Hey everybody, Dustin here from backcountry
cuisine. Today we are going to be making a brand new
pot cozy. This cozy I
have had for many years, it is getting old and beat up. It is not doing very well. I go on a lot of trips, but I have found that
my pot cozy's last me about a year. They are pretty trashed, they still work,
I have eeked them out for longer than that, but I found that I want a new one about every
year. I have almost always made a double walled
pot cozy like this, it is a nice little package, I put my stove and spoons and all those kinds
of things in here. Shove it into my cozy, put the top on and
it is one compact piece that I can put in my backpack, and I love this idea, but I had
a somebody leave a comment, Kirsten LaCross and she said that seems like the double might
be a little excessive, and I thought maybe but it is so nice, I tried a couple designs
and I found that I really liked that this one held together and I didn't need to use
something else, like a bag to keep it all together. I just shove this whole thing in my pack and
I am all good. And then I was over at antigravity gear's
website and looking at what they have to offer and they had a video on a new style of pot
cozy and I loved it! I thought I am going to make some like that. So I wanted to show you how I do it, make
it a little bit easier, if you like this design, antigravity gear has little kits that you
can buy from them that have all the materials you need in one little spot, which is kind
of nice, but like I said, because I go backpacking a lot I tend to beat mine up and want new
pot cozy on a regular basis, so I like to go to my hardware store and buy a big roll
of this reflectix stuff and have it on hand so I can make a new pot cozy whenever I want
if Iget a new pot or I can just make whatever I want. Alright, so let's get to it, the first thing
that you need is to get your pot. You need to make sure and have that handy. I also want you to notice, the thing, I have
been using this one for a while, but I will tell you it has been annoying because if you
make it too small, then the handles, at least on mine, just don't want to go in there. And then you have to fiddle with it and shove
it in and try, eh, it is annoying. Especially when it is full of hot liquid. So that is not fun, when I take this thing
off the stove, put it down and I put the handles in so it will fit inside, I have to carefully
get it in there and...argh...so, first of all, don't be afraid to have some excess room,
you don't need to have it that tight, so that is great, keep it a little lose, and second
thing, this new design you don't have to worry about this ginger deal you have here. You can use it with the handles all folded
up, so that is pretty sweet. Alright, so you need your pot so I am going
to put this one off to the side and we will start off with the lid, I'm going to take,
I have a nice little square here. That I can use. I actually want two of these, one will be
on the bottom of it and the other will be the lid. so you are actually making two of
these. Scissors...I just rough cut it to start and
get it close and then it is easier to work with after that. Alright, I have the bottom and the top and
put those off to the side. Get the big roll again, and your pot. Figure out about how long it is, again you
want it to be loose rather than tight. This is the location that it came to when
I rolled it over, but I am going to go over an inch more. just to make sure I have enough space. Again I will tell you, I have made a lot of
these pot cozies and I always need more then I think. This will not be too much, feel free to cut
an extra two inches because it is better than having to cut this entire piece again. I have done that, many times. Alright, now we are going for height, obviously
you need it to go from the bottom to the top, but in addition to that, you will have this
piece underneath, so you need it to go a little more and you want it sticking out about 3/4
of an inch over the top, because you have that 1/4 inch piece on top and you want it
to be higher. that is the way we seal it up on top, so at
least an inch over hight wise. so if I just measure my pot, get it right
at the bottom, and I could measure, but I want to go too big. I'm going to go up to there, and you could
use a straight edge, I used to do that, but you can just follow the line of the bubbles,
they are totally straight. So I am going to follow the line of the bubbles. Okay, cut it out. Now we have our side. I double check and sure enough, I have extra. I cut it a little too big, it is better to
cut it too big than too small. You can see again that there is a big height
difference here. And that comes into play because we are going
to put this one underneath, just right there, and this one goes on the inside. That will basically be what it looks like
when it is all done, and this extra bit is exactly what you want. Cool, alright, I'm going to...cut down, I'm
going to cut it down a little bit. That is good. So I have my ends meeting now and I still
have quite a bit of gap in here. I don't know what it is, but I have found
that maybe as it heats up it shrinks up, double, triple check, looks good, again a bit of gaping
in there, I like it, You can see there is a little bit of a gap up at the top, but not
much, just a little bit. Now we are going to close off these ends first
seal this up with this foil tape metal tape, they use it for ductwork and stuff and you
want about double and a little bit of the height. About there, and just a little bit, just a
touch more so that it gives me some overlap. Then what I do is I put this in right about
the middle. Middle this way and also middle through the
center. and press it in, fold this over, get it in
as tight as you can. and fold over the one edge of the tape. Do the same on the other side. and it is now
all connected. You got your donut. Nice, it fits in there well. I like that we are going to tape in the insulting
part on the bottom. What I like to do for that is to get a piece
of tape that wraps all the way around. with just a little bit of overlap, just a
tiny bit of overlap there. They key is that it is going to go all the
way around plus a little bit. These longer pieces like to roll up on themselves
so if you put a little fold in the center just a little crease in the center there it
will lay flat this stuff is really sticky, so touch it as little as possible. Okay, then we are going to roll this on about
halfway. Just press it in a little bit here. This is all exposed, we are going to fold
that in to seal it up. What I like to do is to cut slits with my
scissors about every inch and a half or so. They don't have to be even, it does not matter. As long as you have the slits, it makes it
easier to fold them down. Then I will put this inside, Almost messed
that up. The way I like to design mine is so the bottom
part fits inside the circle, not on top. Get one in place, tape it down. Then just make your way around and sometimes
it helps to put the pot inside. Give you something to work against. Push up from the bottom on that. Fold down a tab. That's all there is for that piece, I just
go around and make sure I get all those little ends stuck down. That is the bottom. Now, one of the things I like about this new
design is that you have a spot for the handles. my handles fold into the side, but even if
you had a pot grabber one, the same idea would work for that, but you are going to cut out
a slot so that you can hold the handles and slip it down inside of the holder. If you cut where you taped originally, where
is my seam? this is my seam where I put the foil tape originally to put the round together
if you cut there, it gives you a little more rigidity with the foil. When you are taking it down and up, it works
better. So, how wide is going to depend on your handles,
and for me, I am going to go out just inside of my tape line. So I just eyeballed it, I think that is not
low enough, put it in here and try it, yup, not low enough. so just cut it down a little bit further. Perfect! This can come back up again, so it is not
perfect, but it seals up pretty well on the sides here. Again, if I had just taken this off the stove,
and this is full of hot water and food and everything, I take it off, and just slip it
right in, separate my handles a little bit, put this flap up, and it is now all set. Put my lid on it, put my top insulation inside
and then you just manually fold this over top. and let it go and that is enough, even
though it is not going to fully collapse over the top is seals up really nicely, yea, works
great. and when you want to take it off and eat,
pull this little tab back, pull your lid off, that lid off, and eat it right out of the
container, like this. The pot cozy, the new and improved pot cozy
design perfect design, it still will hold, when I put it in my pack, I can still fold
in my handles, get it inside of there, with all my goodies, and it will pack just fine. If you like it, give me a thumbs up, leave
a comment if you have any questions or anything. At the very end of the video, I will show
you the thermal efficiencies, I will do some testing and then tell you the thermal efficiencies
on them. Alright everybody, get out there make some
awesome meals and eat well. Come visit us at backcountrycuisine.net and
eat well!
