Shaving Grams with the Ultra Thin SOTO 750ml Titanium Pot

Have you ever taken a pair of scissors to one of your pieces of gear? I have, with varying degrees of success, including some spectacular failures over the years. Of course, I didn’t have the benefits of a industrial manufacturing production facility on my side like the folks at SOTO Outdoors do. They have used new technology to shave weight off of their 750ml titanium pot. 

And shave they have, including whacking off the handles in favor of an included pot lifter and thinning the titanium used for the pot and lid. I’m going to use the TOAKS 750ml, a very high quality and popular pot of the same volume, as a comparison point of how this plays out on paper and in practice.

TO THE SPREADSHEETS WE GO!

I’m going to go with grams in this comparison, because the differences in question here are small enough to temporarily abandon my affinity for imperial units. (Ounces are still shown in totals though.)

Setup A

SOTO 750ml pot (57 grams) with lid (13 grams) and included pot lifter (19 grams) 

TOTAL: 89 grams (3.14 oz)

Setup B

TOAKS 750ml pot handle included (86 grams) with lid (17 grams) 

TOTAL: 103 grams (3.63 oz)

The SOTO comes out with a 14 gram edge, or right around a half ounce. There are some small variances from my home scale to the listed stock weights, but not enough to take into consideration.

The WILDCARD Setup C

SOTO 750ml pot (57 grams) with lid (13 grams) and Suluk 46 Miksa Pot Lifter in size small (5 grams)

TOTAL: 75 grams (2.65 oz)

WINNER by 28 grams or 1 oz!

Now that we’ve established that the SOTO Outdoors pot helps you go lighter, either by a half ounce or a full ounce, let's look over the pros and cons of how SOTO has taken the ultralight community closer, but hopefully not too close, to the sun.

The walls of the mug itself are 0.3mm, which while I don’t have a measurement for competitors mugs and pots in this class, it is clearly thinner to the eye. It is also noticeably less rigid. I don’t personally find this to be much of a red flag in my book. While it may become slightly misshapen in time, I’ve also had this happen with thicker titanium and always easily smushed it back into shape. It certainly isn’t going to break in any kind of catastrophic way. If you are someone who nests their canister and other articles of their cook kit inside their pot, then it will be naturally reinforced while you are hiking and even less likely to bend. Besides, when I was a kid, ultralight meant protecting our aluminum Fosters beer can stove while we hiked. Err, sorry. Stepping down from my soap box now... 

The lid is also thinner and is a superior design with it’s little cut-out making it easier to pour than most other designs. While potentially losing just a smidge more heat during the boiling process.

Does it Work?

I like the SOTO pot and plan to keep using it in a number of situations. My preferred setup here would be the Suluk 46 Miksa pot lifter with the SOTO 750ml pot. I’d keep the Miksa in my ditty bag and simply use gloves to pick up the pot after I’ve turned the stove off. My typical lightweight fleece gloves or even a bandana would work fine for me, but I’d have the Miksa handy if needed for a minimalist weight penalty. I did notice it was a little easier to get the SOTO into my DCF pot sack, which does not have much slack, versus a pot with affixed handles, which always seem to generate a sticking point. 

In defense of a pot grabber, they do have the benefit of always pointing in the direction you want for an easy pour, a potentially bigger bonus for someone pouring out a portion of water across their body for a partner in the confines of a tent in the morning. 

As a sometimes solo hiker who doesn’t cook, I’d love to see SOTO Outdoors bring this thin walled lightweight design to an even smaller sized pot.

PROS:

• Lightest weight per volume

• Slight increase in packability with no handles

• Can nest canister, stove, and Suluk 46 grabber inside pot

• Grabber can add some close quarters functionality

CONS:

• Folks who cook will want the full size pot lifter, diminishing weight savings. 

• Pot lifter does not fit in the SOTO 750ml pot while you are nesting a canister and stove (the Suluk does), so the lifter could get lost more easily. 

Titanium Pot 750ml by SOTO Outdoors

SHOP