Technical Support—Cookware

Cookware FAQs


What are the cooking properties of titanium vs. aluminum vs. stainless steel?

Aluminum is the cookware of choice for backcountry gourmets. It conducts heat evenly, is easy to clean because of the non-stick coating, and is extremely efficient.

Stainless steel is very durable; perfect for when your pots take a lot of abuse. It lies somewhere in between aluminum and titanium in terms of its cooking ability/suitability.

Titanium cookware biggest advantage is its light weight. Titanium pots are ideal for boiling water, because they can be made with very thin walls. They tend to develop hot spots, however, making them less than ideal for cooking temperature sensitive foods like eggs or pancakes.

Cookware's efficiency is dependent on its color and material. MSR testing has found that darker pots (esp. the bottom) are the most fuel efficient. Older cookware, which blackens through use, is more efficient than new cookware. Following is a list of MSR cookware, in their order of efficiency, for boiling water:

  • DuraLite cookware
  • Blackened Alpine cookware
  • Titan cookware
  • New BlackLite cookware (We suspect blackened BlackLite would be second to DuraLite, but was not tested at the date this was published.)
  • New Alpine cookware

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Will my MSR stove fit into my MSR Cookset?

The SimmerLite is small enough to fit in an MSR 1-liter pot. All other MSR stoves with a flexible fuel line will fit into all MSR cooksets that are 1.5 liters or larger. The MSR XGK stoves will not fit inside a cookset because of their rigid fuel line. However the stove and fuel bottle will fit nicely in the side pocket of most backpacks.

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Is the Heat Exchanger the only difference between the XPD Cookset and the Alpine Cookset?

Yes. Everything else is identical.

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Why do MSR potset lids have tabs on the side?

Originally the MSR cooksets were sold with a strap to hold them together rather then a stuff sack. We designed the new MSR Panhandler pot lifter with two upright tabs on the top of the pot lifter which allows you to easily lift your pot lid by this tab. These new Pot lifters are available from most MSR dealers.

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