New Stove Gear: Fire Maple 117t and XK6 “HE” Pot
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Here's a look at the Fire Maple set:
The 117t stove and XK6 pot
The pot and lid weigh out at 216 grams
The stove head weighs in at 98 grams.Some fitment issues, mentioned above:
The HK6 pot will hold a 220gram fuel canister, but if that goes in the pot first, the stove cannot fit below the lid.
If one places the 117t in first, to take advantage of the concave underside of the fuel canister, the canister will stand just barely proud of the pot's edge.
The lid of the HK6 pot has a raised section, apparently designed to snap onto the top of a fuel canister. This doesn't fit with the plastic cap in the fuel canister.
Once the fuel canister is matched up to the receptacle in the lid, it all closes up like this.Re: the stove supports and burner width, it's wide and nice. Too wide, in fact, for a Fosters can.
This one's balance carefully.
This is a comparison to the pot supports on an Optimus CruxFranco, you've described how I removed the pot lid the first time. As I realized the lid was super-hot, I pitched it quickly. I still managed to squish and malform the tab, which now looks like this:
Doug, the PM system hates me here — I get the email but there's no way to respond other than here in the forum. Yes, that set you found on Amazon is identical other than trim color and the logo.
Give me some examples of other 1 liter pots that are much lighter. Note that a stove this size isn't really set up for solo-hiking and the smaller pots one might use for that… in fact, my purpose with this rig is to proto out a Patrol Kit for 2-6 Scouts to use.
To date, I've been using old percolator coffee pots, with the guts removed, because they're wide and deep enough to hold a large fuel canister, a stove such as a Crux or Crux Lite and some "fire". Side-by-side with my 0.9 liter Optimus Weekender HE, the aluminum coffee pots take longer to boil, especially once I put the little "chicken pot pie windscreen" on the stove with the HE pot. So, whether I stick with the coffee pots or the snazzy new HE pot, the low, wide, easily windscreened 117t seems to be the ticket, so far.
Here, the FM pot, stove, mini bic, windscreen and bag, all of which still fit in most pockets that will hold an old Nalgene.I realized someone asked, "how much?" Answer: $59.80 for the set, shipped. I bought it using Alibaba and it arrived in about a week.
There are some issues to deal with before it goes to "Scout Trials": the pot lid needs a snippet of string through the tab, so that one can remove the lid with a spoon handle or stick; the inner ring of the HE fin shield has a burr on it that I'll have to sand off; the wind screen will be ventilated, lightened and tabbed so it can be secured in place with small rocks.
Here's my new cooking setup, for either one or two people. I actually cook rather than just boil water, so I prefer a wide, shallow pot to a narrow, tall one.
3.4 oz, Pot (Evernew 0.9L Ti with handles)
1.2 oz, Lid* (came with pot)
3.5 oz, Stove (FMS-117T)
1.1 oz, Windscreen* (homemade from Aluminum flashing)
9.2 oz, Sum* I could save weight by replacing the lid and windscreen with thinner foil but I prefer durable gear.
When not using alcohol, my previous stove was a Snowpeak Gigapower which weighed 3.1 ounces. With my new setup I get wind protection for only a 1.5 ounce penalty (0.4 oz extra for the stove plus 1.1 oz for the windscreen).
Question: How efficient is a setup like this compared to a stove / pot with an integrated heat exchanger (such as a Jetboil or the XK6 pot above)?
Casey,
No, we still need a windscreen with an HE pot, because the pot sits up on top of the supports, well above the stove head. The exceptions are the dedicated rigs, like the Jet Boil and Reactor, where the pot's connection incorporates a windscreen down around the burner.
The point to the HE is just increased surface area for transfer of heat to the pot, and the testing out there does show they're more efficient than the same pot w/o the fins. Now, they're not necessarily more efficient *per gram*, however. Anyway, the darn things boil stuff faster, and it's noticeable right off the bat!
Using my Optimus .9l HE pot on my Crux stove, I've loved the pot but noted that breezes in the Sierra not only gave me the impression they were stealing heat and reducing flame output, but created focused hot spots that burned sections of my HE ring. This will not do! So, I constructed a wind-screen for the Crux that's got an open bottom for draft, shields just the burner and HE ring and directs hot air up the sides of the pot.
The Chicken Pot Pie windscreen…hunkered down in 20mph+ gusts on the High Trail.This setup works great: the stove doesn't sputter in wind, stays on strong and boils faster. On a tabletop in San Diego w/o much breeze, 20 seconds faster on average with 20oz. Next to another Crux that was boiling the same volume of water in wider but non-HE pot, it was a minute faster with 20oz at Thousand Island Lake.
However, there are problems: the wind does toss around the flame a little and it burned up the windscreen (note jagged lower edges after a week of use in the photo above), the windscreen is badly beaten up after 15 or so uses, I don't know how long KFC will keep making pot pies and the pot sits real tall on the canister-top stoves.
So, I'm sold on the HE pots in concept, but we still need a windscreen similar to the one I photo'd above. My solution is to keep using my own Crux, but to work on a cool setup for use by 2-6 guys that's based on the 117t remote canister. It might be the hot ticket is the Fire Maple HE pot, or one of those 1 or 1.5l kettles. Not sure. So far, I am somewhat attached to the ability to stash the stovehead, fuel, mini Bic and windscreen all into one "unit".
Eric,
The Fire Maple 117T and canister (220 gram I think) easily fit in my Evernew 1.3L titanium pot, as the photo below shows. They did not fit in my 0.9L Evernew Titanium pot. Interestingly enough, switching from the 0.9L pot (3.4 oz) to the 1.3L pot (3.6 oz) will end up saving me 0.8 oz since I'll use an Aluminum pie pan lid (0.2 oz) instead of a titanium one (1.2 oz).
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