Vargo Outdoors Titanium Ti-Boiler

17 November 2016

tags: backpacking cookware, camping cook mug, Camping cook pot, trekking cookware, Ultralight backpacking, Vargo Outoors Titanium Ti-Boiler, wild camping boiler, wild camping cookware

by David Marshall

When is a pot, not a pot? – When it’s a mug obviously. And a pan? Well you just have to figure that one out for yourself.
…………But the Vargo Outdoors Titanium Ti-Boiler works well as all three. And as a bowl. And as a kettle. That kind of multi-purpose functionality is, gram for gram, just what we should demand from our outdoor, wild-country, back-country, backpacking gear …

Vargo Outdoors Titanium Ti-Boiler - Backpacking Mug/Pot/Pan combination

Vargo Outdoors Titanium Ti-Boiler – Sack ready after lunch in Baile na Móna (Ireland’s Ancient East).

Vargo Outdoors Titanium Ti-Boiler is born

Vargo Outdoors took their Ti-Lite 750ml mug. (The mug that thought it was a pot. Or is it a pot that thinks it’s a mug? Whatever, it has more fans than fireworks on halloween). Made it 20% bigger and called it the Vargo Outdoors Titanium Ti-900 Mug. Perfect for solo trekkers. Cleverly designed. Very well made. And conveniently easy to clean. There’s no doubt it’s: Trail ready.

But wait. There’s more…

Vargo watched for all those neat little tricks we long distance packers have: Using your plate as a pan lid to warm food. Frying sausages in your breakfast bowl. Foraging everything from blackberries to chestnuts with your cooking pot. Those “lets-make-do-and-go-light” strategies.

So aiming to give us that much-loved trail-flexibility

They revised their design of the Ti-900 mug lid and made it a 400ml pan. Or was it that they revised the design of a pan and made it a bowl. To be honest I’m not sure. But I am sure, that with these two pots together: The Ti-900 mug and the 400 ml pan, you can forage, boil, cook, fry, drink and eat.

185 grams of trail flexibility they call the Vargo Outdoors Titanium Ti-Boiler. Trail ready and trail flexible. Use each part individually or stacked together:

Vargo Outdoors Titaium Ti-Boiler : 900ml mug, 400ml pan & mesh stow bag

The 400 ml pan/lid

Pure titanium construction, designed and manufactured with the same care and attention evident in its partner the Ti-900 Mug. The pan features:

A good compromise in the radius of the folds between the sides and the base: Easy cleaning, with a safe wobble-free fit to the mug. A roll of metal forms the lip, and makes it sturdy.
Perfectly fitted butterfly pan handles, fold out and insulate even delicate hands. A neatly executed bracket ensures no slop, no rough edges and minimum deformation.
Saving of weight: Substituting for this Ti-Boiler pan/lid for the lid of the Ti-900 mug takes an extra 55+ grams, but wins all the extra flexibility.

: Vargo Outdoors Titanium Ti-Boiler : Using the 400ml lid as a breakfast bowl

Cleaning

Cleaning the pan is as easy as cleaning the Ti-900 mug. Even the burnt oil and fried residue surrendered to the old trick of a little olive oil and a nylon pan scrubber, giving that light sheen.

Bio-compatible

The pan, like the mug, is bio-compatible. And using the burnt-oil stained pan to forage blackberries didn’t flavour them at all. Neither could I tell it was anything other than a breakfast bowl when I used its convenient 400 ml shape & size to eat my breakfast muesli.

Pro’s

Trail Ready: Considered design. Quality materials and manufacture.
Trail Flexible: Possible uses are well thought through. Both parts can work like pots, pans, mugs, lids, bowls and a kettle. Either together or apart. You can carry it empty for foraging. Or pack it with your micro stove and a 100g gas can for quick stop cooking.
Easy to use, clean and carry: One less thing you have to think about on the trail.
Ultra-light: Take it with the Vargo Titanium Hexagon Stove and utensils. You’ll still be carrying less than 350 grams with everything you need to cook, eat and drink.

Con’s

In Europe, at least, titanium is not the cheapest option. But import duties aside, with the Vargo Titanium Ti-Boiler, you do get what you pay for. And the pleasure will be delivered to you slowly over time, day after day, on the trail.