Fire Maple Petrel pot mods

[Jan Rezac]

I’ve rebuilt the Petrel pot to my liking: the original handle was replaced with interlocking fold out handles made of titanium, lighter and more packable. I also modified the slits in the heat exchanger to make it work with BRS 3000 and PRD Deluxe stoves. The lid (heavy, and getting stuck when hot) was replaced with Toaks titanium one.

The pot now weights 121 g, supposedly the same as the Sterno Inferno unobtainium pot. With a lid, it is 138 g. The original setup with a lid was 164 g.

 

 

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Excellent!  Nice job.

[Joe Wolner]

Hello Jan, would you be so kind as to share how you modified the slits in the heat exchanger? Looks clean and tidy!

[Matthew / BPL]

That looks great!

[DAN-Y]

Jan….I really like your modifications :-)

You inspired me to use the plastic McDonald’s lid. The lid on my Petrel was sticking when boiling water just like you said about yours. Awesome improvement.

[DAN-Y]

Oops….It was Alan that introduced the plastic lid.

I’ll see if I can come up with a way to do your new handle mod.

[Adam Kilpatrick]

wondering how much the original handle weighs? While I have a couple (like BOT 700) of pots with built in handles, I prefer a separate gripper to be honest… (hate it when they get hot and I just want to take the pot off the stove after turning it off…feels too unsafe to me)

Also feel like I can save more weight this way, there are lighter options out now like Suluk’s, the Soto ones etc.

 

[Jan Rezac]

The original handle I removed weights 24 grams. I didn’t weight the replacement I put on, and I don’t have the weight of the rivets, but the math tells me that the new handle is 18 g lighter when installed. That means it’s one third of the original.

[Casey Bowden]

Inspired by Jan, I bought and modified a Petrel as follows:

Stock photo of the Petrel.

 

Another stock photo of the Petrel. One item to note is that the handle when folded closed holds the lid on tightly so a stuff sack is not required (although it comes with one).

 

 

Last stock photo. Note how low the burner is relative to the pot. Does not seem like it would perform well in the wind.

 

My modified setup, all wrapped up. I replaced the handle with a neoprene cozy, made a lighter lid, used string and a cord lock to hold it all together, modified the bottom slots to accept a BRS stove, and made a 360 degree coverage windscreen.

 

Everything, including the windscreen, fits easily inside the pot.

 

Everything removed from the pot.

 

Enlarged slots to accommodate a BRS stove plus an aluminum flashing windscreen held in place with three (3) stainless steel bicycle spokes.

 

BRS arms in modified Petrel slots. By the way, I used an angle grinder to enlarge my slots, which I do NOT recommend. If I do it again I will borrow a Dremel rotary tool.

 

Windscreen comes down to the wire handle of the BRS stove.

 

Complete setup. Ready for cooking in the wind.

 

Aluminum flashing lid is only 7 grams, versus 27 grams for the stock lid.

 

Summary of the changes and weights.

[Jerry Adams]

Nice work

The windscreen directs the flames next to the outside of the pot

Is the cover over the outside of the pot flammable?  Would it get too hot?

[Megan W]

I’m curious- doesn’t the neoprene insulate the pot FROM the flame when on the stove? Ie reduce efficiency? Or does it not matter much as the heat up the sides not have much impact in this set up?

(This might have been answered in other threads, of course).

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

This might help to answer your question.

[Megan W]

Thanks Jon, that was really interesting to watch.

[Jerry Adams]

good video, thanks

your neoprene sleeve melted in some conditions, but you didn’t test when having a windscreen direct the exhaust up the sides of the pot which would make it even worse

that makes sense that the sleeve isn’t very useful, thanks

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Jerry,

I did not show the pictures as the impact on the sleeve is dependent.  With a regulated stove on high, I did not see a problem using the Cheetah JetBoil windscreen.  With the unregulated Greenpeak on high with the same windscreen it burned the sleeve and melted a large area.

[Jerry Adams]

ahhh…  the greenpeak’s high is higher than the Soto’s

so, as long as you don’t turn a stove on really high, the neoprene sleeve should be fine

but, according to your experiments, the neoprene sleeve doesn’t add any useful advantage so not using it is best

[Casey Bowden]

Jon, interesting video. The purpose of my sleeve, which was homemade, not the Fire Maple version, was simply to replace the stock handle. And the sleeve totally works in that regard, it does not get too hot, nor has it shown any sign of burning, even when using it with the windscreen, with an unregulated BRS stove.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Keep in mind, to generate the curves, I run the unregulated stove at full blast on a new canister. Not something an experienced backpacker would do.  The curve show exactly why you need to throttle back an unregulated stove in order to obtain good fuel efficiency.  That being said, some people want a fast boil and burning through 14 g of fuel is not a big deal to them. HYOH.

[bradmacmt]

So I took delivery of a Fire Maple G3 this week, and got to work modifying it.

Pot with everything including lid: 5.89 oz’s

Lid: 1.02 oz’s

I drilled out the handle: 0.90 oz’s (not including rivets)

Pot bare, without handle: 3.92 oz’s

I cut the top off right at the bottom rivet hole: 0.85 oz’s

“New” pot: 3.01 oz’s

I sanded the top smooth starting with 150 grit, 200, then 400 Emery and 600 Emery. I also eased the edges on both the inside and outside with 400 and 600. Super Smooth!

Next I recycled an old Jetboil Ti Cozy, and cut it to 2.5″ tall. I finished it with a lid from a Medium sized Ziploc container that I use on my Sterno Inferno HX pot.

The G3 pot holds exactly 600ml to the very top of the pot, so 550 ml would be about the max you’d want to boil in it. For reference I’ve included a photo of the Sterno Inferno (it holds 650ml to the top).

Cozy: 0.32 oz’s

Pot, Cozy and Lid: 3.51 oz’s

 

 

 

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Very nice!  I think that I will do that to my G3 as well.  For those of you who want a metal lid, the 12 Imuza replacement lid from Batchstovez/Dutchware also fits (17 grams).

 

BTW, it turns out that the smaller G3 mug (600 ml)  weighs the same as the larger G2 mug (750 ml): about 136 grams — mug only.

 

[bradmacmt]

Thanks Jon – you’re a big part of the inspiration for this mod.

The no.12 Imusa lid I have is too large for the G3 (it does fit the Sterno Inferno), but the Toaks 550ml Ti pot lid fits this to absolute perfection, – like it was made for it (18.5 g).

[bradmacmt]

Also Jon, per your idea, I ground off the little “keeper” hook on the Soto Windmaster Triflex pot support. Now it goes in and out of the G3 slots easily.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

My mistake on the lid – 12 cm Imuza replacement for the G2 (750 ml). / 10 cm Imuza replacement for the G3 (600 ml).  FYI – Fire Maple also offeres the GreenPeak II stove that have a piezo and is regulated.  It has these silly mini arms that keep it from working with the G3, but if you grind them off, it will fit perfectly.  In addition, the arms are long enough to add a windscreen.  Full video will be out next week.

[bradmacmt]

Here’s the G3-SHORT with 95mm Toaks lid – this is probably how I’ll run it: 3.98 oz / 112.8g

 

[David Gardner]

If the sleeve is only useful as a handle it doesn’t need to go all the way down from the rim, just and inch or two

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