Yeah, I wouldn't cover the fins, I'd extend the windscreen a bit.

HJ

Wrong choice of words, I didn't actually cover the fins. What I did was wrap heavy duty aluminum foil around the pot to form a skirt, which connects with the windscreen and block any wind from cooling the fins.

Needs more tweaking I guess.

Photo?

The original had a full skirt, I cut it down a bit last night while testing.



I cannot just extend the windscreen, because while it's larger diameter than the heat exchanger, it's actually smaller than the pot itself, so extension wouldn't go over the pot.

I think the original design of the windscreen is only to protect the flame anyway, which it does pretty well. It's not the screen off eta express, it's similar but intended as a stand alone product.

Well, give it a try, but if the heat exchanger is exposed to the wind, it can actually remove heat from the pot.

Have you tried attaching the extension to the windscreen and not the pot?

HJ

The windscreen is too narrow (it needs to fit inside the pot).

What I think I'll do with this setup is, I'll leave the skirt up when there's no wind (it's sort of attached to pot and can slide up and down easily), but if wind is strong enough to cause a problem I'll lower the skirt, and live with the air flow interference since it's the lesser of the two evils there.

The distance from skirt to pot, the gap, should be 10mm, otherwise it might choke your fire
Pot Skirt Investigation, ETHOS 2010

Nice diagram! And I would agree. There needs to be separation from the pot and the skirt or windscreen or it won't work right.

HJ

Yeah that's the problem, I need everything to fit inside the pot, so to make something that much bigger than pot is a bit beyond my available material and tools. And I don't like to use anything that folds repeatedly since the folds eventually break without warning.

Going to take a bit of brainstorming to see what I can come up with.

Don't be tellin' me how to wear my skirts.