Thoughts on Pots with Screw on Lids

See Ryan’s review and member comments on the Varg0 Bot 700 as a starting point.

1. Eh’ keep the peanutbutter jar. Nothing get stuck in upper rim of that and its easier to clean then pot with screw lid (Bott) . It is so lightweight and just works. I have no problems carrying my lightweight pot/cookset .. for solo a use trail Designs 400ml Ti- Tri… and peanutbutter jar. I also keep it filled with water when needed or my ice coffee or cold soak.

I trust a peanut-butter jar to handle a bit of sand or grit much more than a Vargo Bot.

Sometimes I wish a PB jar had a more liquid-tight lid (like a Nalgene), but if it’s only got water into (to drink or to cold soak), who cares?  Just keep it upright in a side pocket.

Peanut-butter and Planter’s Peanut PET jars are lovely because they’re wide-mouth (SteriPen!), clear and lightweight.  Alas, being PET, they deform in my dishwasher and won’t handle boiling water like HDPE does.  Dietary fiber and weight-lifting supplements do come in wide-mouth HDPE containers of various volumes and geometries, some with a decently sealing lid.  I keep my eye out for them in the #2 recycling bin.

Yes.. steripen also!!! Forgot about that for my winter use!!

Sometimes I wish a PB jar had a more liquid-tight lid (like a Nalgene)…

I may have discovered a solution to this recently.  The flat lid part of a two-part canning lid (the regular mouth, not the wide mouth) fits perfectly inside the lid of a plastic peanut  butter jar.  The rubbery gasket seems to keep any liquid from leaking out.  So far I’ve dropped it on a hard floor, rolled it down the stairs,  and given it to my dogs to bat around.  So far, so good. It weighs 0.2 oz.

I don’t cold soak so I’ll just be using it with my Steripen.   So no need to put it in a dishwasher.  I’ll report back once I have some field experience with it.

I like US Plastics’ natural HDPE jars. They do fine with boiling water. Easier to order from Litesmith here: https://www.litesmith.com/cold-soaking-jars/

Wow, pretty unequivocal against the pot with lid!  Ill read Ryans review.

I have the Bot, but I don’t use it this way. I got it by chance with a steep discount, today I’d buy some other pot of similar form factor but with a lighter lid. What I like that the screw-top lit holds the contents (the rest of my cook kit) in place what eliminates the need for a stuff sack. The thread on it is not 100% reliable, I won’t put it inside a pack when filled with something that can spill. However, it’s good enough for carry in pocket on the outside of the pack.

What I use for drinks both cold and hot is a 0.5l HDPE nalgene. It’s not all that light, but it’s the lightest container I found that serves all the following purposes:

1. I’s my primary water bottle, small enough to be carried on a shoulder strap for fast access on the go.
2. I use it for mixing cold drinks including coffee. This is another reason to carry a separate small bottle.
3. It can hold hot water. My routine is boiling a full pot of water and using part of it for making a hot drink in this bottle and rehydrating a meal in the pot using the rest. This way, I can enjoy the drink while waiting for the meal. For me, this makes it worth the extra weight over a similarly sized PET bottle.
4. It seals reliably. In a cold weather, I can make a hot drink, wrap the bottle in some insulating clothing and put it in the pack.
5. It’s useful for collecting water from small or shallow sources. That’s another advantage over a PET bottle, the opening is wide what helps a lot.

I really enjoy my vargo bot, ended up with two of them for $60 each, one is modded by zelph for the cone stove combo.  Besides the diameter bulkiness, it’s my favorite pot. I usually eat out of it and use it as a lunch box to eat throughout the day because I don’t really buy processed food in wrappers, so the bot allows me to keep adding nuts or peanutbutter, eating until i’m good and store it away.

Not the greatest for hot water bottle sleeping, especially if there were food in it at some point. the thing sputters hot water when sealed and in any position but upright.  I do carry either a 550ml cup often that holds my caldera cone and burner, I use the 550 to make white rice, or eat breakfast while the bot is brewing coffee. sometimes I bring a 1300ml toaks (3.4oz) when i’m cooking for more than myself or am bringing raw produce, But it’s easy to do overnights with just the bot and a smart bottle.  especially if you base most of your diet around peanutbutter, because you’ll have lingering peanutbutter in every meal and drink..

oh and some tips for the bot, you’ll want to screw and unscrew it a LOT before taking it out, maybe even hitting the threads with a brillo pad to reduce the grinding noise and friction.  and when you take it up into the mountains it will pressurize, but prying on the lid, in the gasket cavity will allow some air in so you can unstuck it.

Also when I put the lid on, I rotate counter clockwise until the threads line up, then I screw the lid on, that way you dont cross threads, getting it stuck.

One cool cook trick ive seen but never tried is brewing coffee in the bot with a hanging steam pan for a bisket, with a egg cooking in the lid. Also the 550ml lids are compatible with bots, and vice versa

Russell,

Could you please specify which brand/model is the lid you mentioned that works with the bot?

Toaks 550 and 750 lids fit on the bot perfect, also the bot lid slips into the 550 toaks perfect, you can even stack the 550 ontop of the toaks, but i’ve never really done that.

Someone PM’d me a Q “what water container do I use for a SteriPen” and my answer kind of bears on some of this.

I’ve been using 1-quart (liter?) Gatorade bottles. Light. Free at the recycling center. The 1.75-pint and smaller have smaller lids that barely fit my red-cross-branded SteriPen, while it fits well in the 32 ounce size.

But I’m looking to switch. I’ve never liked how high up the UV bulb was in the Gatorade bottle with lots of water well below it and then I read an scientific article (Drinking water treatment with ultraviolet light for travelers …www.sciencedirect.com › science › article › pii) reviewing SteriPens with and without agitation and it makes a huge difference – >99.99% sterilizing versus 95% and I know I’m not stirring the water in the Gatorade bottle around much because of the fit on the Steripen (I can use the SteriPen as a stirrer much better in a wide-mouth Nalgene) and the lid is too small to cut out a SteriPen-sized rectangle so as to shake the whole assembly a lot.

So I’m looking for a few Planter’s peanut jars – tall, #1 plastic, hold 16 ounces dry-weight nuts. A much wider lid so it’s easier to fill, much easier to use the SteriPen as a stirrer, and a big enough lid that I can cut a hole in an extra one to insert the SteriPen through.

And for a thru-hiker, you could always grab another at any super market or Walmart.  With 2,720 calories of peanuts inside.

I’ve been using one as a pee bottle and it’s 1.9 ounces bottle only, 0.2 ounces for the lid. 2.13 ounces total. It holds 29 fluid ounces, so just shy of a quart. The lid is pretty watertight – not bomber like a Nalgene or a soda bottle, but better than a PB jar and fine for being upright in my pack’s side pocket.

For cold-soaking couscous into a cold, gloopy mess, a PB jar would be better being a bit wider and a bit shorter, but I’d prefer the Planter’s nut plastic jar as a water bottle.

Maybe I’m missing something, but may I ask why you hike with a pee bottle?