cookset

Red Camp 9 “El Cheapo” Cookset

/ chubbyblueberry / Leave a comment

I’ve got a GSI Dualist cookset that I’ve used for several years now and it’s great. But I’m building out a pack for my wife and figured she’d want her own gear. I don’t know if she’ll love backpacking as much as I do – or go out more than a couple times – so I figured I can go cheap on a few items and if needed we can always fall back to my setups. OR…if she doesn’t like backpacking…I’ll have a complete backup set of gear to loan to friends 😃

Okay on to the review…I picked up the Red Camp 9 cookset from Amazon for $19 shipped.

Size comparison…that was a good beer.
The cookset comes with a mesh carry bag, 2 bowl/cup things, a folding spork, paracord bracelet, a sponge and a card type multitool.

We’d gone on a car camping trip in November and I tested the cookset that weekend. Primary use for this pot would be to boil water for beverages or Freeze Dried backpacking food, so that’s all I really did.

The white plastic bowl/cup, corded bracelet and multitool are not well made and may just be there to make things interesting, I’d leave those items at home…in the garbage. The spork is useful enough and the sponge has a brillo-ish side to it so it will clean things for a while.

All in all, I’d say that this is a good kit. The pot and lid comes in just under half a pound. When paired with the Etek City pocket stove you’ll have a competent cookset. Is it the lightest, space efficient and durable cookset on the market? Probably not. But if you want to save money and need to start “somewhere” the Red Camp 9 is a good place to start.

The pot’s lid make a better bowl/cup than the white plastic bowl/cups.

Snow Peak Titanium Multi Compact Cookset Review

/ tekkster / 3 Comments

SnowPeakTitaniumCompactCookset

What a great two person cookset for the backpacker who likes to spend a little extra time to cook up better food than your basic rehydration.

Apart from these, I also own the trek combo pot set (basically the trek 900 nested in the trek 1400), and while that set is nice because the hybrid summit also nests inside, the trek combo lacks a little in diameter. This isn’t a problem for stews, but it’s a bit of a problem for breakfast since the larger pan is still too small to place whole slices of spam in it. Continue reading →

Snow Peak Mini Solo Hybrid Summit Cookset Review

/ tekkster / 1 Comment

SnowPeakSummitHybridIMG_8513

In the last 3 years now, I’ve amassed so many stoves, pots, pans, cups, and other assorted backpacking cooking paraphernalia, and experimented with all of them both at home and on well over 30 backpacking trips and maybe 6 or 7 car camping trips that I’m starting to get pretty good at knowing what is needed for different types of trips, what’s overkill, and what’s not enough.  Continue reading →

Optimus Terra Weekend HE .95L Pot Review

/ tekkster / 4 Comments

OptimusTerraHEWeekendIMG_6553

EDIT:

When I originally purchased this hard anodized single person cookset with heat exchanger, I was reasonably impressed but struggled to figure out a good way to use it (Edit:  It shaved about 30 seconds off water boiling time compared to my Snow Peak Trek 900, if I used the right stove and windscreen combination, competitive with JetBoil times, thus saving fuel).  But it’s become, over time, my preferred set when solo backpacking where I plan to do light cooking. Continue reading →

GSI Halulite Tea Kettle, 32oz Review

/ tekkster / 2 Comments

GSI Outdoors Halulite Tea Kettle

After spending time this weekend with this little kettle, it’s clear that kettles are pretty critical for car camping. You need the for tea or coffee or soup/instant noodles or to warm a bucket of water for cleaning…. Can you survive without one on a car camping trip? sure. Would you want to? Heeeeeck no. The compact nature of this unit makes it a little more convenient to pack, but what I’ve learned this trip is, if you’re running really low on space and need to go uber compact, take this kettle. If you can load up the car and afford to take a larger kettle, do so. a kettle is worth the space and weight cost. Continue reading →

Coleman Aluminum Mess Kit Review

/ tekkster / 1 Comment

Coleman 5-piece Aluminum Mess Kit

Old school mess kits like the one I had when I was a kid. It’s a great little setup, and the only two problems have always been: the pan handle is not strong enough to hold the pan when there’s any significant amount of food cooking, bending so easily as to be almost useless. And the cup is pitifully small. But the cooking kettle with top? That piece is awesome, and the plate works just fine. Continue reading →