First impressions
When the parcel arrived at my door, the first thing that struck me was the size of the package. I opened it up, and inside along with the bubble wrap and a pair of dry bags I ordered at the same time, was a black stuff sack.
I had checked through the measurements on the site before I bought the pots, measuring the largest lid against a rasher of bacon to see that it would fit, but after playing around with solo cooksets recently, I wasn't quite ready for the bulk of these pans.
The stuff sack isn't your normal nylon stuff sack, but the funky 3d mesh like you get on some backpack backs and straps.
Inside the stuff sack is the 2L pot and the lid, inside that, is the 1L pot and lid. Prior to this the last pot I bought was my Titanium evernew 400ml cup, which weighs in at around the 50g mark. So picking up the full set of these pans, the first thing that struck me was the weight. 608.5g according to my scales. Compared to my old MSR Alpine 2 set, at ~730g. That isn't much of a saving, if you need all 4 pans. Personally, I bought these with the intent of carrying just the 1L set, and occasionally the 2L lid if I feel like bacon. For comparison a 14cm zebra billycan is 2.5L and weighs ~730g.
Individually the pots weigh:
2L pot lid - 162.6g
2L pot - 169.1g
1L pot lid - 108.1g
1L pot - 140.1g
Bag - 28.6g
Compared to titanium, they will win no prizes for weight. Compared to other aluminium pots of the same sort of capacity, they are about the same weight. Light, but not "Wow look how light these are" that titanium would be. Just as you expect from Ali pans.
The pots themselves have a Hard Anodised coating. What this means is they have a dull grey colour, won't taint your food, and you don't have to be OCD about using plastic utensils to avoid scratching the coating off. Each pot has a pair of folding wire handles with a heat resistant coating on them. You can remove the handles if you want, and Alpkit make a pot hanger set for using the pans over an open fire, which is a nice touch.
Individually each pan feels very light weight, but not flimsy.
So how do they perform? I filled the 1L pot with water and put it on my cat can stove filled with meths. The pot didn't melt[1], the water boiled, and I didn't burn myself when I picked up the pan by the handle. The handles are not the most comfortable they could be, especially if you fill the pots. The 2L pot could weigh over 2kg once you fill it with water, which is quite a weight to put on a simple wire handle. If I was expecting to use the big pan, say for melting snow, I think I may include a pot lifter in the pouch, just to make it easier to handle.
In hindsight, these pots are not ideal for my use case, I tend to hike solo, and cook for one. I very much doubt I could eat the entire contents of even the smallest pan if I was on my own. As such they do seem a bit over kill as solo pans go. But, I don't regret buying them, the lid of the big pan should make a great frying pan for breakfast for one, and the whole set of pans is still cheaper, than an MSR skillet of about the same size as the lid. If I ever go winter hiking, then these pots should be great for melting snow.
These pots are not made by Alpkit, but are in fact rebranded fire maple pots. Having seen the quality of these, I don't mind buying fire maple pots direct from china on ebay. I'll be investigating some of the smaller fire maple pots to compliment these pans.
Julia
[1] No seriously, I have melted through the bottom of a cheap ali pot in the past when using my MSR stoves...[2]
[2] I also managed to take the copper bottom off a cheap copper bottom set... and the copper bottom from Birchwoods copper bottomed frying pan...[3]
[3] MSR stoves are viscous...
When the parcel arrived at my door, the first thing that struck me was the size of the package. I opened it up, and inside along with the bubble wrap and a pair of dry bags I ordered at the same time, was a black stuff sack.
I had checked through the measurements on the site before I bought the pots, measuring the largest lid against a rasher of bacon to see that it would fit, but after playing around with solo cooksets recently, I wasn't quite ready for the bulk of these pans.
The stuff sack isn't your normal nylon stuff sack, but the funky 3d mesh like you get on some backpack backs and straps.
Inside the stuff sack is the 2L pot and the lid, inside that, is the 1L pot and lid. Prior to this the last pot I bought was my Titanium evernew 400ml cup, which weighs in at around the 50g mark. So picking up the full set of these pans, the first thing that struck me was the weight. 608.5g according to my scales. Compared to my old MSR Alpine 2 set, at ~730g. That isn't much of a saving, if you need all 4 pans. Personally, I bought these with the intent of carrying just the 1L set, and occasionally the 2L lid if I feel like bacon. For comparison a 14cm zebra billycan is 2.5L and weighs ~730g.
Individually the pots weigh:
2L pot lid - 162.6g
2L pot - 169.1g
1L pot lid - 108.1g
1L pot - 140.1g
Bag - 28.6g
Compared to titanium, they will win no prizes for weight. Compared to other aluminium pots of the same sort of capacity, they are about the same weight. Light, but not "Wow look how light these are" that titanium would be. Just as you expect from Ali pans.
The pots themselves have a Hard Anodised coating. What this means is they have a dull grey colour, won't taint your food, and you don't have to be OCD about using plastic utensils to avoid scratching the coating off. Each pot has a pair of folding wire handles with a heat resistant coating on them. You can remove the handles if you want, and Alpkit make a pot hanger set for using the pans over an open fire, which is a nice touch.
Individually each pan feels very light weight, but not flimsy.
So how do they perform? I filled the 1L pot with water and put it on my cat can stove filled with meths. The pot didn't melt[1], the water boiled, and I didn't burn myself when I picked up the pan by the handle. The handles are not the most comfortable they could be, especially if you fill the pots. The 2L pot could weigh over 2kg once you fill it with water, which is quite a weight to put on a simple wire handle. If I was expecting to use the big pan, say for melting snow, I think I may include a pot lifter in the pouch, just to make it easier to handle.
In hindsight, these pots are not ideal for my use case, I tend to hike solo, and cook for one. I very much doubt I could eat the entire contents of even the smallest pan if I was on my own. As such they do seem a bit over kill as solo pans go. But, I don't regret buying them, the lid of the big pan should make a great frying pan for breakfast for one, and the whole set of pans is still cheaper, than an MSR skillet of about the same size as the lid. If I ever go winter hiking, then these pots should be great for melting snow.
These pots are not made by Alpkit, but are in fact rebranded fire maple pots. Having seen the quality of these, I don't mind buying fire maple pots direct from china on ebay. I'll be investigating some of the smaller fire maple pots to compliment these pans.
Julia
[1] No seriously, I have melted through the bottom of a cheap ali pot in the past when using my MSR stoves...[2]
[2] I also managed to take the copper bottom off a cheap copper bottom set... and the copper bottom from Birchwoods copper bottomed frying pan...[3]
[3] MSR stoves are viscous...
