Replacing my BSR Stove and Snow Peak Ti pot with the Fire Maple Hornet II and G3 heat exchanger pot for ultralight backpacking.
For the last two years my cook kit has been the ultralight BRS stove and a SnowPeak titanium pot. This combination has been reliable and ultralight, which is important to me as an ultralight backpacker on trips up to 10 days without resupply. The Fire-Maple G3 heat exchanger pot and Hornet 2 stove attracted my attention as a possible way to save on fuel when boiling water for drinks and rehydrating meals. This is a comparison of my old kit and the Fire-Maple combination. I measured the time it took to reach a rolling boil with each system using 500ml of cold tap water with an indoor temperature of 75 degrees, at an elevation of 3300' (I live in the sierra foothills). Weights are actual weights from my digital scale. Time to boiling - Fire-Maple: 76 seconds BRS/SnowPeak: 167 seconds Weights G3 pot and lid 164gm 5.7oz SnowPeak pot and lid 116gm 4.0oz Hornet 2 stove 47gm 1.6oz BRS stove 25gm I was impressed by the difference in boil times, which I attribute to the G3 heat exchanger pot. There is noticeably less heat coming up the sides of the pot with that system and after two boils the 30 locations where the heat exchanger is welded to the pot bottom could be clearly seen as discoloration on the inside bottom of the pot, which is where the heat transfer occurs. One boil with the Fire-Maple system used 7gm of fuel from my half-empty 100gm fuel cannister. Aside from the 2.5oz weight penalty of the Fire-Maple system there are no other drawbacks. The advantages are quicker boiling times and less fuel consumption, I like the insulated handle which also flips up to secure the lid when not in use, and the stove seems sturdy and well built with a larger support area than the BRS. The stove/pot combination is also very stable even with the small 100gm fuel cannister and automatically centers on the pot due to the slots in the heat exchanger. Neither stove will simmer well, they are meant to be used only full blast for boiling water.