Part 4.1- Six nesting pots for backpacking at 427g

This post is about making up a kit of up to 6 large nesting pots that collectively weigh only 427g. They are made with three different but very similar sets of cheap food storage containers.

I don’t think any person or group would practically need 6 or even seven nesting pots on a backpacking trip. However, any of the pots can be efficiently nested together to give the perfect packworthy kit for any trip. I could have titled the post as three nesting pots for under 200g. I usually share cooking with others, so this comes down to 100g/person or less, so it is nice to be able to add another nesting pot for less than 100g if the cooking is to be shared between three people or more. One litre pots are good for either group size.

We usually keep one ‘clean’ pot for making lots of tea and coffee and other hot drinks, while the other two are used for simmer soups and meal preparation as shown in the featured immage

The background to six nesting pots

In Part 4 of this post series, I described the chance discovery of two different food storage containers sets that can be used as nesting pots for backpacking: Amazon (US) or Aliexpress (AU) or eBay (AU). The use of these for backpacking cooking has been described in a separate post: light cooking pots.

The six nesting pots

I went searching for the rather elusive marginally larger nesting pots that I had fortunately purchased by chance (or accident). I ordered two apparently different pot sets, judging by the subtle differences that I could see in the photos in the advertisements and the pot features, such as the number of base rings, as described in the table in Part 4 of this post series.

The search for the elusive larger nesting pots fails

My hope was that I would receive at least one larger set of A-series pots that are much rarer than the subtly smaller and common ones (B-series). My hopes diminished as I waited for a Covid19 slowed delivery. I discovered that I had in fact ordered both set from the same seller although they were listed separately and had the different photographic details that appeared to, in some parts, match the differences that I went looking for.

The pots eventually arrived a week apart. Surprise, surprise, surprise……….both pots sets were the same and neither were they the large set that l was searching for!

But, but, but,….my hopes soared, along with my sense of good fortune once more, as I discovered that the pots in these sets (I now call the Z-series) fitted perfectly inside the previously described B-series pots (most common). “The fit is just Goldilocks right, easy enough to fit in if the entrapped air is given time to escape!” Yes, this means that Z-series fits perfectly in B-series and they both fits perfectly in A-series. Apart from backpack space efficiency, the nested pots become amazingly strong and packworthy as they provide crush/dent protection for each other.

It also means that for the three largest pots (P1’s ~1,500ml) would weigh ~236g. Similarly, the three nested P2 pots (~1,000ml) would weigh 194g. Of course, the P2’s can be nested in the P1’s in any combination, if ever needed for gourmet expedition cooking.

Note: When I use the pots on a tent stove or a blower stove the walls of the pots stay essentially soot and tar free. I recently using the pots for a week-long ski trip and we had the pleasure of cooking on a fireplace in a mountain hut or on an open fire beside our tent. I found that the build-up of soot and tar on the wall was enough to prevent the smallest pot from easily fitting inside the next one. “Or if I forced them together they may never separate, so not so Goldilocks right after all. So carrying a small stainless steel pot scrubber will be on the packing list next trip.”

Nesting pot luck or intelligent design or a stuffup?

Is this a conspiracy or more intelligent design at work or perhaps something less glorious such as another manufacturing stuff-up that has been combined with a design knock-off? Maybe, the various tool makers are closet weekend trekkers who secretly know what is good for creating generous, compact and ultralight cookware for backpacking? Maybe on the weekends, they swap ‘foriegners’ (“a piece of work done for private gain without an employer’s permission or without declaration to the relevant authorities“) to make perfect mess kits?

Could you just hear the conversation going like this: “The boss wants them to look the same. You make yours 1mm smaller and I will make mine 1mm bigger then we will have three that will nest perfectly together.”

Whatever reason, we are lucky because these food containers make lightest, cheapest, and most compact nesting pots for backpacking cooking in the known universe!

There is more magic with these nesting pot sizes

I like my blower stove or blower stove or the combination of the two stoves to fit inside a tough ~ one-litre custom cooking pot. This seventh nesting pot also fits inside Pot 2 of this latest Z series pot set. The fit is not exactly Goldilocks right in this case. Considerable force is required to slowly extract the inner pot as suction fights it all the way (I later describe how soot and tar can interfere with this fitting.).

Don’t trust the images on the box or the advertising photos

I took a photo of the box that the latest Z-series pot set came in. I thought it might help others identify this versatile innermost nesting pot set. When I compare the most recent box with the old faded ones from the A and B series I found that they were identical (and equally battered by the trip through the post). The box will not help you find the particular set that you may be looking for. It is starting to confirm a growing suspicion that the distributors of the various pots ( food storage containers) might be ‘sharing’ box production and advertising photographs. So the details shown in the photos in the advertisements may (will) also be unreliable for identifying the subtle differences of interest to make the perfect three cooking pots that nest perfectly.

The good fortune of this latest discovery is that if you start with the most common B-series pots you only need to find an Z-series or a A-series set to get a nice two, three or four nesting pots nesting pots to make a versatile cooking kit. Any two of the three series will nest with each other, just some do it more perfectly. If you are lucky and persistent you may obtain the perfect 3 nesting pot set which can also make up to six nesting backpacking pots.

Trustworthy visual differences between the various pot series

The Z series has single base rings and a distinctively wider and flatter pot rim than PAs and the PB which have round rims, but remember don’t trust the photos.

	Z-Series	A-Series	B-Series	Total (g)
Pot 1
Pot weight (g)	78	69	89	236
Pot height (mm)	62	66	63
Pot capacity (cc)*		1,540	1,409
Number of base rings description	one	two	one
Rim flange description	flat (wider)	round	round
Pot 2
Pot weight (g)	55	66	73	194
Pot height (mm)	53	60	56
Pot capacity (cc)*		1,029	1,010
Number of base rings description	one	two	one
Rim flange description	flat (wider)	round	round

Conclusion

While suggesting that 6 nesting pots may be used on a lightweight backpacking trip might sound ridiculous, the main benefit of the discovery of the Z series pots is that it means that there will be a better chance of purchasing at least two sets of pots that will nest well to complement or supplement the most common B series pots.

Tim