Cooking Sets, Coleman and MSR

Most of my cooking pots are mug type as I really only ever boil water, the most often used would be the Alpkit Mytimug at 750ml or an identical but shorter 550ml pot from Tibetan Titanium. I also have a Heinie pot and a Tibetan Titanium 900ml pot but sold off some cookests last year including a wider Snowpeak Compact cookset. It was only when we had snow before and during Christmas that I unearthed my MSR Whisperlite International petrol stove but I discovered that none of my cooking pots suited it very well being too tall and narrow for stability, too small to carry the Whisperlite and not the most efficient shape for melting snow.

As I wanted something to use specifically with the Whisperlite I started to look at what was available. I looked at quite a few sets from a variety of differenr companies including Blacks, Vango, Hi Gear etc, the Hi Gear Trail 4 looked like a versatile option) and also looked at the more expensive brands including Primus, Optimus MSR and Evernew. What I found was that the majority of those that were of sufficient diameter came as part of a 2-3 person set and most came with a frypan lid which I didn't really want. I ruled out the Evernew pots as they seemed similar to the Snowpeak set I had and I always found the Snowpeak to be too slippery, I alos ruled out pots that had 2 part fold out handles. In the end I decided on the MSR Quick 1 pot, identical to the Quick 1 System but without the mug. The MSR pot looked like it would hold the Whisperlite and had a basic lid but with a handle similar to the one on the MSR Reactor pot.



The MSR Quick 1 pot is nicely made, it's quite light (186g) being titanium and the lid fitted well but while the handle felt secure I didn't like the way it stuck out from the pot even when folded. The pot capacity is 1300ml and has volume markings stamped down the side and the lid while being similar in style to the Reactor pot is metal rather than Lexan. The Whisperlite fitted but only just and while I resigned myself to using it I wasn't entirely happy with it.













Shortly after I'd got it I found the Coleman Exponent 1 cookset while browsing ebay. It came as a 2 pot set, the smaller pot being similar in size to the MSR Quick 1 with the larger pot being just a litte bit wider. The set only came with one lid which was flat rather than a frying pan type and the pot lifter was a Trangia style one. The set was listed at £20 so I ordered one.



The Coleman pots are aluminium with a hard anodised finish and a non-stick coating and both pots have stamped volume markings, the smaller pot having a marked maximum of 1200ml and the larger a marked maximum of 1500ml. In addition both pots have deep grooves on the base to stop them from slipping around on the stove. The lid sits securely on both pots and has a silicone pad around the lifter/knob on the lid to help keep it cool, the lifter being metal. The lifter folds flat but is made in such a way that it stays in the raised position when folded up. The pot grab/handle is similar to the ones supplied with Trangia stoves but is plastic coated where it grabs the pot to stop it scratching the non stick coating, one clever touch is that the lifter comes with a cloth pouch for storage but it also doubles as a cleaning cloth. The cookset also comes with a mesh stuff sack. The downside of course is that it's quite heavy, more than suggested by quite a bit. The listed weight is 425g the actual weight being 571g which is a really poor showing by Coleman, that said considering I'm intending using it with a petrol stove which isn't all that light once the fuel bottle is added I'm not overly concerned about the weight, as I won't be using the smaller pot it'll effectively weigh 395g, the weight of the individual parts is as follows.

1.5ml Pot - 200g
1.2ml Pot - 173g
Lid - 100g
Pot Grab/Lifter - 59g
Pouch for above - 14g
Stuff Sack - 22g












The downside now is trying to decide which one to use, although the weight isn't a primary concern the MSR pot is half the weight while the Colman set up is otherwise more suitable.

Thoughts on Pots!!

I was reading Tinny's (MBDC) blog recently and his findings regarding the Jetboil and Primus ETA pots got me thinking about cooking pot design. It seems that when the Jetboil burner was used with a Heineken pot the results were pretty much the same as any run of the mill stove. Tinny also noted that the Primus ETA pot worked well with a meths stove so the conclusion has to be that the technology used in the pot is at least as, perhaps more, important (but less glamourous) that that used in the burner.



I happen to have a Jetboil GCS pot that I'm unlikely to use but I think an experiment is in order, how efficient will my woodstove be if I use the GCS pot rather than my usual pots?



It's strange to think that although MSR came up with the XPD Heat Exchanger way back in the late 80's that the only development since has been the Jetboil, the Primus ETA and of course the MSR Reactor. I think that's a pretty poor show to be honest. Given the number of Cookware brands out there you would think that someone could think outside the box rather than simply producing the same old, same old, sometimes with nothing more than a change of Brand Name to distinguish one from the other.



http://www.minibulldesign.com/

http://www.msrgear.com/

http://www.primus.se/

http://www.jetboil.com/

What's this then??

A work in Progress.