HX mug weight reduction hack

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

HX pots are cheap, but a little large and heavier than you would like. I had a Fire Maple 1-liter HX mug laying around so I decided to see if I could make it more viable. IMO, HX mugs are great for fuel efficiency/speed/and potentially wind robustness. Since HX mugs are only really only good for boiling water, this would be for the fast and light crowd.
A complete Fire Maple HX mug weighed 7.2 oz with the silicone lid. I removed the handles and the fast and light crowd can use a bandana or glove to pick up the mug. I hacked it down to about a 650 ml volume. I ended up putting a flange around the lip so that I could still use the snap fit lid.

Final weight –3.5 oz. (no lid) / 4,6 oz, with the factory lid. I would like to find an off the shelf, low cost lid for this. For the fast and light crowd, you probably don’t need a lid as HX pot boil so fast and you are probably only looking to heat it up to “frog eyes” anyway.

I also hacked down a WideSea HX mug. At 650 ml it weighed 3.0 oz. (no lid).

Footnote: The Fire Maple HX mug is tall and you will cut off a lot of material. The best thing to do is to practice. You can do this by just trimming off the lip and create the flange. Just use a pair of pliers and slowly work your way around the lip. It took me 10 revolutions to get a nice flange. Then cut that section off and do it again. When you get to the final height, you will have several practices runs in. Good Luck.

[Stephen Seeber]

Hi Jon:

The hack I would like to see is a koozie such as the cover for the Jetboil flash pot.  As you can imagine, as wind increases, the heat loss from the uninsulated pots must become substantial.   A cylindrical insulating cover that slipped over the pot, did not cover the bottom, and could withstand high heat might produce significant efficiency savings.  So, what do you suppose the material is that jackets the Flash pot?

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

I do not think that the insulation does much when you want to boil water. You are putting in close to 1000 watts of power so the loss is negligible. It will make a difference cooling off though. That being said, most people are doing freezer bag cooking so it does not matter. My 2 cents.

 

[Stephen Seeber]

I got to thinking about this after watching this video. I wish she had repeated her third trial with a fan on.  In still air, the results support your statement.   Its moving air that I am curious about.   I have ordered some high temp insulation and tape, so I will give it a shot and see.  I would not be surprised if you are right.  You have studied these issues for a long time and I have been thinking about it for a couple of days.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

She did a good job on the video; I have actually talked to her about it.  Far better than most.  She has actually done some statistical analysis to support her claims which she did not post.   There are 2 key issues

1) You have to measure windspeed: sorry, there is no other way. Most of those small fans are in the 2-4 mph. And a 4-5 mph wind is pretty low.

2) You really need to draw the air over the pot rather than blow the air into the pot. Blowing the air causes a lot of turbulence and will cause unpredictable gust and different vectors

I don’t think that insulation will make much of a difference.  I went back through the number: if you boiled 2 cups of 20 C water in 2 minutes, your stove delivered just over 2000 watts of energy.  Insulation will not make that much difference at those energy levels.

We are working on a windscreen for JetBoil systems, it is probably 1 -2 months away.  My 2 cents.

 

[Stephen Seeber]

I will give it a shot.  I can produce and measure wind across the pot.  I will do what I can.  I probably cannot produce more than 6 mph.  Perhaps next week.  If I find anything useful, I will post it.

[Adam Kilpatrick]

This is a pretty cool weight for a HX Pot Jon!

[Author]

Posts