How to make a Pot Cozy

As promissed here is the quick guide to making a pot cozy for your favourite camping pots. Here I'm using a 720ml (24oz) Heineken "mini keg". By far the most beneficial aspect of the pot cozy is that you can save precious fuel (especially when using an alcohol stove) by continuing to cook your food whilst inside the cozy. The idea being that you bring the water or food (or whatever) to a boil or simmer and then cut the stove and drop it in the cozy.

I can't take the credit for this simple construction as I followed the instruction provided by the legend that is Tinny from Minibulldesign. In any case its a no brainer really so here is my pot cozy walkthrough made from the foil insulation provided by Backpackinglight. I cannot recommend this outstandingly friendly adn efficient family run business enough. Give them a try you won't be dissapointed!

Materials & Tools
Sheet of double walled aluminium insulation
Waterproof Foil Tape
Scissors



Step 1. Measure the circumference and height of your pot adding around 5mm extra on the height and about 3mm on the circumference. You will see why later. You might find that simply placing your pot on the foil and wrapping it around is easier and is just as accurate as measuring.
Now take a ruler or straight edge and on both the top and bottom edges gently score a line at 5mm and 3mm for top and bottom respectively. This is the additional foil you added to the measurement of your pot earlier. You can see I have done this on the bottom edge in the picture.

Step 2. Join the two ends together with foil tape (in the UK ThermaWrap from B&Q seems to be cheapest and best I've found). Don't overlap the edges just butt them together and then cover the seam with the tape. Once joined, mark a circle using the base as a template and cut out of the foil - you will need to do this twice for the base and the top.

Step 3. Push one of the circles into the foil cylinder to make the bottom first and fold in the edges your scored in point 2 above (see picture above). Now cut around 7 squares of foil tape and stick the base inside. Ensure a tight seal with the foil tape moving around the base until sealed.

Step 4. (This step is really only relevant to the Heineken pot but if you don't have one just cut the top to suit our pot) Take the second circle of foil you cut earlier and cut a tiny slit just off centre by about 3-4mm. This is to slide the ring pull of the top into just to have something easy to grab at to remove the lid. Voila - one super efficient high tech pot cozy!