Since a while I have been using the Clikstand system to brew my hot chocolate when on a evening or day walk. It reminds me very much of the Trangia, but does away with the massive weight of the Swedish system. I have two of their combos, the Denali Titanium Combo and the Sierra Combo - the Denali being Titanium awesomeness and the Sierra being affordable stainless steel.
Before you read on, hit play and enjoy the video I made, in which I compare the two systems to each other:
The Denali Titanium Combo weights are as follows:
258 g Total 055 g Clikstand T-2 021 g Windscreen T-2 035 g Evernew Titanium Burner 118 g Evernew Titanium Ultralight 900 ml pot (Pot 82 g, Lid 37 g) 022 g Stuffsack
The Denali Titanium Combo packed.
The Denali is the top of the line set, everything made of high quality Titanium, and very high build quality. The whole set fits into the 900 ml pot. And the pot would be one item where I could see improvement - I'd like to see Evernew add a spout and holes into the lid, as they have in their pasta pots. Besides that, I believe this is as close to perfection as it is possible. Quality and perfection have their price, and the Denali Titanium Combo retails for $163,95.
Evernew Ti Burner in action.
Lets thus have a look at the Sierra Combo and its weights:
245 g Total 096 g Clikstand S-2 038 g Windscreen S-2 111 g Trangia Burner (Burner 67 g, Simmer Ring 24 g, Closing Cap 21 g)
The Sierra Combo sells without a pot, thus adding for example the above Evernew 900 ml pot would bring the weight up to 363 g. That is about one third of the Trangia 25-3 UL set (though it has two pots and a pan) which I see as the direct competitor of the Sierra Set. Anyway, the Sierra Combo is 134 g heavier as the Titanium version - the Trangia burner alone weights as much as the Ti Clikstand, Windscreen and Burner! However, at $51,95 it is also over one third cheaper than the Ti cousin.
Trangia burner in action.
I think both systems are great for the Lightweight and UL backpacker who are looking for a lighter kitchen setup. The advantages are that the parts can be bought separate, allowing the Trangia and Evernew Burner owners to just get the Clikstand and Windscreen of choice and keep on using the burner and pots they have. It is easier and more "normal" as some other UL cooking systems (beer cans ;), and a very stable system. Finally, the Trangia simmer ring allows you to actually cook and not only boil water.
The Evernew Burner is a lot faster than the Trangia, needing about 5 minutes to bring 500 ml of cold water to a boil, whereas the Trangia needs about 7 minutes. However, the Evernew burns only 7,5 minutes with 30 ml of alcohol, whereas the Trangia goes on for 10 minutes with the same amount of alcohol. As I said in the video, if you only want to boil water as fast as possible to pour it in our freezer bag, go for the Evernew - it is the speed machine. If you like to cook and simmer in camp, go for the Trangia, which has the added benefit that you can transport unused alcohol in thanks to the closing cap.
I'd like to pass the two Clikstand sets around to five different readers and have them test them. If you're a total newbie to lightweight alcohol stoves or a seasoned veteran, anyone can apply for a test of the sets. So how does this work? I send out the sets to the first reader, and he gets to play around with them for two weeks. You need to have access to alcohol (I can't send it) and you need to be willing to pay the postage to send it to the next person, but besides that its completely free to you and allows you to test the Clikstand systems without shelling out the money first. After your two weeks of playing you send the sets forward to the next in line, and drop me a short email about what you thought of the set, which will be published here on the blog. In that way we can collect different viewpoints on the Clikstand, see how it performs in different environments, and get a nice review together.
You want to take part in the Passaround? Great! What you need to do is leave a comment underneath (preferrably not anonymous), and next week Tuesday (13th of July) around noon I will randomly pick the five people who get to test the Clikstands. While I'd love to have this Passaround open to everyone, sending packages, even small ones like these, is expensive, so I'd would like to limit it this time to Europe, with a preference for Scandinavia and the Baltics. Before you hit the comment button, I'd like to remember you - you should be able to get alcohol for the test in your town, you need to be willing to pay the shipping costs to the next person, and you're fine with sending me a short statement of your opinion with a photo or two. If that sounds like a good deal to you, please comment!
