Another piece of gear, another gear test . . .. I received my GSI Kettle this week from REI. Made of hard-anodized aluminum, it’s heavier than a piece of titanium gear weighing in at 5.5 oz. The aluminum is extremely durable, however, and is a flatter shape than a typical cookpot. It measures in at 6.13 inch width and a 3.5 inch height, making it ideal for White Box Stove usage.

Testing a cookpot requires the most authentic test/trail conditions

It’s very roomy and provides a handle for the kettle and lid. This is obviously ripe for home-modification, but is somewhat pointless due to the fact that it will only save some grams and require a glove to handle it upon boiling.

It's suitable to carry a white box stove, wind screen and primer pad, as well as a 4 oz fuel bottle and a titanium spork.

One of the reasons that I procured this item is due to it’s width and ability to contain the blossom on the White Box Stove. My other cookpot, a Snow Peak Trek 900 is only 5 inches wide, causing the flames to lap up the sides and an inefficient boil time.

Blossom in relation to pot width/diameter

The boil time for the kettle is ~9 minutes for 24 oz of water, which is plenty efficient. I didn’t do a boil-off for this test, but I was comfortable with the time required to boil water for three hungry hikers averaging 8 oz of water apiece for dinner. It’s definitely easier to pour, although there’s no accurate way, unless I Dremel the interior to measure the water poured for each freezerbag. I’ll think about this, but believe the eye-method should work enough.

Rollin, rollin, rollin . . .

Conclusion:

+:

• Efficient to boil
• Extremely durable, especially for using a Bushbuddy Ultra or open-fire cooking
• Very roomy
• Wide design

-:

• Heavier than other options; would be extremely light in Titanium