MSR Quick 2 Cooking System Review

The Quick 2 system is a comprehensive cooking set from MSR. It’s a quality system, well-made, lightweight and has lasted well. It has everything you need to prepare meals while camping for four people easily.

MSR Cooking System Review

Snapshot

Price: £70.00
Time tested: 12 months at time of writing
Testing conditions: Motorcycle trip from the UK to Japan. Used for camping four days per week on average, every week for a year.
Durability: 4 ⁄5
Ease of use: 3 ⁄5
Functionality: ⁴⁄₅
Value for money: ³⁄₅
Where to buy UK: amazon.co.uk
Where to buy US: amazon.com

Features

MSR’s Quick 2 system consists of 1x 1.5l hard-anodized nonstick pot, 1x 2.5l hard-anodized uncoated pot, 1x aluminium strainer lid, 2x plates, 2x insulated mugs with lids and 1x pot handle. The kit weighs in at 795g and measures 19.7×12.7cm.

What’s good?

We used this kit over 200 times this year as we travelled overland from the UK to Japan. We primarily use the set when cooking outdoors and even in hotels and apartments. We opted for this set, which is larger than other MSR cooking sets as there’s two of us and we like to cook good food while camping, so two pots was a necessity. The entire set packs into itself well, and even leaves room inside the second pot to store matches, lighters and our foldable washing up bowl.

The larger, uncoated 2.5 litre pan has lasted far better than the smaller non-stick 1.5 litre pan. The smaller pan has started to show signs of scuffing at the bottom. It still serves its purpose well and we haven’t had a problem with sticking from either pan.

Both bowls are large and deep, which makes eat bigger meals easy. They’re also exceptionally durable plastic.

The cups are interestingly shaped, but do a brilliant job of insulating our hot drinks in the morning. So much so, that if you leave the lid on it’s still piping hot after 10 minutes.

Having holes in the lid to act as a strainer is also a much needed and welcome touch. Makes draining spaghetti, pasta and noodles easy peasy.

The entire set fits into itself nicely and clips down via the foldable and detachable handle.

What’s not?

It’s a shame the set doesn’t come with an additional lid for the smaller pot and a secondary handle. We use one MSR Dragon Fly stove and have to heat one pot at a time, and it’d be nice not having to use a bowl as a lid for the one that’s been cooked already.

But the biggest downside is the lack of a second handle. Especially seeing as though the handle isn’t the easiest to remove without touching the hot pot. You need to compress the red button with your thumb, which is surrounded by hot parts, lift the handle and push the handle down to remove the claw clips – without unbalancing the pot.

The price is also a factor. It retails for around £70 in the UK which is a pretty hefty price tag.