Cheap and Light Stainless Steel Mug/Pots in Oakland, Ca

[Casey Bowden]

If you want to play around with light and cheap stainless steel mugs check out:

KV Discount on 10th between Harrison and Webster in Oakland, CA.

For $3.50 you can get a 725 ml, 2.6 oz cup with handle; the lid is an additional 0.8 oz. It can be identified by a 11 cm label.

For $2.99 you can get a 625 ml, 2.4 oz cup. It comes with a handle but I cut if off so it would nest inside the larger cup. It can be identified by a 10 cm label.

A 110 g fuel canister and Snow Peak stove fit inside the 10 cm cup.

I determined the volumes and weights above.

The cups are located in the middle of the store. The light ones have lids with black handles. They also sell heavier ones with brown handles on the lids. They also sell 9 cm and 8 cm sizes.

[Jane Baack]

Thanks Casey. Went right to the store and bought a couple of sets of pots and mugs. How did you find that place? Did you put a silicone "ring" around the top of the mug to protect lips or would that be necessary? If so, where did you get the correct size of silicone band or "ring"?

What should I use to cut off the smaller cup handle so it will fit inside the larger cup? Sorry, but I'm not handy with tools and those in my family who are will be away for this holiday weekend.
Thanks for a great find.
Met you and your family at Coast Camp in Pt. Reyes at GGG gathering in October. Hope you're getting out for some camping trips. We take our young grandchildren out there and other places for good, family fun.

Jane, in Berkeley

[Dale Wambaugh]

Good find, especially that lid. Look for similar in Daiso stores too. The inventory varies, but they often have light stainless mugs for a couple dollars.

I found a stainless steel twin of the IMUS 12cm aluminum mug in a thrift store the other day. It holds a full liter and weighs 4.8oz — for $0.99 :) Good sound too– it should make a great emergency signal device. MORE COWBELL!!

[D Thayer]

Thanks for the post, Casey! Great info!

[M B]

I found stainless mugs at a flea market near me. $1. Weigh 2.0 oz.

[Harald Hope]

"How did you find that place?"

He asked me, I'm glad he posted this thread, I was going to mention this but never got around to it, I warned the people in the store they might be selling a lot of these soon, this seemed to excite them a bit, so I'm glad they actually did.

As to how I found it, I don't only hike and explore in the woods, I also hike and explore in my more local environment, chinese stores tend to have odd things, often completely random, for example, this one I've gone to for years just to see what they have, and they never had these lighter pots.

Be warned however, the spot weld is VERY weak, and I would not trust this pot for a long hike of months. I recommend carefully cutting off the handle then carefully filing down the spot weld metal to get rid of edges. That's actually the reason I didn't promote these any more here, you can see visible rust on the weld, or something dark and reddish. I really wish they had sold these without handles, that would be a really great pot then, flawless really, just super thin stainless, lighter than all ti pots out there, and very durable, but the weak spot welds made it a bit too sketchy for my taste.

The 10cm pot is about 600ml, the 11cm is about 750. Only the pots with the black lid knob are light, the ones with the brown knob are far heavier gauge, but also I believe would hold up better at the spot weld.

Speaking only for myself, I would not bring this pot on a 7 day trip, but I would use it on a 3 day trip. Also, during my testing, I noticed a fairly significant difference in boil times over ti pots of same diameter, quite a bit worse, not sure why, but it's repeated and certainly was present.

However for $3.50 a pot, that's not bad at all. I got these originally for my 6 dollar cookset project, but not flimsy $6, a durable and strong set. For the 750ml, the only pot online I could find that had been lighter was the bpl one, but that one didn't have a real lid, so this is actually the lightest pot of its kind including lid in the world I believe. These are nice lids, they will actually hold pressure in, and are not heavy, the 600ml weighs only 21 grams for lid.

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