Hard Anodized (HA) Aluminum Pots

There is normal clear or color anodizing and then tbere is HARD annodizing. The distinction is important in terms of the thickness and durability.

Sam at Batchstovez makes nice stuff, but I doubt they are truly HARD annodized.
Hard Annodised pots are normally a dark charcoal grey and the Batchstovz pots are not.

I can tell you that the annodising used on the OC pots is excellent. Its extremely hard and tough.It is surace is harder than bare Snow Peak or Everynew Ti pieces I have owned.
You have to have access to some fairly expensive and potentially dangerous equipment to do true hard annodizing.

It is great thst the Batchstovez pots are nice and light. It will be interesting to see how tough tbe annodising is over years of use compared to the OC stuff.

Is the "hard anodized" 2 qt. Open Country pot (without handle or bail) sold by Trail Designs actually hard anodized, or is it just a non-stick xylan coating? Open Country has a bailed 2 qt. pot that simply has a non-stick xylan coating inside and out, and I'm wondering if the other model is actually different…

With that cheap ,nasty "Xylan" stuff with no annodizing underneath. I believe Open Country still catalogs that version.

The smooth no handle 2Qt pot is hard annodized.

If you want a hard annodised 2Qt pot ,you could always buy the bail kit from FourDog and install it yourself.

Or just buy the 5 pc HA set from FD with the bail installed on the 2QT…

Money WELL SPENT either way,IMHO.

Is the "hard anodized" 2 qt. Open Country pot (without handle or bail) sold by Trail Designs actually hard anodized, or is it just a non-stick xylan coating?

fwiw, the 3-cup OC HA pot I got from TD has no coating. I assume the 2Q would be the same.

Getting the facts is as easy as going to the Trail Designs website and carefully reading their product descriptions.No assumptions required.

Here is the page for the sidewinder kit with bail handle –
http://www.traildesigns.com/stoves/caldera-sidewinder-system.

Read the description.It says " non stick" which means "xylan". Notice there is NO mention of hard annodizing .Thats because it's just coated with that "xylan&quo.

Now, here is the description for the "UL" Sidewinder set that has the Hard Annodised 2qt with NO bail-http://www.traildesigns.com/stoves/caldera-ul-sidewinder-system
PNotice how in the decription of the bailess pot they prominently mention "Hard Annodized" instead of "non stick". Thats because they are Hard Annodized only- no "xylan".

The three cup pots have only been hard annodized.

And ,from actual experience, anyone who does not want non stick plyomer coatings in their food should avoid the bail handled xylan coated pots.Period.

As to the HA 2 qt OC pots in my online researcheing, they have only been available in the smooth sided versions sans handles. The only way to get a HA version with a bail is to have Don at FourDog make you one or buy the bail kit and install it yourself.

Instead get ceramic coated pots and skillets.

I have a HA 3 cup pot from Trail Designs and the HA is durable but far from "non-stick".

OTOH my Wally Mart aluminum one egg skillet (sans handle) has ceramic coating and IS truly non-stick and at least s durable as HA.

You have to be carefull with the white ceramic stuff when cleaning and even packing it. Once the surface gets scratched it's non stick nature is compromised.They are all ceramic infused polymer based coating. A healthier and tougher version of most Teflon.
True hard annodizing is basically an ionic surface harfening process that buildd up a nearly diamond hard surface coating. No inexpensive ceramic pot coating I have seen is a tough..

And I have two of the "Everyday Living" Wamart brand skillets. A 5" model and a 8" inch model.I've put them in my test group along side the various HA pots and pans I have .My conclusion is they are better in the kitchen than a backpack.

I feel the WM ceramic skillets are simply too heavy for their size- trick ceramic coating or not.With the handles cut off,the dinky little 5" models weighs over 5 ounces. The 8 inches is over 11.

The reason why those ceramic pans are heavy is due the the fragile nature of the ceramic coating which actually is a ceramic infused polymer. If the pan dents.warps or deflects at all, it chips. Thats why tbe WM frypans are made from MILLED thicker walled aluminum than the thinly drawn Open Country or the Trangia Hard Annodized stuff. The penalty is weight.

If you season Hard Annodized pot pans with Olive or Canola oil before you fry with them and use oil or butter to lubricate the food and a proper flame temp( medium) ,HA pans are very " non stick". Very comparable to ceramics in my use.

IMHO, the most practical lightweight frying pans for backpacking are the Trangia 27 and 25 hard annodized frying pans.

The 27 is 7.4" diameter and weighs 2.8 oz.
The 25 is 8.7" in diameter and weighs 3.9 ounces.

They also have nice, vertical 1.25" tall sides..
Very hard to beat their overall performance for their weight.

"The only way to get a HA version with a bail is to have Don at FourDog make you one or buy the bail kit and install it yourself."

In response:

(1)An alternative is to make your own bail handle. Aluminum (HA or not) is easy to drill, then add a wire handle made from picture framing wire from a hardware store.

(2) Check the weight of the Four Dog Stoves's bail handle. It might not be popular at Backpackinglight.

A tip I recently learned here is for pouring using a bail handle, pour with the liquid running over one end of the bail handle, instead of in between them.

Pretty much any DIY bail that is apreciably lighter is going to be pretty rickety on a 2qt pot that weights 2.5lbs full up with water.

And ,I am fully aware of what the OC bailed pot weighs;) One whopping half an ounce mote than a bare pot with pot grabber. The strength and utility of the factory bail for it's intended use far outsrips the UNBEARABLE burden of 15 extra grams on 2qt pot…lol

I guess my origional point was ..no bailed OC Hard Annodised pots come that way from the factory.

On the large pot, about the only gripe I have with the factory bail are the sharp corners on the bail mounts..I wish they made a more streamlined design.

"On the large pot, about the only gripe I have with the factory bail are the sharp corners on the bail mounts"

Easy to fix. That's why they invented Dremel tools.

–B.G.–

You van DIY a bsil mod of some.sort on sny pot. my reply fealt with factory configurstion bailed OC pots..

Come again?

Katharina, I thought that you were good with European languages.

It's all Greek to me.

–B.G.–

My applogies for the apparent gibberish…:).
I will edit it for spelling ASAP.

And,I am not a foreign national and no alcohol was involved with that post..

Sadly…lol.

That makes sense; I did wonder if spirits were involved ;)
I should be the one to apologize; feeling a bit feisty/ silly …I guess.

@Bob. Sorry to disappoint…..no Greek here

if I take any meds for the tooth. I am going to have to simply stop posting while medicated.

My posts will look like Alien transmissions from another solar system..

Or,I could just post 'em on "Chaff"…;)

I am now convinced that Smart Phones allow us to make mistakes much faster than we ever could on full keyboards.

–B.G.–