UKC

No more burnt bothy dinners for me!

Looking to buy some hard anodised/non-stick pots. Some great deals on budget brands (Highlander, Karrimor, Hi Gear etc) but i'm wondering whether to splash the cash and go for MSR.

Anyone able to offer any experiences of whether MSR pots are worth the extra?

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

We've had the plain stainless MSR pots for years, they last and last - 15+ years on they still look good and work well.

Bought one of the hard anodised large pans with the heat exchanger on this year as we needed a bigger pan, 2 weeks of use its still fine - it will not take the abuse of the stainless ones, but it is tough (much tougher than the cheaper ones) and looks as though it will last.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong: I have had an MSR blacklite set of pans for quite a few years and I love them very much. They have accompanied me on many trips to nice places and are light and durable.

http://www.buachaille.com/p1053-3-30/Stoves-and-Cooking/MSR-BlackLite--Clas...

I don't think they do these any more but the new ones look nice. I think that paying the extra now will save you money in replacements in the long term.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong: used to use the msr anodised ones and they were great, now just have normal stainless steel ones, also great.

With work we use lots of the cheaper ones, they are fine so long as you look after them and are happy to replace them much more often. Sometimes the non stick just peels off!

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

if your melting a lot of snow the reactor pot (on any other stove as well) i find best.
a bit heavy, but when max convection and volume matter it evens out after about 3 days of fuel consumption for 2 people.

not sure you can get the pots separately tho.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong: If you are after durability you just can't beat stainless steel.

I've got an MSR 2 litre Titan (titanium) pot which is still going strong albeit with a few scratches and dents but it tends to hot spots I doubt it is really worth the money.

Easily the best pots I've ever used (probably ever made?) were the Sigg Inoxal ones made of Aluminium but with a 0.2mm layer of Stainless Steal on the inside. The same goes for Trangia Duosall which had the same design. Unfortunately both have been out of production for years...

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

MSR? How awfully vulgar.

It's Le Creuset, or nothing, where I'm concerned.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

MSR steel pots = Money well spent.

Buy cheap, pay twice. Its an old saying but very true

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

I have snow peak titanium stuff which is fine enough...But word of caution if you do go with ti for some reason, the bottoms warped so aren't perfectly flat and went an interesting array of colors on my XGK. Seems it happens to ti pots, no big deal but wasn't expecting it. Don't recall ever having it boil dry.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer: Another vote for the Trangia Duossal pots. Been really impressed with these pans - still in regular use after 16 years with meths, gas and XGK burners.

As for MSR Ti, I use their Ti pans as well and the comments about hot spots are very valid; for heavy usage, I think that MSR's stainless range would be worth investing in.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:

Does the stainless steel not stick?

I use hard anodised at home (pricey mind....) and they're just amazing. I assumed the camping hard anosied would be the best non-stick option!

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:


Seems alright if you season it like what Delia tells you to

In reply to nufkin:

Ta. I'll start Googling.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:
I have a lightweight camping cook set from tefal that is awesome and was sub 25 quid when I got it. Had a really handy lid/strained and the best handle I've ever seen on camping pans. Has survived some abuse too!
Not sure you can get em anymore as a quick 30 second google-fu failed to pick it up but a cheaper and dare I say better alternative to msr

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

I had a set of MSR Blacklite pots that were rubbish (certainly in terms of value for money). I didn't really abuse them, but the black coating on the pots couldn't cope with the heat or the supplied grips, and the black plastic coating started peeling off after about a year.

I replaced them with these: http://www.campmor.com/wcsstore/Campmor/static/images/kitchen/80784.jpg

which turned out to be fantastic. They're non stick, relatively light, with an anodised outer (so no peeling coatings), and they've got nice touches like volumes stamped into the sides. They were cheaper than the MSR ones!

Tim

In reply to Green Porridge:

Tim.....what make are they?

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

I can't comment on the non-stick pan set

I have the MSR Alpine Pan set with the heat exchanger.
I find it great and well worth the money.

However no matter how much you spend on a pan, if you don't watch what your cooking you can still burn your dinner

In reply to Green Porridge:
We've also got a set of MSR Blacklite pans and the black coating on the outside has started peeling off one of the pans after 3 years of use. this started where the handle and MSR heat exchanger had scratched it a bit and started to lift it off. its not effecting the usefulness of the pans but looks a mess.
However, the insides of the pans are still fine, the non-stick coating is really effective, better than some of the pans we've got to use at home. Scrambled eggs comes straight off.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong: I like my Primus Eta pots, they seem to be wearing well and they really do save fuel (or boil quicker, depending how you look at it).

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

Cheers for all the tips. Just ordered the Esbit 9 piece, thatnks Santa.

In reply to Father Noel Furlong:

Not sure they will last 15 years. I have used mine a lot( cooking on them for 3 months at time on occassion) over the last 6 years. They have actually become tainted, slightly warped, even so they are worth the money.

In reply to Blizzard:

With the amount of stress i'm under at work, crap I eat and booze I drink I'm not sure i'll last another 15 years!