Alcohol / Ultralight Stove Preferences

[CarolinaTrecker]

Hey y'all, I have a question to pose:

What is your preferred alcohol/ultra-light stove? I have seen many different designs, DIY, Minibull Designs, Zelph, etc. so I'm just trying to get an idea of what works best for y'all.

Happy Trails!

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

Definitely a lot of great options out there - I've been using the Caldera / Sidewinder systems from TrailDesigns for several years and am a big fan, especially of the Sidewinder system which will fit inside your cooking pot for storage while hiking. Alcohol stoves are really susceptible to wind, so some sort of windscreen is usually needed, and the guys at TrailDesigns have integrated the windscreen, pot stand, and stove into a really nice unit.

With the Ti-Tri models you also have the option of burning wood as well which can be really convenient at times. If you're interested, you can checkout our Ti-Tri Sidewinder Review for some more info from our first issue.

[CarolinaTrecker]

That looks pretty interesting, I like the design. I will definitely check out the review.

[JasonByers]

I have tried many and keep going back to the Starlyte by Zelph. The biggest pot I use is the snow peak 600 though. It doesn't work well with pots much bigger than that because the smaller pot stand makes it too wobbly. I made my own wind screen out of some ti foil from titaniumgoat.com. The starlye works perfect with your new flat bottom fosters pot. My fosters pot setup weighs in at 2.8oz with an empty 1.5oz fuel bottle and mini bic. Aaron is right though, lots of good options out there. This setup is my go to in the summer when my base is below 5 lbs. In the cooler seasons I'm not counting oz as much I'll use my snow peak 600 with the Starlyte.

[Lunar_Herbalist]

If anyone stumbles across this, this is my favorite stove.  I'm sure any twig stove would do the trick, they make some circular ones, etc.  The cost is pretty decent, it is not ultra light (its steel, not aluminum or titanium), but it does come with a bag that keeps the soot contained and it collapses flat, which is a big perk for me.

Now, for using it with an alcohol stove, I just use an empty fancy feast can or any can really and you can add your fuel to it and just light it on fire.  You don't need to do any modifications to the can/dish because your stove is your stand, windscreen, and heat funnel. The two combined make my preferred way to do things, but i can even skip on the alcohol and just use twigs to cook my food, the fuel tablets, or (if you have a lid) even a fire starter block which is basically a fuel tablet, i just don't like the plastics and stuff that surround them.

I like it because it is big enough to hold any pot i have even a kettle, i can put a frying pan on it if i want to, and it can be used just for containing a small fire that won't spread.  I seriously cannot overstate how much i love this thing.  I do wish I had one in titanium or something because the steel is starting to warp after some abuse, but its also pretty cheap and even though its warped it still fits together and does its job.