And in case you say "That's all I needed to know, thanks!" and want to buy one right away, visit the Clikstand and chose your favourite!
Since a while I have been using the Clikstand system to brew my hot chocolate when on a evening or day walk. It reminds me very much of the Trangia, but does away with the massive weight of the Swedish system. I have two of their combos, the Denali Titanium Combo and the Sierra Combo - the Denali being Titanium awesomeness and the Sierra being affordable stainless steel.
Before you read on, hit play and enjoy the video I made, in which I compare the two systems to each other:
The Denali Titanium Combo weights are as follows:
258 g Total 055 g Clikstand T-2 021 g Windscreen T-2 035 g Evernew Titanium Burner 118 g Evernew Titanium Ultralight 900 ml pot (Pot 82 g, Lid 37 g) 022 g Stuffsack
The Denali Titanium Combo packed.
The Denali is the top of the line set, everything made of high quality Titanium, and very high build quality. The whole set fits into the 900 ml pot. And the pot would be one item where I could see improvement - I'd like to see Evernew add a spout and holes into the lid, as they have in their pasta pots. Besides that, I believe this is as close to perfection as it is possible. Quality and perfection have their price, and the Denali Titanium Combo retails for $163,95.
Evernew Ti Burner in action.
Lets thus have a look at the Sierra Combo and its weights:
245 g Total 096 g Clikstand S-2 038 g Windscreen S-2 111 g Trangia Burner (Burner 67 g, Simmer Ring 24 g, Closing Cap 21 g)
The Sierra Combo sells without a pot, thus adding for example the above Evernew 900 ml pot would bring the weight up to 363 g. That is about one third of the Trangia 25-3 UL set (though it has two pots and a pan) which I see as the direct competitor of the Sierra Set. Anyway, the Sierra Combo is 134 g heavier as the Titanium version - the Trangia burner alone weights as much as the Ti Clikstand, Windscreen and Burner! However, at $51,95 it is also over one third cheaper than the Ti cousin.
Trangia burner in action.
I think both systems are great for the Lightweight and UL backpacker who are looking for a lighter kitchen setup. The advantages are that the parts can be bought separate, allowing the Trangia and Evernew Burner owners to just get the Clikstand and Windscreen of choice and keep on using the burner and pots they have. It is easier and more "normal" as some other UL cooking systems (beer cans ;), and a very stable system. Finally, the Trangia simmer ring allows you to actually cook and not only boil water.
The Evernew Burner is a lot faster than the Trangia, needing about 5 minutes to bring 500 ml of cold water to a boil, whereas the Trangia needs about 7 minutes. However, the Evernew burns only 7,5 minutes with 30 ml of alcohol, whereas the Trangia goes on for 10 minutes with the same amount of alcohol. As I said in the video, if you only want to boil water as fast as possible to pour it in our freezer bag, go for the Evernew - it is the speed machine. If you like to cook and simmer in camp, go for the Trangia, which has the added benefit that you can transport unused alcohol in thanks to the closing cap.
I'd like to pass the two Clikstand sets around to five different readers and have them test them. If you're a total newbie to lightweight alcohol stoves or a seasoned veteran, anyone can apply for a test of the sets. So how does this work? I send out the sets to the first reader, and he gets to play around with them for two weeks. You need to have access to alcohol (I can't send it) and you need to be willing to pay the postage to send it to the next person, but besides that its completely free to you and allows you to test the Clikstand systems without shelling out the money first. After your two weeks of playing you send the sets forward to the next in line, and drop me a short email about what you thought of the set, which will be published here on the blog. In that way we can collect different viewpoints on the Clikstand, see how it performs in different environments, and get a nice review together.
