I recently picked up a new stove to lighten my outdoor cooking load a bit. I have been wanting a Trail Designs Ti-Tri Caldera cone for years now, but prefer a wider pot, and it is primarily meant to work with mugs. In the last year or so, the TD guys came out with the sidewinder and a was back to dreaming. With a bit of extra cash I splurged and bought myself the Sidewinder kit.
The kit comes with the alcohol stove, windscreen / cone, tent stake / pot supports, fuel bottle, fuel measuring cup, pot lifter and a basic aluminum 2qt pot. The whole package fits neatly into the pot.
The cone acts as both a windscreen and pot support with the ventilation optimized to get the most from their stove. It is in credibly simple to use. load the measured amount of denatured alcohol into the stove, light with a match, set the cone over and then set the pot on top.
I headed out early this morning to start putting it to good use. I was able to bring about 1qt of water to boil with 35ml of alcohol in a little over 15 minutes. This was with the sea breeze just starting to pick up.
I brewed up a bottle of tea for the road and enough left over to enjoy while things cooled off. I am impressed with what is really their most basic stove kit designed to boil at least a quart of water. Simple to use, quiet, clean, light weight and efficient with the fuel. The stove will also work well with Esbit fuel tabs. For a bit of a bump in price their titanium kits can burn wood as well.
The only down side to this kit is the size. While quite clearly described on their website, it is bigger than I envisioned. That is not really a problem, just what it is. I am sure that this stove is going to see a ton of use.
It looks cool Rob, but my 3oz. MSR Pocket Rocket will boil 1qt in about 2 minutes. The canisters are pretty light too. There is the disposal issue, but when I’m cold and hungry it sure works well.
I went back and forth on the options, and ended up here. I was boiling over 40oz water since I filled the 27 oz bottle with tea, and had at least a pint left over to drink. Still it is not as fast as the pocket rocket, but as you said less waste. From what I have read I should see significantly quicker boils with 2 cups of water, on the order of 5 minutes or less, which is pretty good for Alcohol burners.
We will all have to figure out a trip that works in the next few months and nerd out on the stoves.
Thanks for the reminder that I need some type of wind screen for my trangia / westwind stand combo. The last time I tried using it, the wind kept blowing it out. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001X3NNW/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00
I have read good things about the Trail Designs wind screens as well as using a Caldera Cone with a Trangia stove. The plus of the Trangia is being able to cap it off and save fuel in the stove for later. TD has a prototype simmer ring in the works as well ,looks good but not sure how to get them.