Best Solo Setup

When only the best will do, MSR has the set for you. This Seattle-based company’s Ceramic 2-Pot Set is a backpacker’s dream; it utilizes hard-anodized aluminum with a ceramic coating to reduce weight and optimize cooking performance. However, at $79.95, it’s also a rather pricey 4-piece set when you compare it to MSR’s stainless steel Alpine 2-Pot Set, which is $30 cheaper (but also heavier). The components of the Ceramic 2-pot set include a 2.5L nonstick, hard-anodized aluminum pot, 1.5L nonstick, hard-anodized aluminum pot, a brushed aluminum strainer lid, and a Talon™ pot handle. While it’s best suited for backpacking, its cooking ability makes it quite sufficient for car camping, and its impressive balance of weight and performance earned it the title of Best Solo Setup.

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See Our Best Camp Cookware Review HERE!

Cooking & Cleaning

This MSR product is one of only two cook sets in our 2021 review that utilized a ceramic coating (the other being the Primus PrimeTech 2.3L Pot Set), which has grown in prominence over the past few years as more companies shy away from using Teflon as their primary nonstick coating. The reason for this shift is that when a Teflon pan is scratched, it will quickly deteriorate and flakes of Teflon will soon become an ingredient in all your meals, which has potential health concerns. Ceramic, on the other hand, performs equally well as a nonstick coating, and though it also has a tendency to deteriorate over time, ingesting ceramic is far less damaging to your health and the environment.

The ceramic coating for this MSR set performs admirably as a nonstick surface, making it easy to scramble up eggs as well as wipe them out once it’s time for cleanup. Another key to the Ceramic set’s cooking ability is its primary material, hard-anodized aluminum, which is an excellent conductor of heat; there should be little concern about hot spots and burnt food, as heat is distributed evenly over a camp stove. The pots should be able to boil 2L of water in around 3 minutes 35 seconds; this is just slightly faster than the Alpine 2-Pot Set, which is made of stainless steel and does not perform nearly as well with respect to heat distribution.

Weight & Packability

The Ceramic set was the lightest cookware set in our 2021 review with the exception of the featherweight Toaks Titanium 1600ml Pot With Pan, which weighs only 8.2 oz. For a 4-piece set, the 1 lb (453 g) Ceramic 2-Pot Set is incredibly lightweight, especially considering that it utilizes aluminum rather than titanium.

Packed size for the Ceramic is 7.7″ x 7.7″ x 5″, which are the same dimensions as the MSR Quick 2 System Cook Set and similar dimensions to the Alpine 2-Pot Set (the Alpine is slightly wider but also shorter). The 1.5L pot nests inside the 2.5L pot, and both are locked in place using the lid and Talon handle. Unlike the Quick 2, which uses the interior volume to store its plates and cups, the Ceramic still leaves a decent amount of space to store additional items inside the pots. The 1.5L pot is large enough to fit a fuel canister, but if you also want to store a stove inside, you may want to leave the 1.5L pot behind, as you’ll only be able to fit both fuel and a stove in the 2.5L pot (this would also save you a bit of weight).

Durability

The Ceramic 2-Pot Set’s hard-anodized aluminum is fairly average with respect to durability. It’s definitely not as rugged as stainless steel, and while the pots have thin walls to reduce weight, they shouldn’t suffer from dents or warping when cared for properly. This set is far from bombproof, but it’s safe to say that many hikers would honestly prefer a cookware set that’s lightweight and cooks well over one that’s super strong at the expense of weight and cooking performance.

One potential durability concern with this set lies in its ceramic coating. Although ceramic is widely preferred to Teflon due to the fact that when it begins to chip, ingesting those flakes is not nearly as harmful to your health, the fact remains that ceramic coating will eventually chip after extended use, and once that process begins, it won’t be long until the majority of the coating is lost and the pot’s nonstick qualities will be irreversibly compromised. We did find that ceramic coating tends to wear out slightly slower than Teflon, which was certainly a plus, and as an additional benefit, the hard-anodized aluminum below this coating is still a superior cooking surface to stainless steel. The best advice we can offer to extend the life of your Ceramic 2-Pot Set is to utilize cooking utensils or cleaning tools that won’t easily scratch the bottom of the pans.

Features

Much like the Alpine, the Ceramic is very much a no-frills set that’s intended to be easy to operate and pack away. However, there are some key differences. For one, the lid on the Ceramic set is much more versatile, with an EPDM rubber grip in the center for easy removal (the Alpine requires use of the pot grabber) as well as a series of straining holes in the top. In addition, the Ceramic set uses MSR’s Talon™ pot handle, which is shared by both pots. We found that while the pot grabbers are much easier to transfer from one pot to another, it also requires you to keep a tight grip on the grabber while it’s hooked onto the pot, as this is the only way to keep it attached. In contrast, the Talon handle uses a locking button system and exterior brackets to attach to the pots, which was much easier to operate during cooking but also harder to switch between pots. Our conclusion was that while cooking with one pot was better with the Talon, cooking with two was made just a bit easier with the pot grabber.

The Bottom Line

As a piece of backpacking cooking gear, the MSR Ceramic 2-Pot Set is an impressive balance of cooking performance and durability while managing to be lightweight and packable. The hard-anodized aluminum material combined with the ceramic coating makes it a breeze to prepare camp meals and clean up. This is a premium piece of gear for solo hikers but is versatile enough to function for car camping. With that being said, there are definitely less expensive cook sets on the market (the MalloMe Camping Cookware Mess Kit can be snatched up for under $27), so the Ceramic’s premium price may not be attractive to budget-conscious campers in search of cooking essentials that will only see occasional use.

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