Solo Pot ?’s

It depends on what you cook in the pot.

If you only boil water, then titanium or aluminum pots are roughly equal. If you cook or simmer real food, then a wider aluminum pot is superior. Aluminum with an anodized finish is good. Aluminum with a black non-stick finish weighs more. If you cook over a wood fire, then a titanium pot is superior. Titanium is probably stronger in case you try to mash it with something.

–B.G.–

Thanks Bob for bringing some of the differences to light for me between aluminum and titanium. I guess I should have shared a bit more info about me intended use if I am asking for advice on which product I should choose. I have a wide variety of other cook sets already from a large alpine pot and blacklite frying pan to the gsi micro dualist set. These work great for their intended purposes but now I'm looking for something to carry when I'm all by my self.

I always cook on a small butane stove, not patient enough yet for alky and don't want the mess of esbit. My envisioned use is to boil a couple cups of water for rehydrating my meal and then to perhaps make a cup of tea or cocoa in the pot afterwords.

That second use as a mug is a big reason why I'm considering the gsi set. Using my pot as an insulated mug means one less item I need to bring.

As I said previously, I'm open to suggestions. I'm slowly trying to lighten my load but am on a pretty tight budget so i know my options are more limited.

I would go with the titanium mug with handles. A foil lid and call it good. It's too small to eat much out of so you don't need a cozy.
It has handles so you don't need the gripper thingy. Lighter. Easy to live with. Less pieces.

I'd go with the toakes if it's lighter. Ditch any included lid and use foil or nothing. I pretty much only use a ti 24 oz mug for all my meals. An included cozy is cool if you're into that,I don't see the benefit myself.

I have the GSI. I ditched the gripper (have small camp towel), cozy & spork (broke after 5 or 6 uses anyway). Using as you describe – heating water, morning coffee. I like the lid both as a sipper and to keep my stove/fuel/bic together, but I s'pose I could get by without it (foil/rubberband?).

One thing I've noticed on the GSI is rust. I'm not sure yet if it's the fuel canister & moisture or the GSI by itself w/ moisture or a combination of both, but I have to be sure it's dry before packing back up.

Going back, I might've tried your other option.

If you're on here, weight must be of some importance. If you're just boiling water (or want to perhaps heat food over a fire), the Lite Trail Toaks 550 is lighter than the standard Toaks version. To me, it's worth a little extra. It's a great pot. Replaced my SnowPeak 700 and MSR Titan Kettle. Two great pots I'd used for many years, but the 550 is enough room for all I do solo, and weighs significantly less. Another good option would be an AGG 3 cup aluminum pot from Trail Designs with an aluminum caldera cone. cheap, and very practical if you are (or are aspiring to be) an alchohol stove user.

I have the gsi minimalist and is a great little setup. Ditched the cozy and spork to save weight. Definitely recommend if you are not ready for a foster can alky setup.

When/if you are ready check out gold gear setups from David. I got a whole setup for around 30 bux shipped. He is an awesome dude and helped me quite a bit with my alky transition haha. I was scared to try it too and didn't want the fuss either but now that I have tried it there's no looking back.

Contrary to popular myth, aluminum pots of identical sizes and guages as titanium pots are lighter. Al atomic weight is about 27. Ti atomic weight is 48.

The Ti pots are stronger for the same thickness. Aluminum can react with acids. Tomato's is a good example of something to avoid. Short term exposure has little effect, though.

I use a K-Mart Grease pot with a cut down lid and handle. It will max at about a liter/quart. It weighs about 3.1oz. I use a bandana as a pot gripper and a ti spoon. My tarp *just* fits into the pot for carrying. The lid is flat. I have also added heat exchanger *rings* around the bottom for a 15% efficiency booste. I can use it on a WG stove, wood stove, alchohol stove or with esbit. I also have one of Trail Designs cones for it.While initially concerned with durability, since Al is softer than Ti, I have been using this $5 pot for several years. All you actually need. I also cook breads/bisquits, soups & stews, scrambled eggs, and other quickie cooking meals. I don't limit myself to simply boiling water. Works great to clean out a fireplace or make hot cocoa at night, too.

That Toaks is pretty small. Maybe too small if you wanted hot water for both a meal and coffee at the same time.
I typically boil about 20oz of water, and use a Trek 700 with Four Dog Stove's ti lid.
If I had to start over, I'd just get the Olicamp 24oz anodized aluminum mug they sell with ti lid(<4oz total/$24).

Owen,
You post makes me think about something I hadn't really considered before. My plan was to heat two batches of water. One for my meal and one for my beverage. You obviously boil everything at once.

Does anyone have any idea on what is more efficient with a canister stove? Boiling twice in a small pot or boiling once with a large pot.

If a bigger pot is better, then I suppose I could go with a something in the 700ml range. But then I'm back to needing a mug, 700ml is a bit of a large drinking vessel.

