A stove pipe cowl that lays flat for backpacking

A stove pipe cowls that lays flat for a backpacking tent stove are described as a more convenient alternative to a stove pipe cap.

Background

When using a backpacking tent stove such as my small KISS stove, it is nice to have a cowl on the stove pipe that keeps the snow and rain out, particularly when the stove is not in use. For some years I put a portion of an aluminium energy during can over the pipe to keep the rain and snow out. I call this can a snuffer can as it was used primarily to control the combustion in my earlier stoves.

Note: I have called this device a ‘cowl’ but I see that a cowl should have an anti downdraft function and I doubt that my device has this functionality.

While the snuffer can worked well enough it became redundant when my new downdraft KISS stoves simplicity meant that it no longer required the use of a snuffer can. So I thought it was time to make a dedicated cowl that would be less bulky and lay flat while backpacking. It would also be a nice luxury to be able to just leave it in place, regardless of whether the stove was in use or not.

Mk1 stove pipe cowl

My first cowl was made from a flat sheet of 0.1mm stainless steel foil and had two short legs that could be inserted into small pockets that were welded onto a stove pipe holding ring. It forms a ‘D-shape’ when attached to the ring and can lay flat for backpacking when removed.

I tested the cowl in persistent heavy rain and sometimes some drops of water came down the outside of the stove pipe. The main problem was the length of stove pipe that was exposed to the rain as shown in the above photo. However, even with a very short exposure length, a better cowl that sheds its rainwater or snowmelt away from the pipe would improve the situation.

Mk2 stove pipe cowl

The Mk2 cowl had the hood running past the mounting legs so that water would not run off the hood and then down the mounting legs.

Tim