The new Fire Maple Petrel HX pot: a replacement for the Sterno Inferno?

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Brad,

I do have some near apples to apples comparisons between the Sterno Inferno and the Fire Maple Petrel. Note that the testing was limited due to the Inferno being obsolete. With canister topped stoves, I found that the Fire Maple Petrel was not quite as good as the Sterno Inferno. In both tests, I was using the Fire Maple 300 t stove with Cheetah Windscreens. Now, the test was done in calm conditions, the Inferno could boil 500 ml of 20 C water using 5 g of fuel. On the Petrel, it was 5.5 g. I could also see a difference between the 2 pots using a Pocket Rocket Deluxe: no windscreen, just resting on the bottom of the HX Shroud.

Keep in mind that I think that the preferred embodiment of using the Petrel stove is with the Soto WindMaster seated in the slots. There I could boil the same amount of water using 6 g of fuel. Note that in calm conditions, with the Soto WindMaster support arms, the fuel required was less at about 5.5 g. Why in the slots? Well, there is always wind in the field. The beauty of this system is that it requires no additional parts and does not need a windscreen. Everything is off the shelf and minimizes the number of parts and things that could go south. I was able to boil 500 m of 20c water using less than 10 g of fuel in an 8 mph wind: pretty impressive.

In my opinion, from an HX heat transfer standpoint, the Petrel is not as good as the Inferno, Fire Maple 1 liter or the WideSea HX pots. It is far better at blocking ambient wind though. Fundamentally, I believe that there is a design/assembly flaw with the Petrel pot. The shroud around the fins are located such that many of the tips of the fins touch the shroud. I suspect that this reduces some of the heat transfer into the pot itself. It would be great if the HX shroud were lowered by say 0.1” or so to see if there was a difference. I attempted to do this but ruined a pot. Additionally, I suspect that the outlet vents on the sides are too high, reducing the outlet airflow. Now that one could be a mixed blessing as that is what could be helping with the ambient wind blockage. My 2 cents.

[bradmacmt]

Thanks Jon – your thorough response answered all my questions, and more I hadn’t considered!

You may remember I have a modified Inferno pot used with a PRD and DIY Ti windscreen. The Inferno pot with windscreen is still .5 oz less than the Fire Maple pot by itself, and I’ve found it boiling .500 ml in that same 5g range your testing finds. I did get an anemometer and want to test the whole unit in a controlled wind setting (indoor with a small fan).

Anyway, thanks again for such a well considered response. Super helpful.

[Jeff McWilliams]

I’m heading to Mt Baker in 12 days and needed something reasonably light, compact, but with enough capacity to melt snow if needed.  I didn’t want to but an expensive new stove.

I combined a Olicamp 1L XTS heat exchanger pot, a Soto Amicus stove, and Jon (Flat Cat Gear)’s new universal windscreen.  My cuts into the heat ring on the bottom of the pot to nest the stove’s pot supports are a bit crude.  There’s a definite trade off when cutting completely through the ring as well:  it makes it easier to get the stove on and off because the supports don’t get “caught” as much, but it significantly degrades the rigidity of the ring when it’s completely severed like that.  My cuts aren’t at complete 90 degree angles as I was trying to match where my stove’s pot supports wanted to rest vs their ideal positions.

It’s not bad getting the pot to nestle onto the stove but it can be a bit tricky to get it off.  A 1L version of the Petrel HX would be welcomed, but if it too had 120 degree “slots” I guess I’d have to change to the Pocket Rocket 2.0 stove instead.  :-/

 

 

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

FYI, I just tested out the Pretrel pot with the New Fire Maple GreenPeak Stove.  The performance is similar to that when using the Soto WindMaster  3 Flex.  The advantage is that the Fire Maple Greenpeak is new and cheap.  I bought one on AliEpxress for about $20 but I saw them today for $12.  So for less that $50 you can put togeter an HX system that is far cheaper (and sometimes lighter) than a Jetboil.  My 2 cents.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807058139256.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.5daeVHheVHheXW&algo_pvid=c76ae346-6e2d-4e8c-8f4f-5c00f6814893&algo_exp_id=c76ae346-6e2d-4e8c-8f4f-5c00f6814893-0&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%2133.25%2119.95%21%21%2133.25%2119.95%21%402101e06117226377980503229e00ed%2112000039931452051%21sea%21US%21117955866%21X&curPageLogUid=lkslwhpgT2wj&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A

 

 

[JCH]

Very interesting that such stove can now be had for so few $.  I purchased the Soto Windmaster 3 flex in March of 2014 and in the 10 years since it has performed flawlessly in all kinds of weather, including the piezo ignitor.  I expect to give the same report 10 years from now.

I wonder if the same will be said about the Firemaple in 10 years?

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

That is the $64k question.  The price difference is about $50 however it is a new stove .  The biggest advantage is that Fire Maple does a pretty good job designing stoves.  A sub $50 HX system that is light weight and robust in the wind is an interesting product.  My 2 cents.

[Ethan A.]

@Jon that’s a phenomenal price. Are the threads brass (for longevity)? My Windmaster has been excellent as well. Only downside is that it’s not the most compact stove.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

The Greenpeak has pot support arms that are attached to the stove and rotate into place.  It makes a small package.

The body seems pretty heavy, I suspect that it is steel.  No brass, but the lower section appears to be coated; is seems pretty slick.

[Bob Shuff]

Thinking about ways to lighten a Petrel pot kit. Lid and handle seem to be the obvious targets. I have a 7g carbon fiber lid that might work. Didn’t see that mentioned above. I’m  not planning to do any major surgery on the pot. Any ideas for the handle – is it worth it?  I do have one of those Suluk mini pot lifters.

related to the total kit, I’ve created or bought a coozie for all of my pot/mugs. Any reason to not do that on an HX pot?  Seems like the fins would accelerate cooling like it does heating.  Or does everyone carry a separate insulated cup for hot drinks?

 

I have a Soto Windmaster with Triflex, but haven’t bought the pot yet.

[Casey Bowden]

Hi Bob, I cut off the handle and replaced it with a 1.5 mm neoprene sleeve. Works fine at low to medium heat settings for me. See link below for more information.

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/fire-maple-petrel-pot-mods/

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

The winds are howling today in Southern California.  I thought that I would do some real world testing of the Fire Maple Petrel HX mug coupled with the Fire Maple Greenpeak Canister topped stove.  The system worked great.

 

[David D]

Nice!  How did it perform (time, grams)?

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Well, I originally just wanted to show that the Petrel HX geometry couple to the Greenpeak stove was pretty robust in the wind.  I don’t know of too many systems that could work in a +20 mph wind with 40 mph gust.  If the winds are up again tomorrow, I’ll add the stabilizer base and maybe clamp it down, we’ll see.

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