Making a Pot Cozy

I’ve read a lot about ways to save fuel while on the trail as a means of keeping down the cost and weight of the fuel on a long distance hike.  I will be covering two methods – a pot cozy and a cooking pouch – in this and my next post.  Both of these items work in the same manner – they insulate your cooking vessel so that your food can cook without having to sit on your stove.  This allows you to use less and carry less fuel – two benefits that are well worth the minimal cost.  They also save time you’d otherwise spend tending your stove while your food was cooking.

Materials you’ll need:

• One auto sunshade – this is the main material and is essentially bubble wrap pancaked between mylar-ish foil.   I used this one: http://amzn.to/2E5z4vG
• Roll of your favorite duct tape – I used Gorilla Tape: http://amzn.to/2Bd16CM
• Permanent marker for markings
• Scissors
• Your cooking pot – mine is the Snow Peak Trek 700: http://amzn.to/2BZEh20

To begin, we measure and cut out the material that will server as the walls of your cozy.  Lie your pot down on the edge of the sunshade.  You’ll want to trim off any edging before you do this – the edges of my sunshade had material sewn over them.  Just get rid of it.  Roll your pot around once so you have the circumference transferred to the sunshade.  Combined with the height of your pot, you’ll have a rectangle.

Next, cut a notch for the handle of your pot – this isn’t necessary if your pot doesn’t have one.  This can be approximate.  I simply held the sunshade material up to the handle and eyeballed it as you can see form the pictures.  You’ll want the notch to be cut from the top edge – think of the pot sliding into the cozy.  Once the notch is complete, wrap the material around your pot and tape the seam with your duct tape.  You should now have a ring of material as tall as your cook pot.

Next we will create the base of your cozy.  Take your pot and trace the base onto the sunshade.  Don’t use the top of the pot as some are tapered and will have different circumferences.  Cut out the circle and place it on the walls you already made.  Now cut four small strips of duct tape and attach the base to the walls.  You’ll then take strips and go all the way around the base, resulting in a nice, smooth base for your cozy.

Next we’ll create the lid.  I decided to get rid of the lid that came with the pot and simply use the lid I created.  If you use the lid, just remember to cut a slit for the handle of the lid, wherever it is positioned.  Everything else should remain the same.  Measure the circumference of the top of your pot and cut a rectangle of this length by 3″ or so – the height of the lid is really up to you.  Cut it tall to start, you can always trim it later.  Wrap this rectangle around the top of your pot and tape the seam.  You’ve now constructed the walls of your lid.  I made mine snug because I knew I wanted it to stay on tight because I was skipping the lid that came with my pot.

Now trace the top of your pot onto the sunshade and cut out the resulting circle.  This will be the top of your pot.  Attach the top to the walls of the lid in the same manner as we did the base.  Start with four strips of duct tape and then fill in all the way around with strips.  And finally, create a notch for your handle if you have one.  The depth of the notch will be dependent on how tall you made the walls of your lid.

Finally you can tape up any exposed edges.  This is optional but I did it because I wanted the cozy to hold up over time.  Completely up to you.

Thanks for reading – I hope you found this useful.  Please let me know if you have any questions by commenting below!