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Trail Designs Caldera Cone
Manufacturer Comment
February 26, 2007
First we would like to thank Jim Hatch, Jerry Goller and the good folks at BackpackGearTest.org for including the Caldera System in your test schedule. Your organization continues to provide an excellent service to both the vendors and the backpacking public.
Second, we would like note our appreciation for all the hard work that Chuck, Ralph, and Rosaleen offered in testing and documenting our gear's performance. This examination of our product with fresh eyes is exactly what we were hoping for. These reviews are providing us with a fantastic insight into how the Caldera System could be used in real world situations by our customers.
Third, we are very excited to see that the system was so well received by everybody! While the testers universally liked its performance, and noted almost no "dislikes", they still raised a few questions on which I hope to shed additional light:
- Fuel Bottle leakage - Yep....the standard off the shelf bottles with the flip up nozzles in the cap are pretty unreliable. Thanks for noting this. We have since abandoned this bottle design for one more akin to Ralph's suggestion. Our new bottles have a legitimate screw on cap and include a reducer insert for the bottle's neck that will allow you to "squirt" the fuel in a small stream.
- Blackened pot - Ralph noted that there was some blackening of his pot that cleaned off easily. We believe this to be the result of the huge variability in how different countries classify/make/legislate denatured alcohol/methylated spirits. The chemical components can vary widely, and still be categorized as denatured alcohol. We have some previous experience with our system in Australia, and this is not inconsistent. Our experiences with denatured alcohol in the US and the UK show a much cleaner burning fuel.
- Other fuels - Ralph and Rosaleen mentioned alternative fuels...like wood and esbit. Both of those fuels run much hotter than the alcohol stove, and can do damage to the temper of the aluminum, and as a consequence the closure's ability to reliably stay closed. So, we strongly urge that the aluminum Caldera cones only be used with the provided stove. Now, with that said, we are investigating building Caldera Cones out of other materials like titanium which will allow a much more interesting array of fuels.
- Other orientations - Ralph also discussed possibly turning the cone upside down, putting a screen over the large end, and using the gripper slot to feed
in wood. Again, we would recommend against this orientation. First, there is the stability issue. With the small end of the cone down, and the large end up, the risk of dumping a pot of boiling water on yourself is much higher. Second, the closure mechanism wasn't designed to hold in that direction and the risk of the assembly coming undone in a catastrophic way makes us more than a little nervous. However, we do want to thank Ralph for some excellent "out of the box" thinking here and keeping us on our toes! This never would have occurred to us and we will get these warnings in the product literature.
- Fuel handling - We would like to also re-enforce Ralph's observations that harvesting unused fuel from the stove is a tricky and potentially dangerous business. As he concluded.....it is best to just let it burn off.
- Simmer ring - It was noted that a "simmer ring" would be nice. This is most definitely on our "to do" list. We have experimented with a few adjustable stove designs, prototyped a few, and are wrestling with just how best to productize this feature. Stay tuned...it's on the radar.
- Raising the stove - There was some experimentation with propping the stove up higher. So you know, we build Caldera Cones for a variety of pots and mugs. Each cone is custom designed for each pot/mug to not only match its outer diameter, but also to hold the pot/mug at a consistent height over the stove. While you are welcome to experiment with different offsets, we would like to note that this dimension was taken into account when the cone was designed, and we tried to find the optimum distance. If you have suggestions for a better offset....please let us know!
NOW, with that said, we never envisioned people using it to set their frying pan on!!! Very creative and exactly the kind of "ah-ha moment" we were hoping to have with these tests. So, given the frying pan concept, it's possible there are scenarios that warrant moving the stove up. :-)
In closing, we would like to once again thank everyone that participated. It was tremendously informative and a lot of fun....thanks!
Trail Designs:
Rand Lindsly
Russ Zandbergen
Lee Zandbergen
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