Outdoors

Cooking in paper? Energia pots fold like origami

Cooking in paper? Energia pots fold like origami
The Hexa Pot is a lightweight cooking pot that folds flat
The Hexa Pot is a lightweight cooking pot that folds flat
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The Hexa Pot is a lightweight cooking pot that folds flat
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The Hexa Pot is a lightweight cooking pot that folds flat
The Hexa Pot can boil water and cook common backpacking meals
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The Hexa Pot can boil water and cook common backpacking meals

No matter how thin and titanium-y you make a pot for camping, it's still going to take up some room in your backpack. The Energia Hexa Pot, on the other hand, folds flat. When pulled out of its packaging, it blossoms into a full-sized cooking pot.

The Hexa Pot is aimed primarily at backpackers and other backcountry users looking to cut size and weight from their loads. It's also advertised as a way to save time on cleaning. Since it's disposable, you can just throw it away after using it (or pack it out if you're in the backcountry).

The Hexa Pot is sold in packages of two pots and two lids. It's pre-folded, so all the user has to do is open the package and stretch it out into its three-dimensional pot form. When folded out, it looks similar to a hexagonal Chinese take-out container. It has a lid and grab flaps, and the hexagonal shape makes for easy pouring via the corner creases.

Energia says that its pots are good for boiling/purifying water and cooking things like pasta, soup and chili. The small pot holds a liter (33.8 fl oz) and the large pot holds two liters (67.6 fl oz).

The Hexa Pot's disposable, single-use nature seems contrary to the eco-friendly slant of most modern outdoor products - you're basically replacing an item that you'll use many times with something you'll throw away after one use. Energia talks its way around this dilemma - and even advertises the Hexa Pot as eco-friendly - by saying that it's 100 percent biodegradable and should break down within two or three years. Still, a pot that you use and re-use for years or decades seems to encourage much less impact.

The Hexa Pot can boil water and cook common backpacking meals
The Hexa Pot can boil water and cook common backpacking meals

If you're wondering how a paper pot can sit on a flame without burning, Energia explains that the pot's flash point is more than double the boiling point of water. When it's full of water, heat passes through the paper and heats the water, and the pot never gets hot enough to ignite. When the water has been emptied and fully evaporated, the Hexa Pot will ignite quickly, so you could seemingly dispose of it in a fire rather than throw it away. The paper uses a waterproof coating to prevent water from soaking through.

While the 1.5-ounce (42.5-gram) weight of the small pot + lid and 2.5-ounce (71-gram) weight of the large pot + lid are definitely ultralight, the Hexa Pot's single-use nature means you'd have to pack one for every night that you wanted to cook. That could add a lot of excess weight and material during a multi-day or multi-week trip. Energia does mention that you could use a pot up to two or three times, which would help save space and weight. However, on longer trips, the extra weight of multiple pots could quickly negate any weight advantages of the lightweight, paper construction.

Energia was unsuccessful in raising the seed money it aimed for on Kickstarter earlier this year. That didn't seem to deter it, however, and it plans to launch an Amazon store to sell the paper pots on August 1. Prices start at US$5.49 for a pack of two small pots, and pre-orders are available now.

Source: Hexa Pot via Gear Junkie

8 comments
8 comments
Michael Mantion
Why don't they make durable and long lasting so it can be reused???? OH wait because if people burn the old one they will need to buy more.... Its all about the $$$
Slowburn
What an absurd idea. What kind of idiot doesn't stuff his pots with other stuff when packing. Bring a plastic bag if you are using the space for socks.
MacBandit
Why would one put their pots and pan in their backpack. What do you think all those loops on the outside of the pack are for. Put them on the outside. it's not like they need protected from anything.
I guess most people never boiled water in a paper cup in chemistry class.
MQ
A flat pack pot is a good idea... If it will last for more than one meal, then wash it out and reuse it....
MacB.. If your Pot doesn't need protection, you must be carrying a cast iron pot....
Lightweight stainless steel, or aluminium pots actually do need protection under all but the most relaxed conditions....
I suppose many people are merely taking their pot and backpack for a walk in the park.... Where I am used to going hiking.. sometimes the rucksack comes home a bit worse for wear (that is the times it actually comes home), and pots get bent and dented inside the bag... (Of course I didn't pack it properly then, classic teamster excuse.)...
Takes all types of hikes to make an outdoors.. Some like it flat, others like it steep, and some like it right in the middle.
Alan Belardinelli
This would appear to be an attempt to solve a problem that does not really exist. Also, if they are single use and I am boiling water for two meals a day on a 7-10 day trek, my titanium cooking pot would be lighter (if, as usual, I am too knackered to deal with a camp fire at the end of the day or am in an area where solid fuel fires are prohibited).
Joe F
Why so quick to knock things you do not understand?
@Slowburn - You can pack your pot with other stuff, but it's still bigger, harder and less comfortable than a flat piece of cardboard. So maybe not "absurd."
@Alan - Most backpacking gear "solves a problem that doesn't exist"...except it does exist. Backpackers want lighter, smaller gear.
The throw away part of the pot doesn't seem good, but it could at least work for some. Don't like it, Don't buy it. But you don't speak for everyone. Why pee all over innovation on a site that celebrates it?
Slowburn
re; Joe F
I pay attention to how I put my stuff into the pack. Lack of comfort is not a problem that I deal with.
Michael Crumpton
you can boil water and even cook eggs in a plain paper bag, so this seems a little over elaborate.