Olicamp XTS Pot and cook system test results

[Odd Man Out]

I got an Olicamp XTS pot for Christmas to round out my current cook system and ran a test. I quite like the pot so far. It is anodized Al with a heat exchanger on the bottom. It has sturdy folding handles with rubber grips. The handles are near the top, well away from the heat and above the wind screen. If you don't want the handles, they pop on and off easily. It has a rubber lid that seals tight to keep everything in place when packing, but with a vent so you can use it when boiling. The pot has stamped volume marks every 8 oz. The 32 oz line is about 1 inch from the top. The inside dimension are 4.5" diameter and 4.75" deep. I like to cook in my pot, in addition to boiling water for FBC. I think these dimensions will suit me well. The near 1:1 height/diameter ratio will give it a maximum volume:surface area ratio. It comes with a mesh bag.

I using this with a Zelph Starlyte Burner with lid. I chose this stove because the absorbent wick prevents fuel spills. Also it can easily be snuffed out and capped so you don't have to worry about getting the exact right amount of fuel for each use. The pot sets on a DIY pot stand made from a ring of hardware cloth (4" diameter and 2" tall). I put a 5" diameter circle of carbon felt under everything for insulation and a square of Al foil under that for extra protection. The DIY wind screen is a 4" tall, 5.25" diameter ring of Al flashing 64 1/4" air vent holes around the bottom and interlocking tabs at both ends so it can be opened up and rolled small for packing inside the pot.

The whole kit weighs about 10 oz.

I heated 2 cups of room temperature water with 15 mL of methanol (Heet) in my kitchen. I monitored the temp every 15 seconds and plotted the progress. Water heated at a rate of 23 deg F/min for 5 min. As the fuel started to run out, the power dropped off and eventually went out at 8 minutes just short of boiling at 208 F. I figure that with a couple more mL of fuel, it would have kept burning at full power for another minute and reached boil at just past the 6 minute mark. I think the heat exchanges worked quite well. I noticed very little heat coming up the side of the pot and at the end of the test, the wind screen was barely warm. With this set up, the tip of the flame was in the center of the pot. Next I will try a 1.5" pot stand so more of the flame will be in the heat exchanger. I might also like to try my simmer cat. The inside diameter of the heat exchanger ring is 3/8" larger than a cat food can so a side burning cat food can stove should shoot flamer right into the heat exchanger. Might be an efficient pairing of a side burning stove with a narrower pot.

I can't wait to get out and try it in the field.

[q-tip]

My test with a Soto stove yeilded a 40% saving on fuel, very efficient and now my go-to pot

[Odd Man Out]

I did two more tests as described above. With the Starlyte burner and a 1.5" pot stand, the results were almost the same. I had a little less power (slower heating rate), but slightly more efficient (higher final temperature with the same fuel), but the differences were so small I would have to repeat several time to convince myself they were significant.

However, the Simmer Cat (a Super Cat stove with one row of holes instead of two) performed very poorly on this pot. Very inefficient and low power. I think that the having the burners surrounded by the heat exchanging ring restricts the air flow. I may try the simmer cat with a 1" pot stand. This will place the burners partially below the heat exchange ring and leave a slight (~2mm) gap between the stove and the pot. My past experience tells me that suspending the pot just above the stove greatly increases the power of the simmer cat and has the advantage of eliminating the need for priming the stove - you can put the stove on immediately after lighting.

[Odd Man Out]

Don't use the Olicamp XTS pot with a simmer cat. I saw something new with this. In a test with a pot stand to elevate the pot and increase air flow, the heat output was still very low. When I lifted the pot to see what was going on, the whole bottom of the pot caught on fire. It seems that alcohol vapors were condensing on the heat exchanger and when I lifted the pot, they ignited. The extraneous flames were easily extinguished, no damage was done but the test was aborted.