BOT - 700

I used this pot for the entirety of the Appalachian Trail. It's a great little cooking pot. When I bought it I envisioned having it for mostly cooking, but also for cold soaking and emergency water carries.

Positives: It is a good size and weight for most thru-hike needs. Heat transfer in titanium is quick so getting water hot enough for rehydrating meals felt quick. With the quick heating the bat wing handles rarely got to hot to handle. Pro tip, keep the handles spread apart so they are not touching the container or each other while heating. It allows for the heat to dissipate from the handles quicker. I ended up sending my pot grabber home early on. The o-ring works very well for sealing and is removable to easily be cleaned. The diameter of the pot allows for storing the small fuel canister and a few other items like cleaning towel and mini Bic lighter.

Cons: The lid is tedious to clean when food gets in the threads and under the lip. I stopped cold soaking food for lunch because food would get trapped in the lid as I hiked. It was time consuming to get all the bits of food out. I found the best way to get all the food out was alternating between spraying it with water and wiping the lid out. This was to much of a waste of good water. I did cold soak oats and grits overnight for breakfast as the pot would be stationary with little risk to dirty the lid. The lid was a little prone to misalignment making it a little fiddly to screw on at times, but this was not a frequent occurrence. The lid will get stuck on the pot if there is a difference in temperature between internal contents and outside temperature. For example cold water on a hot day or hot food on a cooler day. This is an easy fix. Just use something flat like a credit card to roll the o-ring up. This equals out the pressure making it easy to unscrew the lid again. I found the holding capacity of the pot was enough to nest a small fuel canister and small extras but could not hold the canister and my Soto Windmaster stove. The capacity is a bit to small for some dinner items like the infamous Ramen bomb or Stovetop dressing packets.

Final Thoughts: Overall, understand the pot has strong points, quirks, and shortcomings. It is a good little pot and I would be happy to use it on trail again. If I could do it all over again, I would upgrade to the Bot XL with the bat wing handles. This can carry the large fuel canister which is much easier and cheaper to get on trail. It also allows for the larger meals to be cooked. My hope is that it could also stowe my stove along with the canister and small extras inside for convenient all-in-one storage. I was a bit disappointed with the design of the lid. Enough so that it detracted from me cold soaking as much as I would have liked. I hope the lid design gets a makeover in the future.

I got this to facilitate cold soaking my lunches while hiking, and boy did it ever deliver. This piece of gear has helped me shed weight and become much more efficient on the trail. When solo hiking the last thing you want to do is a bunch of chores and clean up, and wiping this out on the trail rather than having a bunch of dirty freezer bags to cart around has been my go-to option.

When I stop at a water source in the morning I start cold soaking and by lunch (usually bean salad of some kind, or a meal replacement smoothie) is ready to eat. It's like my food cooked itself! Same routine in the afternoon, and then I'll heat up dinner and be done eating before I arrive at camp, so no food smells near my camp to attract animals. It's easy to clean, and just truly a multi-purpose gear item that has been more than worth the investment.

I have had minor difficulties with the threads of the lid/jar getting crossed, and the lid gets stuck. It is also somewhat tricky to get water out of the inside of the lid after washing, but strongly shaking it seems to help somewhat. Overall the design is great, and I haven't had any problems with the silicone ring either. It stays on well.

Thanks to Vargo for this excellent piece of gear!

Thanks for an excellent tool (cup :-) …. and your excellent support! Go BOT-700, Go Vargo !

I use this pot in my travels everyday and I am happy by how versatile and lightweight this is. :) Hope there is a dedicated page for one-pot camping recipes. Are there other uses for the screw-top lid? Please also make a case for this pot so that it can keep drinks and food warm.

I saw this pot on the PCT last year. To be truly “ ultralight” a product needs to have at least two uses (from my experiences) This ultralight pot is a cup, a cookpot, and will also carry water because of the screw tight lid. How can you go wrong?

I bought this as a bottle to place in my frame bag, and it just fits perfectly inbetween my frame bars. Its also incredibly light and carries more water than my other water bottles. I look forward to putting this bottle through its paces!

This thing is perfect. I love it.

Great multipurpose pot.

Great piece of gear. Thru-hiked the PCT with it and it looks barely used. Durable, highly functional. Just outside of Donner I lost the lid gasket. On the website I could not readily find an option to purchase one, so I dropped an email telling them of my issue. They asked for an address in my next town stop and when I arrived a few days later I had two gaskets waiting for me - one to replace, and one as a spare. They didn't charge me a dime. Thank you Vargo!

Great little piece allowing cold soaking, secure fastening with gas and stove inside for hiking. Well made piece of kit!