“tea” kettle versus pot with lid

I use the evernew 800 ml "tea pot" and honestly I just like the dimensions. Wide enough, tall enough, with a spout so pouring is easy.

harder to clean tea kettle but if you're just boiling water that doesn't matter much

I've become a big fan of the MSR Titan Kettle. While it's not a "true" kettle in my opinion it is a bit more flexible. Here are a few reasons I like the Titan Kettle over smaller cups (I do very often use my Snow Peak 600 as well):

-Easy to pour: Easy to pour in to my freezer bag meals and I also use it to pour water from streams and creeks into my 2 liter Platypus before treating it with Aqua Mira.

-Wide base seems to be more efficient. Your water is definitely more shallow in a wider bottom pot. I haven't tested this with my stoves but it seems logical to me.

-Unlike a true kettle (The GSI Kettle for example) you can still actually drink out of this one. I use a pair of Hot Lips from Snow Peak and use the Titan Kettle as my mug as well. I hardly eat out of it so it works just fine for me.

It's my go to pot/kettle. I have loved it thus far, the lid is very user friendly and it's multi-purpose. Sure it's a little bigger than what I need on a solo trip but if I'm out with my girlfriend or friend it works great for two people.

Here's a photo of my Zelph Cobalt Blue Soloist burning under the Titan Kettle. The flame pattern seems to work great with the Kettle:

I have the GSI kettle. If your stove has a wide flame then the wider base of a kettle will be more efficient.

The smaller lids on tea kettles usually seal better than a standard pot. As such, you lose less steam and fewer BTUs to the environment as you boil water. For the same wall thickness, the kettle shape is stronger. I'm not sure how that helps – maybe if they decrease the wall thickness to make it lighter, but it would then be prone to getting dented.

It is harder to pack volume-efficiently with a kettle. Tea bags and dirty socks fit inside easily, but you have lots of places to put those. Stove components often fit nicely inside a more open pot and that can save you using an extra stuff sack. Also, at times, I use an open pot to protect fragile stuff like crackers that I'd rather eat as crackers and not as crumbs.

But I also like tea kettles for strictly boiling water – they are easier to pour from, with less splashing and risk of scalds. Potentially you bring one less bandana or don't need a pot gripper if you have a kettle with a nice handle on it. If your pack as a little extra volume, go for it.

If your mostly concerned about boiling efficiency, a good lid helps, but not nearly as much as matching the width of your pot optimally to the size of your stove's flame and the diameter of your windscreen. And both of those effects are smaller than the benefits of have a pot with a heat exchanger.

Edited to add: a quick google search turns up Fire Maple tea kettles with heat exchangers:

http://compare.ebay.com/like/251264689872?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

$24, free shipping, 190 grams = 6.7 ounces, 0.8 liters, Size: 153x86mm (width = 6 inches).

I also picked up a GSI kettle recently. It is the same weight and volume as my Ti pot, but is aluminum and $16. As speculated above, I have noted that it is indeed thinner (possible because of the shape) and easier to dent, which is how the weight is kept low. I like the width for my alcohol stove, and it is short which allows more of it to fit below the edge of my windscreen. Cleaning is a pain, especially because the handles and spout stick into the inside, leaving several edges for stuff to accumulate on. If the inside was smooth it would be ideal. You can't put things in as easily, but I have also been using it to pour into Sawyer water filter bags so that is ok. I painted the bottom of mine black and made a nice hard edge with masking tape, it looks pretty slick.

I like mine for no other reason than it boils fast and make pouring into freezer bags easier. With a little creativity, you can fit a lot inside.

I use a GSI kettle too and love it. However, it's only for water/freezer bag cooking. On the last trip I carried a snow peak titanium bowl as well because I don't always feel like eating out of a bag. The bowl and kettle combo took up some extra space, which could be considered a downside.

I use a Trangia kettle and really like it for all the reasons already mentioned. And my coffee "maker", filters and stove fit inside. However, the one with the heat exchanger looks really interesting…

P.S. I am using a typical narrow flame canister stove.

Are most folks using a "tea" style kettle using them with alcohol setups?

I can see the wide base being a bigger advantage in this setup depending on the stove you're using.

Perhaps less of an issue with a canister stove (what I use at least for now… keep eyeing alcohol setups but haven't pulled the trigger yet) where a narrower design like my Vargo Ti pot still has enough surface for almost all the flame to make solid contact.