Jesse, generally it is more efficient to use a larger pot. That said, it is only because the larger pot has more surface area for accumulating heat. There are limits to this, naturally. But, generally a 5" pot is more efficient than a 3.5" pot.

I own both pots. I use an Esbit set up and found that the 550ml actually worked quite well. I will fill it with water, then pour the hot water into my rehydration bag/container and if I need more for a hot drink, I will add more water to the pot(which still has a fair amount of water in it) and place it back on my Esbit, which is still going strong. By the time the water is hot enough to drink..I don't need a rolling boil..both items are ready, and the Esbit has burned up. It's a sweet set up.

"You obviously boil everything at once."

Yes, everything at once. 20-24oz gives me enough for a dehydrated meal and a cup of something hot. I drink the tea/coffee/hot chocolate while waiting for the meal at supper time, and leave the lid on at breakfast, then have the drink after my oatmeal.
Bought the Snow Peak Hot Lips for my Trek 700, and dispensed with the lexan cup I was using. I like their 1.6oz ti bowl for eating, though, and suppose that is my "luxury item".

Just throwing this plug in for ZPacks, as I was unaware of this product until a couple weeks ago. I bought their cuben "cooking pot stuff sack"(they have 19 sizes listed) for the Trek 700, and really like how it holds the lid on with my stove setup inside vs the oversized mesh bag designed to hold a fuel canister on top that came with the Snow Peak. Before, I was twisting the mesh bag down to fit, then looping and tightening the drawstring around it to hold everything in place.
Maybe someone else will find this useful, as I don't know which other brands' pots on the market come with anything to hold the lid and pot together.
These are listed under Accessories/Cuben Fiber Stuff Sacks.

Full Disclosure: I mfg/sell the kit.

This kit contains an aluminum pot that has a capacity of 24oz.

Weight of kit: 6.5 oz. Includes windscreen and stove.

http://www.woodgaz-stove.com/conquistador24-kit.php

P.S. I only have 1 kit remaining.

James,
You mentioned that larger pots generally heat faster than smaller because of the increased surface area presented to the heat source. It seems like the Toaks are the exception to this rule because both the 750ml and the 550ml pots have the exact same diameter, the 750ml is simply taller. With that in mind, am I correct in assuming that there really wouldn't be much of any efficiency gain from a single boil in the 750ml pot vs two boils in the 550ml pot?

Dan,
I appreciate the info on your conquistador kit. Not really ready to make the switch to alky stoves yet.

Donna,
You mention owning both and your preference for the Ti pot, are you able to drink hot liquids directly from the pot? Or do you use something else when it comes time for a warm beverage?

For those of you using a small pot to boil water, What do you use for your beverage? A number of reviews on various single wall titanium mugs and small pots I've read complained about burning lips on hot metal.
-Owen uses the "hot lips" for this, are there any other options?
-If I have to carry a separate cup, are there any ul insulated cups?
-REI states a weight of .3oz for the 2 pack of hot lips, is that true?
-Anyone know what would the approximate weight of a cozy made from reflectix for a 550ml pot?

I know I'm making a relatively simple decision far more complicated than it should be, but I'm finding the balance between weight, compactness, price, and simplicity a difficult target to reach.

-REI states a weight of .3oz for the 2 pack of hot lips, is that true?
That's for the pair. One weighs 4 grams on my scale, which equals .14oz.
Nothing wrong with making it complicated. Get what you want so you won't be disappointed, or wanting to change it again soon!

I have used the Hot Lips and I found that I wasn't putting them on tight enough along the rim and the drink would dribble underneath. But they work just fine. Sometimes I just go for it and not use anything…sometimes I will place the lid from the GSI on it because it fits. I want to try placing a used coffee lid from MacDonalds or Starbucks to see if that fits. I don't usually like my hot drinks burning hot. I did make a reflex cozy for both pots. I didn't like the neoprene on the GSI because it was a pain to take off and on, plus the reflectix weighs much less.

I find I like to tinker with my cookset. As for flatwear, I use the MSR folding spoon and fork and they fit nicely in both pots. I used to use the MSR kettle, and taking the 'leap' to a smaller pot changed my mind about how useful those little pots are. I luv 'em. And they are sooo cute!!

Yeah, that probably true without any wind screen or heat shield. Heat is pretty much additive up to about 200-205F or so. Then Air humidity has a bit to do with it. In a cone for example, some of the lost heat is recovered and used to heat the sides of the pot. So, a shorter pot will be less efficient. But these are all gimicks. With esbit (at about 13500 BTU/lb) you don't have enough heat to really worry about. Most of the effective heat will be used by the time it hits the upper sides of the pot. Butane/iso/propane blends are closer to 21000BTU/lb so running on low is a no brainer as well as recovering excess heat. WG is about the same.

Thanks everybody for your input and experience. Getting the Ti pot and making up a reflectix cozy for it sounds like it will be the best option. If I run into the "too hot to drink from" issue, I can always buy the hot lips as some of you suggested.

James, Would please post a photo of the heat exchanger you attach. I am trying to come with a homemade one.