How did they make this stove adjustable with a knob??? Its only a fancy pop can stove, but I would love to know how they regulate it without spending the 30 bucks for it....

http://www.packafeather.com/stove.html

I would guess the flame is adjusted by restricting the airflow into the stove.

As can be seen in this picture the flame is wide open and the center band around the stove shows the air intake holes with more depth than with the second picture with the smaller flame.

Of course, I could be completely wrong.

You are completely correct. The band around the stove moves like a pipe clamp when you turn the little knob. Quite a brilliant, well thought out and made stove. Not at all complicated (as some here have implied), quite strong for a 46 gram piece, and I think it will last for years.

I wish the Caldera Cone had a stove that did this; it would be the most perfect stove system on the planet!

Has anyone tried one of these inside the Caldera Cone?

Hey Guys,
You have to remember one thing about the Caldera Cone. It is designed as a precision tuned SYSTEM that only works when all the pieces are used together. That is to say, if you switch the burner, the system will lose efficiency, or worse, fail. The cone creates an environment that is designed to concentrate and contain all the BTU's put out by the burner. If you use a different stove with "more power" you will end up using more fuel and will likely burn up the cone resulting in catastrophic failure. The Caldera System is designed for efficiency, not necessarily speed. Will it boil 2 cups of water in under 2 minutes? No. Will it boil 2 cups of water with less than a half ounce of fuel? Yes. The biggest thing to remember about the Caldera is that it is not a nifty cone-like pot stand with a center burner stove inside that can be switched around on a whim. It is a complete cooking unit that relies on all its components to work properly. The guys over at Trail Designs have spent far too much time tuning this system to be the most efficient thing possible. (What do you expect, they're backpacking engineers. Translation= Hopelessly perpetual tinkerers) If you remember that the Caldera is only the Caldera when you use only Caldera parts, you'll be all right. Trust the Cone.

I have used a simmer ring on a caldera stove to help with dry baking. It probably isn't as efficent as running the stove normally in order to boil water, but it does provide a longer burn using less fuel. I just took a piece of titanium windscreen, cut it to the height of the intake holes and cut to nocks on each end one on the top and one on the bottom. The nocks then fit together making a cylinder that fits over the stove. You start by resting the simmer ring on the stove, not covering the holes. Then start the stove. Once it get going. I use the spork to knock it down covering the vents. Simmer is still a little hot for dry baking but I dont need to watch the stove nearly as much.

I have wondered how tinny's new blackfly would function in the low oxygen environment of the caldera cone.

Edited by JasonS on 08/09/2007 17:03:15 MDT.

I own a few Cones, and my experience is the best combination of boil time and fuel consumption comes with the Trail Designs stove. Try to boil faster with another stove and you will burn more fuel; try to be more economical by burning a slower stove and your boil time will increase, or the water will not boil at all.
Since I am only boiling water for cook-in-a bag meals, the TD setup is optimized for what I do. I will not boil over alcohol without the cone.
However, If you want to simmer, use a throttled stove like the one mentioned above, or a Trangia; just realize you will burn more fuel.