Titanium pots – snow peak vs msr vs ?

[Phillip Asby]

I've been thinking about a titanium pot in the 700ish range for solo cooking – boiling water for dehydrated or other "one pot/freezer bag" meals. The Snow Peak 700 seems to be the standard – but has a few limitations, one being relative price and the other being it is sold out most places (all the local REI's, campmor had them but are gone now). The MSR and Evernew pots are also relatively pricey and the evernew pots seem more difficult to source…

Anyway – I missed out on the Stoic ti kettles – but the TOAKS stuff is well priced and seems of a similar design. Is there a significant difference to warrant the increased price of the SP, MSR and Evernew pots? Any brand I'm missing?

[Ian]

… also has a ti pot in that category. It's kind of a sleeper and I don't hear much chatter about it on this forum. The Esbit ti pot is lighter than SP as an intact system as the lid and handles are lighter (lid appears to be titanium vs SP uses a manhole cover.) I own it and the SP 700 but prefer the SP once I ditched the overweight lid and handles. The SP is some fraction of an oz lighter without the extraneous stuff, it's easier to put the handles back on if I ever wanted to, and it has graduated markings. My SP 700 is something in the neighborhood of 2.8oz stripped down.

[michael levi]

Evernew is the gold standard in terms of weight.

[Gary Dunckel]

My two main pots are the MSR Titan Kettle and the Snow Peak 600. The 600 doesn't come with a lid, but you can get one by contacting Don at Four Dog Stoves. He also can make/sell you a lid made for the SP 900 pot, which precisely fits the MSR kettle at a lower weight than the stock MSR lid. I use the SP 600 for canister use, and the MSR kettle for alcohol/Esbit (because of the wide bottom).

[Sumi Wada]

REI has the Snow Peak 700 available online. They'll ship it free to your local store.

Lighter, larger models from MLD and Ruta Locura (albeit, also more expensive):
http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=113
http://rutalocura.com/Ti_Pots.html

[Dena Kelley]

I use the Backcountry.com 700mL Ti pot that I picked up on S&C with a Ti spoon for $23. It works just fine and is my sole piece of cook gear that I take if I'm using dehydrated meals.

[Jim Bowie]

Just received my SP 700 and was very disappointed in the SS lid. Don't understand that. Seems like high quality pot. I can fit my canister and Gigapower stove inside along with few other small items. Also designed to stack another canister on top. But was looking at Toaks 750 too. Anyone got any comments on the Toaks potts?

[Konrad .]

Owning/having owned a MSR titan kettle, a SP 600, an evernew 1.3L, a MLD 475ml cup, and a cheap chinese 800ml pot, I can honestly say that I would buy the cheap chinese one again before the others. The MSR and SP600 were great but way too burly, so IMO used unnecessarily thick walls resulting in heavier weights. The evernew was a better one…a nice balance of strength/weight but was pricey. The cheap chinese ones (which are often rebranded as tibetan titanium, toaks, stoic, and I think LiteTrail which is BPL's member Jhaura's company) are the real gems. Super thin and light, and great pricing. You're not going to break these chinese pots unless you're a total klutz.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

What titanium pot should you buy? It is kind of like asking what kind of car should I buy. It depends on what features you want and how much you want to spend on them. The best value by far was the Stoic/Backcountry 700 ml mugs: at $20 you can’t go wrong. I consider the Evernew 700 and 500 mugs to be top of the line. Extremely light weight, great titanium snap on lids and volume indicators. I also like the MSR Titan Kettle as is wide enough that it is easier to clean than the average mug. The Snow Peak 700, while popular – the lid is basically useless. The SP 700 is also pretty heavy for a titanium mug. You can upgrade it to a lighter lid, but I would spend more money on a better mug.
My view is that I will own and use a mug for many years. Amortizing the cost over say five years, the cost becomes minimal so I use Evernew products. Of course, like a car you can also search for pre-owned equipment to reduce cost. Also, if you are only heating water for freezer bag cooking you could stick with hard anodized aluminum. Best regards – Jon

[Phillip Asby]

I was also thinking about the SP mini titanium solo set – not crazy about the mug design but do like that it fits outside the pot giving more interior storage for a stove and canister and I believe has a titanium rather than a stainless lid. I didn't realize the SP 700 didn't have a titanium lid.

