GSI Halulite Minimalist vs Pinnacle Soloist

[MTA]

I'm trying to decide between the GSI halulite minimalist and pinnacle soloist cooking systems, mainly due to their combination of weight/ low price (compared to Ti). I use a super cat stove and generally only boil water for hot chocolate and freeze dried meals, but occasionally will cook ramen or knorr rice sides. My main concern is that the minimalist is not large enough to cook in, but I'm also trying to cut weight and the minimalist is half the weight of the soloist (5 oz vs 11oz).

Does anyone have experience with either of these? Any other suggestions are also welcome.

Thanks

[RWheeler]

If you break up the Ramen bricks into about 5 pieces (or more), then it works fine in the Minimalist. I bought one for myself recently, and actually just cooked Ramen in it about an hour ago to test it.

[4eyedbuzzard]

K-mart grease pot with a small lightweight mug is an option. REI has the pinnacle soloist on Holiday clearance for $29.93

[Rocket Jones]

If you're going to cook, you can't beat the grease pot. Add the plastic cup from REI and you're set.

[Tinker]

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___82069

This might be worth a look.

A 0.6 liter pot is too small for anything more than a summer weekend trip. You'll never feed your hunger with one pot of food once your hiker appetite kicks in.
Another thing about tall, narrow pots - when stirring them it's easier to knock them off balance and slop food over the sides.
Alcohol stoves work best wider bottom pots (more efficiency).
I use a titanium pot because I got it cheap at an REI attic sale (with a broken handle - I broke the other one off and use a bandanna). AND because it doesn't react with salts like uncoated aluminum can (it tends to pit, which makes it harder to clean and also makes food stick. There have been health questions about some of the non-stick coatings - do some homework. I've always been a bit leery of it myself, but it might just be me being paranoid .

[dandandan]

Another vote for the k-mart grease pot. I used to use the soloist and loved it but the grease pot is just so much lighter - even lighter if you take the handle off.

[Bucherm]

I have, and like, the sololist. It has Bucherm's Seal of Approval.

[slims]

I've got a Soloist and it's great. The Spork/Foon that's included with it isn't the toughest utensil out but other than that it's a good cook set. However if you are looking to cut weight while still having a fairly sizable pot I'd look into a grease pot or a titanium pot setup.

[dla]

Get started in Freezer Bag cooking.

[STICK]

Does anyone know how much the Soloist Pinnacle weighs by itself, without all the other stuff that it comes with? And dare I say, without the handle? How about the weight of the lid?

The reason being is that if you leave all the other junk behind and take only the pot it would definitely be lighter than 11 oz, and probably fairly close to the weight of the Minimalist. And at 1.1L the Soloist would be plenty big enough for one person to cook in.

[RWheeler]

Well the Minimalist is 92g with just the mug. The other things kinda add up, though: the lid is 42g, the sleeve is 20g, ad the pot gripper is 14g. The spork that it comes with is less than useless, so it's weight doesn't matter because it should never be in a pack, anyway.

[STICK]

Wow, on the Minimalist the lid is half the weight of the cook pot. But does anyone have the weight of the Pinnacle Soloist cook pot without the lid or the handles?

I have a Backcountry.com 700 ml Ti cook pot with a Ti lid. I removed the handles on this cook pot and the total weight for the cook pot and the lid is 3.1 oz or 87 - 88 gms.

[tuswm]

The minimalist is kinds of small. The pinnacle soloist, the mug and bowl weight a few oz each, the sink/ stuff sack also weighs about an once. you can leave both at home.

for another ten bucks you can get a 6 oz 1L Ti pot with fry pan lid here
http://www.backcountry.com/backcountry-titanium-cookset-1100ml

I have the pot from the link above, it does not have any non stick but it does have some advantages, strong ti, fry pan large enough for 3 eggs, stuff sack, and a normal sized canister 8oz and pocket rocket fit inside.

I also have the GSI Pinnacle doulist. It has amazing nonstick, you can burn pasta black, just turn it upside down to clean it. also the "ceramic" heat distribution layer works. When I go with my GF or a group this all ways comes. It can COOK. I use it to cook omelets and pizza made from scratch.

[slims]

Does anyone know how much the Soloist Pinnacle weighs by itself, without all the other stuff that it comes with? And dare I say, without the handle? How about the weight of the lid?

The reason being is that if you leave all the other junk behind and take only the pot it would definitely be lighter than 11 oz, and probably fairly close to the weight of the Minimalist. And at 1.1L the Soloist would be plenty big enough for one person to cook in.

Without the lid and the handle mine weighs 5oz. The lid weighed in at a little less than an ounce. Their site says it's 0.7oz. Pot, lid and handle combined is roughly 7oz. So yeah if you left all the other bits and just carried those it does weigh roughly the same as the Minimalist while giving you a good size pot.

[STICK]

Without the lid and the handle mine weighs 5oz. The lid weighed in at a little less than an ounce. Their site says it's 0.7oz. Pot, lid and handle combined is roughly 7oz. So yeah if you left all the other bits and just carried those it does weigh roughly the same as the Minimalist while giving you a good size pot.

Thanks slims, that is about what I figured. For that weight that is a pretty good deal. If I actually wanted to cook in the pot, I would probably go with this over the minimalist simply to have more options, as long as space in the pack was not an issue. (And of course I would remove the handles...)

[rocketsocks]

I like the soloist,got mine at clearence sale.Other wise to expensive.That little spoon I would'nt dig a "kit kat hole" useless.

[MTA]

I just ordered the soloist since it was on clearance at rei and I had a gift card. I'm also going to look for a grease pot at wal mart and do some experimenting to find a good setup. Thanks for the suggestions