn faster and less efficient. Also other tests show how wider pots drive up efficiency, e.g. alcohol's notorious meandering flame meanders more often under a wider pot. So for each pot+burner combination there's an optimum gap. So if you have simply keep a given distance each burner will give a different burn rate and efficiency but not necessarily comparing most efficient distance.

Bonjour about trail designs 12 - 10 alcool stove, how long for the flame to light and the stove to be operational? in seconds or minutes ?

Thanks for taking the time and testing the stoves! Great content for sure. Do you have a video on how to build the small caldera cone from aluminium?

Can the caldera cone nest within the Toaks 550? And how much does the whole system weigh including the cone's plastic container? Have you tried the side-winder as a wood-burning system?

It would be super cool if you could include Esbit with this

Here is a challenge. Find a additive you could add to the alcohol fuel, that would make the flame visible. It would have to be nontoxic. This would remove my biggest complaint against alcohol stoves. I have caught the ground on fire below the stove from spilled fuel, but could not see it right away, and burned a finger once. I worked with a torch all my life so I'm not a complete dummy. I just don't like invisible flames.

I wonder. Titanium seems to disperse heat very quickly. It would be interesting to see if a titanium caldera cone actually reduces the boil time at all and, if it does, whether there is a minor or noticeable difference.

Too bad you didn't have the Capillary burner for this test? How might it have performed? Especially vs Kojin? Kojin is attractive because its top isn't coming off inside a backpack. Ever thought about fabricating a Capillary out of a screw-top tin? Have tried, but can't get Capillary to function properly unless the inner rises a half-inch or more above the outer. And then there's no way to screw a cap on. Any thoughts (besides just using the less efficient Kojin)?

Hi Spiguyver, I know this is an older video, so I understand if you might not know...but what size Toaks pot are you using? Looks like a Toaks at least...

I’m French. It is difficult for me to understand very well all the video. Do you have a table which summarizes all the features of the different tested stoves ? Nice experiments.

**Thanks for this very informative test.** I have the TC Sidewinder Caldera Cone made of titanium. I also have the optional titanium Inferno wood burning gassifier inverted cone insert. The insert RE-circulates the initial unburned gasses for more complete combustion, VERY high heat and thus the need for titanium. This is my SNOW MELTING combo to save carrying a lot of fuel. BUT, mainly I use just the outer cone with ESBIT tablets for 3 season use, I do have the original 12/10 stove and the new KOJIN stove. The KOJIN seems to work much better in terms of fuel efficiency. But yeah, It burns fast. That's why I made a Starlyte type "ring" to slip over the KOJIN can to make less surface area for a longer burn time to simmer food. I cut the ring from an aluminum cat food can. With my ti Sidewinder stove, 3 cup Open Country anodized aluminum pot and ESBIT fuel tabs with the aftermarket BGET (Brian Green) tablet holder for extending the burn time I have a very light cook setup. Add my Tarptent Gen. II Notch Li Dyneema solo tent, Western Mountaineering overstuffed Megalite bag, REI FLASH Insulated air mattress and Osprey EXOS 58 pack and I'm usually at 28 lbs with 2 L. H2O and 5 days of food. Good for a "geezer weight" pack.

Have you considered testing a starlyte against the modified starlyte?

Was that a tornado siren sounding after 15:00 minutes?

O realize I'm late to the party, but where did your 0.75 oz number come from? Every source I've seen says one fl oz of HEET weighs in at 0.79 oz.

Mark, the offer to loan you my three favorite Caldera Cones is still open.

bonjour so which stove is the best ?

No Trangia? White Box? Evernew Titanium Alcohol Stove? Do you even alcohol stove, bro? Just kidding. Would’ve loved to see aforementioned tested though, especially the venerable Trangia.

is the stove from trail design a stout beer can? lol

How come when you do your tests you boil 12oz. on 1oz. of fuel but your leaderboard doesn't show these stoves boiling 12oz. using 0.5 oz. of fuel using the caldera cone. Using my own math that would mean anytime you use a caldera cone you get double the efficiency. Wondering why you don't distinguish this at all?

First!