You want to take part in the Passaround? Great! What you need to do is leave a comment underneath (preferrably not anonymous), and next week Tuesday (13th of July) around noon I will randomly pick the five people who get to test the Clikstands. While I'd love to have this Passaround open to everyone, sending packages, even small ones like these, is expensive, so I'd would like to limit it this time to Europe, with a preference for Scandinavia and the Baltics. Before you hit the comment button, I'd like to remember you - you should be able to get alcohol for the test in your town, you need to be willing to pay the shipping costs to the next person, and you're fine with sending me a short statement of your opinion with a photo or two. If that sounds like a good deal to you, please comment!
And in case you say "That's all I needed to know, thanks!" and want to buy one right away, visit the Clikstand and chose your favourite!
My stove of choice for a couple of years now has been the Clikstand S-2 and Trangia burner. When they released the T-2 I made the switch but quickly realized that I do not like the Evernew titanium burner. While it may boil water a little faster, it seems to run out of fuel very quickly making it pretty useless for larger pots. Also, the simmer ring doesn't work on it either, which I actually like a lot. So, I have switched back to the Trangia burner for better performance, even though it is heavier.
I think it's illegal to send used alcohol stoves internationally - at least it is from the US to Europe. But of course, rules are meant to be broken...
I have been using a clickstand for about 6 years now and can recommend them highly. A great piece of kit that just keeps on working. Did not realise that there were loads of different models as there was just one when I bought mine.
Thanks for the nice video comparing the two. Personally I think I would use the Trangia in it since it seems to be a superior burner even though it is heavier.
ADVENTUREinPROGRESS, thanks for the comment. The setup you use seems to be the best of both worlds - lightness of the Ti parts and usefulness of the Trangia burner!
Mark, the first rule is: There are no rules. ;) Seriously, though, we have been sending alcohol stoves (used as well) in the UL Mystery box, and there have been no problems.
Thanks Martin. I agree, Trangia burner + titanium stand is likely the best option.
James, I didn't even know Clikstand is that old! Thanks for letting us know, and giving us the long-term perspective & thumbs up!
Takk Thomas! Indeed it seems the Trangia burner seems to be a favourite =)
Excellent review, Hendrik. Your results mirror my own findings. I still can't work out which is the 'best' to carry. With the Ti I can carry more fuel for the same weight, but with the SS I carry more burner weight but need less fuel. On balance I prefer the Trangia because I'm of an age where the Trangia was my first backpacking stove and I just love the feel of the brass!!!:) Probably best alternative is to use the Ti Clikstand and Trangia Burner. By the way...I'll be back iin circulation in a few days. Cheers.
Nice comparison. An alternative for trangia lovers indeed. The trangia burner is the heavy bit so to see. Wonder where swapping out the tramgia butner for teh Ti burner with teh ss stand would get you. Otherwise its a lot of euros per gram saved!
I think the comparison to Trangia should have been done against Trangia 27-3 UL (or HA), which has 2*1L pots + non-stick frying pan and weights 740g. Pots in Trangia 25-3 UL are 1.5L and 1.75L (vs. 0.9L in those two that you tested), which also makes windshield larger and raises the weight to 900g.
P.S. Mini Trangia is 330g (non-stick pan, 0.8L pot, etc.)
First I was thinking that I have no interest on these stoves but...
I could do some testing against pepsi can, super cat and Trangia stoves. So if you have not yet picked the lucky ones, I'd be interested to participate in testing.
Before I comment on your Clickstand review here is a quote from the late Colin Fletcher in his The Complete Walker 4, page 308:
“ It is important that you don’t treat the information in these(or any) tables as gospel. The fickness of stoves remains one of the deeper mysteries of life. So every series of tests remains the subject of the vagaries and variabilities of individual stoves (any stove may perform differently on successive burns), of fuels and cartridges, and of experimental conditions. But none of these things quite seem to explain why independent investigators, seeking only the truth, generate figures so disparate that you sometimes wonder if they live on the same planet. Still, the disparities are a fact. I therefore rest confident that somebody somewhere will do similar tests and come up with wildly different answers.”