The Toaks pots seem like a good value overall, but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself… weight wise I do have a Primus Alutech 1.0L at 6.9oz – heavier yes but not ridiculously. The fit/finish is a bit less than I'd expect from Primus but it's a $25 pot (I got mine for I think $13) that works well for boiling water. If I'm willing to carry the weight I have a 1.0L Primus ETA powerpot that boils water pretty doggone quickly but is a hefty 10.2 oz… more than twice the 1L Toaks… and a lot more than the 750ml Toaks. The whole Mini Solo set is supposed to be 5.2oz according to website data.

Toaks has a 750/450 set that is also $13 less than the Mini solo and I like the mug shape better – but you do lose some inside the pot storage. It does appear that neither however have measurements… ugh.

Choices choices…

[Sean Passanisi]

I was just about to buy a SP 700 but I'm intrigued by the evernew products. Does anyone have experience with the evernew 750 ml and 400 ml cup set? Very similar in capacity to the SP Ti-mini solo. I assume the evernew would also hold 110 g of fuel and the SP gigapower stove.

http://www.evernewamerica.com/ECA278.htm

[Mark Fowler]

The ECA278 holds 2 samall (110g canisters) specs from http://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk
0.75L pot weighs 78g, lid weighs 22g, total weight of 0.75L pot is 100g / 3.5 oz
0.4L Mug pot weighs 52g
Dimensions: Pot 3.7" x 4.7" Mug 3.7" x 2.3"
Capacity: Pot 25.4 fl oz. / 750 ml Mug 13.5 fl oz. 400ml

[Sean Passanisi]

Thanks, Mark.

Does anyone have experience with the Evernew nonstick pots? I believe the weight is the same.

[Konrad .]

The ever new non stick coatings are better than unlined titanium pots, but don't expect anything too marvelous. It won't be like a non stick frypan or pot that you would use at home. My nonstick evernew would still burn/char and was difficult to clean.

[Sean Passanisi]

Thanks, Konrad.

The SP Mini-solo set (pot + cup) is lighter than the evernew set (5.5 oz vs. 6.3). I'm surprised given that evernew seems to be generally lighter.

I called SP and asked about the lid on the 700…they claim that it is titanium.

[Konrad .]

Unless they recently revised their design, the sp700 lid should be heavy steel.

[Ian]

"I called SP and asked about the lid on the 700…they claim that it is titanium."

If it is then they really missed the boat. The lid and handles are way too over-engineered and heavy to a point that using titanium is pointless. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with the pot but the lid was the first thing to go. The Esbit ti pot lid is ~ half the weight of the SP 700.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably buy the Evernew 700 UL Pasta Pot and just grind the handle hardware off with a dremel. I've never owned one but the lid looks like a much better design.

Fortunately I'm ghetto and I'm OK with using foil as my lid.

[Mike W]

I've used the SP Mini Solo for a few years now and will pass on some comments that may be helpful.

To start with I will comment that I prefer the Mini Solo over my MSR Ti pot even though it is less efficient with fuel (MSR is wider).

The mini solo cup and lid have really grown on me. The cup nests nicely on the bottom of the pot and still fits easily into a water bottle pocket. Easily accessible.

The SP Ti Solo pot doesn't have measurements on the side but the cup does.

At first glance, the pot lid does not fit the cup… It took me a few trips to realize that if you flip the lid upside down it fits the cup perfectly.

The best thing about the cup is that you can leave it on the bottom of the pot while cooking and this prevents your food from burning. I do a lot of cooking in my pot (not just boiling water), and this has worked very well for me. Cooking with the cup on the bottom of the pot uses a bit more fuel but if you have ever had to choke down a badly burned meal, you'll agree that it's worth the little bit of extra fuel.

[Jennifer Mitol]

Not sure what you guys are talking about in terms of the snow peak lid…mine is just fine, definitely is Ti, and works well. I really like the pot with the cup, which nests nicely together. The whole setup is quite convenient…and while it is thicker than my evernew 900ml short/wide pot, I actually kind of like that. It took one trip before my evernew pot had dents in the bottom (still don't know where they came from) and the pot deforms very easily.

[Konrad .]

Jennifer,
I think we are talking about different 700ml snowpeak cups. There's the mini solo that comes with a companion cup (which you have) and then theres the Snowpeak 700ml trek cup, with the heavy overbuilt steel lid, pictured below

[Jennifer Mitol]

Stand corrected. Carry on.

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