Optimus Heat Insulation Pouch

Top quality with pockets to keep hands warm while eating. Works very well indeed.

Well to start with, I have made all my pot cozies using silver tape and the padded foil. They always tear sooner or later, so they are a waste of time and money.

Now getting to the Optimus Heat Pouch, this pot cozy is extremely well made and thought out. I use a Snow Peak 900 titanium pot set and there is room to spare. I think it would go up to a 1.0litre or a 1.1 pot set. The hand pockets are a fantastic idea for when you are eating freeze dried food.

The heat pouch is very well made, the stitching is very rugged and the neoprene is quite thick, so this is a product that should last a long time. The stove I used for the test was a Caldera Cone ti tri ulc for the Snow Peak ti 900pot set.

OK, so the deal with these lightweight stove is you can just boil water etc. So I have two freeze dried meals, a spaghetti bologna and a carbonara meal, which if you live in the UK they are morrisons own and they're just over £1 pound and they taste quite good so they are a great price.

So i boiled 450mil of water, then added one of the pasta meals, then after about 30 secs the stove went out so i put the pot into the cozy to finish cooking and left it for 25 minutes stirring regularly. The dried spaghetti and the sauce was cooked and the meal was still hot enough to eat and enjoy!

And it's all down to the Optimus Heat Pouch.

My Optimus Heat Pouch weighs 72 grams. Oh I almost forgot, the heat pouch has a Velcro opening for pot handles or gripper.

Food warmer, hand warmer — how could you miss?

A few years ago I gave up actually cooking on the trail. Switched to what some call freezer bag meals. I mix my dry (and sometimes fresh) ingredients at home, dump them in a freezer bag. In camp just add the appropriate amount of boiling water and let it rehydrate.

Being a tinkerer I made an insulation pouch out of a piece of insulated duct wrap, and used it for quite some time. I had to be careful with it though. It was slippery to hold on to while wearing gloves, and if I were not careful where I put it, it would fall over when I set it down. I was always looking for a safe place to lean it while my food rehydrated. Not real easy to clean either. I went through several of them. I was looking for a better solution.

The Optimus Heat Insulation Pouch caught my eye for the following reasons:

It has two hand hold loops that make it very easy to use. The fabric is very insulating, but transmits just enough warmth that I can use it without gloves in cool to cold weather. Kinda nice actually. The bottom is wide enough that the pouch will stand on its own if you need to set it down.

I always hike solo, but it is big enough to hold a two-serving freeze dried meal, so it could be shared. Easy to clean. But I wish it had a lid to fold over the top. I'll probably make something later, but right now I have no real complaints with it. Folds flat for transport.

This is a well made, and well thought out product. Recommended.

See ya on the trail somewhere.