Having cognisance of Fletcher above and your results ….I found the opposite re Trangia burner vs Evernew Ti burner!
My clickstand is the stainless steel type.
Here are the results of a few tests:
Stainless steel Clickstand with windshield, Trangia burner, Evernew 900ml pot with lid. Ambient temperature 17˚C, water temperature 9˚C, water volume 500 ml wind speed 5 mph. Altitude above sea level: 235 metres.
Boil times: Test 1 6’.27” Test 2 6.’.00” Test 3 6’. 03”
As above but substituting Trangia burner with Evernew Titanium burner:
Test 1 7’.32” Test 2 6’.46” Test 3 7’.20”
Thus in my tests the Trangia is more efficient…..
It would not surprise me if other people get entirely different results!!!
One question that came to my mind about these new stoves is that have you tried your trangia pots (1.5l and 1.75l pots in 25-3 set) with these clickstand stoves? Just wondering, because if they do work, then I could make my pack lighter by taking clickstand and windshield from one of these two options and my old burner, titanium frying pan and pots from Trangia set. Of course one question that comes to my mind on this sort of combo is that if clickstand has shorter distance between burner and pot and clickstand only sells 0.9l and 1.3l pots, would it only warm the center of a Trangia pots or would it still be able to evenly spread the warm to the whole bottom of pot.
This is an interesting discussion. I have both the larger Trangia 25 and the smaller Trangia 27, both in HA UL form. They are simple, and allow me to cook real meals rather than just warm up some ready made meal. The relatively heavy weight of the T 25 does not bother me too much, as it is shared with somebody else. As for the Trangia 27, it is only a little bit lighter, but all that weight has to be carried by just one person, so here weight does matter. If you look more carefully at the weight of the parts, it becomes clear that the pots and the 19 cm diameter (!)frying pan are not the problem: they each weigh only 80 grams, wich is as good as a titanium equivalent, and spread the heat far better. The hard anodized surface also is almost as non stick as teflon. The grip is a bit heavy heavy at 50 grams, but can be replaced by something lighter. The brass burner is heavy, but as many have argued, it is precisely magically good. So it stays until such moment as Trangia designs a lighter equivalent. What remains are the two parts of the windshield: together 262 grams, of which 170 in the upper part with the steel ring and the steel fold out tabs. This is where the Clikstand comes in, replacing precisely these heavy parts by a much lighter equivalent (77 gram in Ti), a reduction of 185 grams. What do you loose by going that route? Nothing for boiling water. But when you want to use the frying pan, it is not raised like on the original Trangia, so there is a bigger risk of a burnt steak. And you cannot use the upper windscreen with the frying pan. So I have a few questions for those who have used the Clikstand. The first is whether in heavy wind the stand itself also functions well without the windscreen, such as when you are frying. The second is if frying works at all well, given the much shorter distance to the flame - or does your steak get carbonated? Thirdly, and since volume is sometimes as important as weight, do the Clikstand and the windscreen fit inside one of the two Trangia 27 pots, with the burner and preferably also the grip. The beauty of the original Trangia is that it all fits together so nicely.
I prefer the Trangia as I find its simmering ring very useful for cooking. Thanks for the first look. I've been using the SS clikstand + windshield with my Trangia and like it a lot!
I have modified my Trangia 27 kit by discarding the pots and frying pan and replacing them with the Trangia kettle. The magic is the windscreen so it stays. The Trangia burner is engineered for it's windscreen and can not perform as well with the Clikstand.
