(Note: I had to shorten up the title quite a bit from the original to keep the page layout sane)
Conventional wisdom in the outdoor world is that wider-bottomed pots are more efficient than narrow-bottomed ones. As a result of a larger-pot requirement for an upcoming trip I picked up an Evernew Ti Ultra Light Pot #2, a paper-thin titanium pot with 900mL of capacity. Compared to my previous Evernew Ti Mug Pot 500 with 500mL of capacity the #2 pot has a significantly wider base, about 5 1/2 inches vs. the mug pot’s 3 3/4 inches (almost 50% wider). The short stature of the #2 pot allows it to be used with the titanium Sidewinder Cone whereas the blockier mug pot is stuck on the old aluminum Caldera Cone. Will the wider pot and fancier cone translate into time and fuel savings? Let’s find out!
I repeatedly filled each pot with 2 cups of cold tap water and alternated boiling the water in each pot three times using a Trail Designs Kojin alcohol stove, resulting in a total of six boils. I also measured the before-and-after weights of the Kojin to gauge fuel consumption. The temperature outside was 38F, there was no wind, the cone base was carbon felt, and the fuel was Klean Strip Green denatured alcohol. Here are the results:
Mug pot:
- 6:51 boil time, 18g alcohol consumed
- 6:31 boil time, 17g alcohol consumed
- 6:25 boil time, 17g alcohol consumed
#2 pot:
- 7:08 boil time, 15g alcohol consumed
- 6:33 boil time, 15g alcohol consumed
- 6:36 boil time, 14g alcohol consumed
The mug pot averaged a 6:36 boil time and consumed 17mL of alcohol per boil. The #2 pot averaged a 6:46 boil time and consumed 15mL of alcohol per boil. Since the first boil in the experiment was the 7:08 time we could chalk up this outlier to the stove not being warmed up (although I have no idea if that’s a significant factor) – discarding this data point yields an improved average of 6:35 for the #2 pot.
However, even with the improved times the #2 pot is exactly on par with the mug pot – not the results we were expecting. As far as fuel consumption goes the #2 pot appears to use around 85% of the fuel that the mug pot does. However the #2 pot’s system (including the Sidewinder cone) comes with a 22g weight penalty compared to the mug pot. It’d take 8 1/4 boils before you’d make up the weight difference in fuel savings. Depending on your cooking style this is anywhere from 4-8 nights, meaning that for short to moderate duration trips the savings are non-existent.