Heat Exchanger pots and Kettles

[rorymax]

Are there significant boil time and fuel savings with this sort of thing,
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fire...est=201526_5,201527_3_71_72_73_74_75,201409_2

HX pots and kettles appear to have lots of sales listings on many sites, so I am assuming they are selling well, I'm wondering if it is worth changing over to HX.

Any user comments appreciated, and are they worth the extra cost.

rorymax

 

[rik_uk3]

[video=youtube;61rlrxcEX4M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61rlrxcEX4M[/video]

They work really well but do give off nasty fumes so only use in a VERY well ventilated space, well worth the money.

 

[sandbag47]

I wonder if you can use them over a real fire or just gas

 

[Bushcraftexpert]

I have wondered about these but to be honest watching a kettle boil is all part of the relaxation / experience of my woods time for me.

 

[rg598]

They work. I think most tests point to about 30% increase in efficiency. They can be used on a fire as well as on a stove, but are a pain to clean after. They do seem to generate more CO emissions though.

That being said, the added weight of a pot with a heat exchanger usually requires a pretty long trip, or a trip where you are using a lot of fuel (melting snow for water) to make up that weight in fuel savings.

 

[Andy BB]

My experience of these is that they are definitely more efficient. Also worth noting - re the example you gave of a Fire Maple 1litre pot, is that is what Alpkit is selling in their current sale for £15, rather than the Aliexpress price of $28! Also the Alpkit pot has a removable insulated coat. Both the Alpkit Brukit and Brupot are rebadged Fire Maple products.

 

[petrochemicals]

I have heard that they are not a great advantage with meths stoves. I dont know why, maybe the heat exchanger isnt big enough for the large meths flames.

 

[rik_uk3]

The big pot I used in the video sits in a Trangia and works well, it improves boil times.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

A question I have wondered, do heat exchanger pots also work the other way, do they result in the contents cooling faster too? Anyone played with this?

J

 

[rik_uk3]

Heat rises so I doubt it would cool the contents down?

 

[Bishop]

A question I have wondered, do heat exchanger pots also work the other way, do they result in the contents cooling faster too? Anyone played with this?

J

They are all based around a Peltier effect chip so with an external source of electrical power be it a vehicle battery or another power pot then you could chill a bottle of wine.

 

[rik_uk3]

No chips in my pots unless I deep fry some spuds.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

They are all based around a Peltier effect chip so with an external source of electrical power be it a vehicle battery or another power pot then you could chill a bottle of wine.

Are we thinking of the same thing? I thought a pot with Heat exchanger involved fitting a big heat sink on the bottom, to increase the surface area for harnessing the heat coming from the flame. Hence why they are mostly found in aluminium, rather than titanium.

MSR make a heat exchanger that you can add to one of their ordinary pots:

http://www.cascadedesigns.com/ie/msr/cookware/cookware-accessories/heat-exchanger/product

It basically works by increasing the surface area of the pot. Just like a heat sink does.

So, given that they are using a heatsink in reverse to heat the pot. It follows that the heatsink also increases the cooling of the hot once your turn the burner off...

J

 

[Bishop]

My bad, been stuck on the electronics lab for the last month and brain has short circuited the phrases heat-pump and heat-exchanger.

 

[homesicksteve]

Heat rises so I doubt it would cool the contents down?

Convection means hot air rises.
Conduction however, is not affected by gravity....

 

[petrochemicals]

A question I have wondered, do heat exchanger pots also work the other way, do they result in the contents cooling faster too? Anyone played with this?

J

Thin metal heats faster, an cools faster than the same mass that is in a thicker form ie tinfoil cooling so quickly, so I suppose when taken off the gas they could.

 

[demographic]

They are bound to cool faster as well as heat up faster, how many of us eat food at 100 degrees C though?

 

[ex Member swampy99]

I have used a jet boil 1.5ltr pan with my MSR whisperlite international and got a boil of 600ml of water in 4 mins compared to 6 mins with the same volume of water in a 14cm Zebra billy both without lids so could be even quicker with lids. the jet boils pot has there patented Fluxring on the bottom.
What I also found was the boil time doesn't change even if you leave the plastic cover on the pot all it does is melts very quickly and bogs up your cooker that then takes 3 hours to clean. School boy error.

 

[tankie]

A question I have wondered, do heat exchanger pots also work the other way, do they result in the contents cooling faster too? Anyone played with this?

J

This is what happens when you use old style British Army pan sets ( stainless ) they are very good at heating the contents , but they also cool the food quickly when they are removed from the heat.