BOT - 700

Great product. Great support.

I got tired of waiting for Vargo to fix the lid problem so I removed the lip from the lid. I have the 700ml and 1 litre Bots so I had an extra lid in case I ruined the test lid. The altered lid screws on perfectly and seals with the silicone ring. I used a milling machine to remove the lip but a grinder with a coarse flap disk would work. I finished the edge by rubbing the lid in circles on a sheet of sandpaper on a flat surface. Now when I want to clean up after dinner I put a little water in the Bot, screw on the lid, and shake it. Drink the soup for leave no trace!

I work in a store along the Appalachian Trail. Today I found one of these BOT 700 in the trash outside the store and said, wait a minute, what's this? I tried to unscrew the lid. I have pretty strong hands and failed. I thought, this is why it's in the trash, but there has to be a way to recover this. I figured the lid must be sucked down like a canning jar seal. Another review mentions this problem. When you fill the BOT with hot fluid and close it tightly, it will seal like a canning jar as it cools. Good luck getting it open. But it can be done. The whole unit needs to be brought up to boiling in a hot water bath. Don't set it on flames directly or it will explode. Now, too hot to handle with bare hands, use a towel and slip a dull knife or some other thin tool into the lid gap and you can break the o-ring seal. FFFFt. Lid comes off. Don't throw away your $100 BOT pot for nothing. The owner of this pot had just come into the store to buy a cheaper replacement. I gave the BOT to a friend.

This Pot is AMAZING! Don’t get me wrong. I love it. But, as others have stated the metal from the lid curls and never closes fully, this creates a reservoir for things to get trapped in that is tricky to clean.

Overall quality is exceptional, and it’s such a cool design! Fix that lid issue and I’ll buy 10 more ;)

Just love it

We've used many containers over the years to rehydrate homemade, dehydrated food on extended backpacking trips and they've all failed for one reason or another. The BOT-700 is perfect! Lightweight, big enough for our shared lunch, leak-proof, and mouse-proof!!!

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.