Hello Hendrik. Intresting review. I am very intrested in this kind of stoves - I actually constucted a stove of my own, wich was then produced and sold in stores in sweden. You can have a look at my video at youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNOx3kPPH1Q Thats me in the video. I really would like to be part in this test, so if there is still room for one more tryoutguy - You can send the stoves to me aswell. Today I major use a esbit stove bcz its easy to bring the metatablets on the flight. Best regards, [email protected]
Hello Hendrik. Intresting review. I am very intrested in this kind of stoves - I actually constucted a stove of my own, wich was then produced and sold in stores in sweden. You can have a look at my video at youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNOx3kPPH1Q Thats me in the video. I really would like to be part in this test, so if there is still room for one more tryoutguy - You can send the stoves to me aswell. Today I major use a esbit stove bcz its easy to bring the metatablets on the flight. Best regards, [email protected]
This is an interesting discussion. I have both the larger Trangia 25 and the smaller Trangia 27, both in HA UL form. They are simple, and allow me to cook real meals rather than just warm up some ready made meal. The relatively heavy weight of the T 25 does not bother me too much, as it is shared with somebody else. As for the Trangia 27, it is only a little bit lighter, but all that weight has to be carried by just one person, so here weight does matter. If you look more carefully at the weight of the parts, it becomes clear that the pots and the 19 cm diameter (!)frying pan are not the problem: they each weigh only 80 grams, wich is as good as a titanium equivalent, and spread the heat far better. The hard anodized surface also is almost as non stick as teflon. The grip is a bit heavy heavy at 50 grams, but can be replaced by something lighter. The brass burner is heavy, but as many have argued, it is precisely magically good. So it stays until such moment as Trangia designs a lighter equivalent. What remains are the two parts of the windshield: together 262 grams, of which 170 in the upper part with the steel ring and the steel fold out tabs. This is where the Clikstand comes in, replacing precisely these heavy parts by a much lighter equivalent (77 gram in Ti), a reduction of 185 grams. What do you loose by going that route? Nothing for boiling water. But when you want to use the frying pan, it is not raised like on the original Trangia, so there is a bigger risk of a burnt steak. And you cannot use the upper windscreen with the frying pan. So I have a few questions for those who have used the Clikstand. The first is whether in heavy wind the stand itself also functions well without the windscreen, such as when you are frying. The second is if frying works at all well, given the much shorter distance to the flame - or does your steak get carbonated? Thirdly, and since volume is sometimes as important as weight, do the Clikstand and the windscreen fit inside one of the two Trangia 27 pots, with the burner and preferably also the grip. The beauty of the original Trangia is that it all fits together so nicely.
Before I comment on your Clickstand review here is a quote from the late Colin Fletcher in his The Complete Walker 4, page 308:
“ It is important that you don’t treat the information in these(or any) tables as gospel. The fickness of stoves remains one of the deeper mysteries of life. So every series of tests remains the subject of the vagaries and variabilities of individual stoves (any stove may perform differently on successive burns), of fuels and cartridges, and of experimental conditions. But none of these things quite seem to explain why independent investigators, seeking only the truth, generate figures so disparate that you sometimes wonder if they live on the same planet. Still, the disparities are a fact. I therefore rest confident that somebody somewhere will do similar tests and come up with wildly different answers.”
Having cognisance of Fletcher above and your results ….I found the opposite re Trangia burner vs Evernew Ti burner!
My clickstand is the stainless steel type.
Here are the results of a few tests:
Stainless steel Clickstand with windshield, Trangia burner, Evernew 900ml pot with lid. Ambient temperature 17˚C, water temperature 9˚C, water volume 500 ml wind speed 5 mph. Altitude above sea level: 235 metres.
Boil times: Test 1 6’.27” Test 2 6.’.00” Test 3 6’. 03”
As above but substituting Trangia burner with Evernew Titanium burner:
Test 1 7’.32” Test 2 6’.46” Test 3 7’.20”
Thus in my tests the Trangia is more efficient…..
It would not surprise me if other people get entirely different results!!!
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