High hopes, but rather disappointed

Christopher Hood

Member since  Dec 29, 2009

Posted on July 30, 2011

• Gender: Male
• Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer

I bought this as a light weight option for my back packing trips, as well as a 2012 attempt at the AT. Several flaws I encountered...
1. The lid is very tight (and more so when using, due to expansion of the metal during heating). Found you have to leave lid partially off so you don't spill dinner in process of just trying to check to see if your dehydrated dinner is boiling, as Tired and Frustrated found. I was only at 4000 to 6000 feet and that hindered boiling a lot. Can't imagine trying to melt snow at 13,000!
2. The handles ARE NOT LONG ENOUGH. When I started my pot a'boilin' the flames on my soda can stove were very close to handles, and they became very hot (natch). Used one of my gloves that I brought as a pot holder and burned my hand on flames trying to get pot off stove, and my glove melted to handle. That was a mess, while hungry!
3. The pot handles look good in the photo. They fold in on sides nice and neat and compact looking. HOWEVER they flop around, and while not a huge deal would think for $60 bucks they'd look and feel a little more secure, especially in your hand when you are removing your dinner from the stove and its as hot as the sun!

Bottom line: I thought this would be a nice light weight pot for long distance backpacking. What I got was a light weight pot for $60 bucks that is awkward to use.

****UPDATE*****
I change my mind on this. I used this pot the entire time on the AT and it worked great. Nice and light and after a little use the handles and lid were fine. I will say that I wish the pot handles were a little longer , as even with the wind screen, they heat up from the flames of my alcohol stove. To combat this I brought a small pot holder that I had cut in half and stitched the cut end so it wouldn't fall apart. worked just fine.