Comparison of the 12-10 stove and the packafeather XL stove

[Bluegum Mic]

I recently puchased a caldera cone to use with my Vargo Ti 750ml mug. After looking at several videos on YouTube and reviews online about time to boil using the supplied 12-10 stove, it left me thinking that this stove would be slower than my much loved packafeather XL.
http://packafeather.com/xlstove.html
http://www.traildesigns.com/stoves/caldera-cone-system

I decided to put my theory to test to see the results.

For both stoves I used 1oz of metho (measured) and 500ml of water at room temperature. Wind was not a factor as both were tested in my trusty kitchen sink under the same conditions. For both I measured time to boil in the cone with the lid on the pot. Once boiled I removed the cone off the stove and let the stove continue to burn out of fuel. I also noted this time.

First up I tested the 12-10 stove in the cone. It took 6min 31sec to bring the water to a rolling boil and the flame finally died at 11min 30sec.

I then tested the packafeather XL and it took 4min 48 seconds to get to a rolling boil and the flame died out at 7min 42sec.

Some comments. Firstly the 12-10 is a lovely stove. Its robust, well made and well designed. Its got a well focused flame and performs well with good fuel economy.

As for the packafeather...well there's nothing scientific here I just love this stove. Its absolutely delightful for a metho stove and packs away neatly. Now it obviously burned hotter and thus was less fuel efficient but the one thing I didn't mention was this stove has a flame control. For the purpose of this test I had the stove opened right up going all out. There is a brilliant simmer ring on this stove that dials in and out with a screwing mechanism. I will conduct further testing to give an exact time but I can tell you this stove will simmer for ages. I have cooked a risotto on it in field and it cooked away happily for over 20 minutes (with slightly more fuel).

12-10 stove weighs 16g
Packafeather weighs 45g

Now obviously if your a gram weenie and want minimal weight with an efficient stove the 12-10 is the way to go. I personally feel the extra 29g is no issue especially considering I have got good flame control (ie can go for either hot fast flame or simmer and more efficient) and the ability to snuff the flame out and save fuel (the 12-10 cannot be snuffed unfortunately).

So verdict for me is ill be using my XL with the cone in field. Note I also own a starlyte stove and will compare it to the 12-10 (I've already done a test at home before so I know its slower than the XL).

Some pics


12-10 on left XL on the right as they would be stored




Ready to put in my pack with pot, silicone mat, XL stove, spork, cup, fuel bottle, caldera cone and lighter

NB the case of the cone is food grade and can be used as a cup and bowl. I will most likely ditch my sea to summit collapsing cup.

[forest]

Thanks for the review.

I haven't seen that packafeather stove and it looks interesting.

I have the fosters pot caldera cone and really like the whole system. I played with a few other diy can stoves I had under the cone. One thing I noticed is that the fuel effiency wasn't as good with other stoves under the cone. I think the 12-10 stove is designed for the lower oxygen enviroment under the cone (I read that somewhere online)
Might be interesting to see if you get the same really long simmer times with the packafeather under the cone. Might work great, or not ??

I love the caddy, now I can have soup (in one half).... and a cold drink (in the other half)..... and be boiling water (in the fosters pot) for my freeze dried meal...... all at once !!

I'm just about to order the gram cracker esbit stove to try with the caldera cone. Meant to be very good and I figured esbit sounds like a good back-up option to my bushbuddy if I just take that and it's really wet.

[Bluegum Mic]

No problem. Ill put it to the test shortly and let you know (toddler sleeping and Im a tad noisy clanging round the kitchen Ill be interested to see your esbit results too.

Edit: I have tested the XL under the exact conditions used above except with the simmer ring tightened. Note I let the stove run for 30 seconds full heat to prime the alcohol before tightening the simmer ring.
A rolling boil was still achieved at 7min 14sec. The flame finally burned out at 14min 32sec. Note this stove can take double that in fuel (2oz/60ml) so you can obviously achieve greater burn times.

[Bluegum Mic]

To give some figures-
The 12-10 burns 2.47g/min of fuel. It used 0.57oz/16.9ml of fuel to boil 500ml of water.

The XL burns 3.69g/min of fuel at full heat and 2.02g/min with the simmer ring fully tightened. Full heat it uses 0.63oz/18.6ml of fuel to boil 500ml and 0.52oz/15.4ml with the simmer ring tightened.

Obviously these figures only apply to my benign kitchen environment so for windy/cold conditions a higher fuel usage would be expected.

[Dale]

I like the looks of the packafeather - the simmering option is tempting. The website says the stove is compatible with Esbit tablets. Have you tried these ?

[ULWalkingPhil]

Good to know the Caldera cooking system is a hit and the 12-10 stove is a hit as well.

I've ordered a couple of the cooking kits from Trail Designs last week. Looking forward for my new cooking systems. Should be here by the end of the week. Your test with the 12-10 is very interesting. although I will not be using mine, I'm going to use the Gram Cracker.

[ULWalkingPhil]

To give some figures-
The 12-10 burns 2.47g/min of fuel. It used 0.57oz/16.9ml of fuel to boil 500ml of water.

The XL burns 3.69g/min of fuel at full heat and 2.02g/min with the simmer ring fully tightened. Full heat it uses 0.63oz/18.6ml of fuel to boil 500ml and 0.52oz/15.4ml with the simmer ring tightened.

Obviously these figures only apply to my benign kitchen environment so for windy/cold conditions a higher fuel usage would be expected.

Wouldn't the Cone give you similar results in the wild? That will be an interesting test, to do the same outside with a bit of wind blowing to see if the figures are the same as inside.

I'll be able to do some tests as soon my Kit's arrive. I purchased the Caldera Cone Titanium Sidewinder Ti-Tri with the Inferno and the Caldera Keg with the Gram Cracker (Esbit Tablet Cooker) ETA is the end of this week. Lot's of tests and reports this weekend. Also expecting my new Hammock Gear Cuben Tarp to turn up in the next few days.