http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/antigravi
tygear_pot_cozy_review.html

Lets play devils advocate for a moment. The article demonstrates that
using insulation slows cooling.... but I think we knew that. No
argument there. When you think about and plug your own cooking style
in to the data it also seems to show little reason for most folks
practicing light weight backpacking to own or use one. You are not using it until after you have raised you food/water to
a peak temperature. Except for subfreezing temps by the time the
cooling graph lines seperate 5 degrees most folks are eating. Perhaps
it matters more to know what specific long cooking foods would
bennefit and where the break even point on the extra weight is reached.

Anyone have experiance or specifics? What's your view?

I've been using a cozy for awhile now and it has two great benefits, a) when I don't put enough fuel in the stove, I can let the cozy do the rest, and b)I can bring a larger variety or foods such as long grain wild rice (cook for ten minutes, put in the cozy for ten minutes to equal the 20 minute cooking time),etc. Also, as I'm part of a hiking couple who does one cook meals that we share, we can keep the pot in the cozy and either prop it up on a knee or simply hold it.

Maybe I am missing something----I have weighed my potcozy and it weighs 1.oz---ok ok I just reweighed it on a set of digital microscales and it weighs 1.34 oz --anyway is all this dicussion and math really worth it for one little ounce? I know people are very weignt aware but This item can save you that much weight in fuel everyday and is worth its weight in gold and also works great to keep the pot in while you eat out of it while it is still hot. This is a really great item!!!

For people like me who simply boil some water, pour it into their food pouch, and let it sit for a while, I don't see any benefit for the pot cozy. Am I wrong?

If all you do is boil, as I do, then the cozy isn't worth the weight or space. I have one that fits their 3-cup pot and it weighs one ounce on a digital postal scale. It works great when you need to actually cook some food (coasting) or need to keep water hot for several cups of tea.

I've read elsewhere that using the cozy gives you better end results. Anyone who has tried this?

Edited by scouteriain on 03/17/2005 09:55:04 MST.

This isn't a pot cozy, per se. It's an envelope I made out of an old closed cell foam pad in which I put a zip lock bag and rehydrate food in it. It takes up less space in the pack, since it's flat, I can sit on it while I boil water, and when the water's ready and the food is in the bag, I simply stand up, put the water in the bag, the bag in the pouch, and let the food rehydrate. Just tried it out in my back yard yesterday. Works as well as a pot cozy, and your pot stays clean. If you use freezer bags or the Aloksack bags, just rinse them out and use them for the next meal.

Order something from BPL and they´ll send it to you in a tough bubble foam envelope which can act as a cozy for a zip and stand.
Weight only 30 gramms and you already paid for it in the first place. :-)

(Btw. In my company we use a similar one which is only 24 gramms.!)

Lets say you take on your trip that rice that takes 20 min to cook. Instead of carrying a gear item specific to the task of being a cozy why not get dual purpose out of some other insulating item you have along.
1) Roll your sleeping pad over the pot
2) Wrap the pot in your jacket
3) Cover the pot with gear.
4) Set the pot on your sleeping pad and cover it with your sleeping bag.

Better yet before covering the pot with insulation turn inside out a turkey bag or stuff sack you have along and put the pot in it so if there are any spills they are contained and easy to deal with.

Regarding the suggestion that sleeping gear double as a pot cozy .... two words, food odor.

Folks I've camped with tell me I'm a lot less bear-phobic than average but adding food odor to sleeping gear is outside my comfort range.

I've used clothing as a cozy but now that I'm tending towards ultralight I'll be sleeping in that clothing so that's no longer an option for me.

But I'm a longtime cozy user ... cotton batting sandwiched between cotton fabric (cotton in the back country? say it ain't so!). If put on the pot like a hat with the lower inch folded you can use while the pot is on the stove. The edges sometimes get chared, no big deal.

It's like a thin pot holder. Groups heating large pots of water (BSA trips) can go thru fuel in a hurry and cozies are a fantastic fuel saver. Using MSR white gas stoves we've gotten by with 1/2 oz per person per cooked meal using cozies and the Philmont regimen (summer climate, human sump, no dish washing)

But ain't it heavy? I was surprised when I weighed one ... 3 inches**2 per gram. 45 grams for one that'd fit the 1.3 liter Evernew pot used in the BPL Pot Cozy Review, compared to 40 for the Antigravitygear reflectix cozy.

But I have no comparative data about performance for ultralight solo sized meals so it's still speculative for that use.

Edited by jcolten on 03/22/2005 15:54:12 MST.

I would like to see some commercially available pot cozies made out of thin neoprene wet suit material similar to the Jetboil cozy. I have an AntigravityGear cozy, and it works well, but it seems fragile and I feel that I have to baby it.

Cut some foam to the dimensions of the side, top, and bottom, and wrap the whole thing in plastic tape (duct tape is heavier). Surprisingly durable.

http://www.antigravitygear.com/products/bluecozy.html

It's a Neoprene cozy cover