Maximum Rocket Stove Efficiency: Use a Pot Skirt  Do you want to maximize efficiency of your EcoZoom rocket stove? Use a pot skirt. All of our EcoZoom rocket stoves come with a pot skirt. Pot skirt? Yes, a pot skirt. We hear a lot of different names for the circular metal ring that wrap around the outside of cookware: Windscreen, windshield, stove booster, cooking ring, awesomely weird shiny metal circle with knobs…OK, that last one was made up, but you get the point. Everyone has a different name for the pot skirt, but not everyone knows how to properly use it or what it is designed to do.

The almighty pot skirt fastened around a pot prior to using on an EcoZoom stove

Just looking at it, it seems to makes sense. EcoZoom stoves are round and the pot skirt is round. Pots and pans are also most often round…hmmmm…something is cooking here. Most stove users are used to the windscreen concept of using some sort of material to break the wind from extinguishing the flame source of a stove. This concept makes a lot of sense, except for when you look closer to the design of the rocket stove. The source of heat or fire within a rocket stove is within the lower portion of the combustion chamber of the stove. Placing the pot skirt on top of the cast iron top of the stove doesn’t do much as a windscreen because it isn’t protecting the source of the stove fire. So how do you use a pot skirt and what does it do? The pot skirt is meant to be fastened around the base of any pot or pan that it can be secured to prior to placing the cookware on the stove. It should be tightened to fit around the bottom of a pot or pan by squeezing the ring until it is tight and the secured by twisting the screws on the side of the pot skirt. You will know that the pot skirt has been place properly when you can hold a pot or pan in the air and have the pot skirt attached to your cookware without sliding off. Once you start your EcoZoom stove, simply place the pot or pan on the stove with the pot skirt and cook away. By securely fastening the pot skirt to your cookware it will increase the cooking efficiency of your stove by 20% by forcing heat and gases to not just heat the bottom of the stove but distribute heat up the sides of the pot or pan. Sometimes the pot skirt won’t fit a pan with handle or excessively large or small pot, but it should fit around most cookware. So go give it a try, wrap that pot skirt on tightly to your cookware and benefit from the increased efficiency you will enjoy from an already super-efficient EcoZoom rocket stove. About the Author: Tom Pritchard is an EcoZoom employee and likes to cook outdoors with his EcoZoom stove on camping trips or sunny days. You can email him directly at tom@ecozoomstove.com.