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Hello lovely moderators,
I am working on getting back into the swing of testing after a short break with some ORs and will be submitting another soon. I have the html all set to upload but unfortunately have completely forgotten my password to the BackPackGearTest site. I understand that this is my own fault but would love some help getting back into my account so that I can upload my html files. Can someone help me?
The text is below and I will update it with a link to the html when I regain access to my account.
Thanks!
Katie
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GSI Compact Scraper
Owner Review by Kathryn Montovan
/August 14, 2015/
//
Tester Information
Name: Kathryn Montovan
E-Mail: sull0294(at)gmail(dot)com
Age: 32
Location: Bennington, Vermont USA
Gender: F
Height: 5' 5" (1.65 m)
Weight: 150 lb (68 kg)
Biography:
I have been backpacking, climbing, kayaking, canoeing and winter
camping for over 15 years. My excursions are mostly weekend and
occasionally weeklong backpacking and kayaking trips in the wooded
and often wet, mountainous terrain of eastern New York, and western
Vermont. I usually tent camp with my family and love to cook fun and
delicious foods on my trips. In general, I strive for a compact and
light pack and value well-made and durable gear.
Product Information
Manufacturer: GSI Outdoors
Year of Manufacture: 2012
Manufacturer's Website: http://gsioutdoors.com/
MSRP US$ 4.95
Advertised Weight: 0.5 oz (14 g)
Measured Weight: 0.63 oz (17.85 g)
Dimensions: 3.4 x 2.1 x 0.3 in (8.6 x 5.3 x .8 cm)
Material: Nylon 6-6 and TPU
Product Description:
The GSI compact scraper is a dual use scraper. One side (orange) is hard
plastic and the other is a soft rubber blade. The hard plastic blade is
designed to scrape stuck or burnt-on food residue off of pots, while the
softs rubber blade wipes away stickier, wetter foods. There is a hole
which serves no practical purpose that I can see except to attach it to
the packaging material. The packaging does not say that the scraper is
heat resistant.
Owner Review:
Field Information:
Over the pack 3 years I have used this scraper on dozens of trips with
1-15 people to clean up foods ranging from thanksgiving in a pot (i.e.
mushy quick cook one-pot dinners) to cinnamon rolls (i.e. sticky gooey
things that almost always burn onto the pan) and everything in between.
Field Use:
When I do dishes on my trips I typically use as little water as possible
to get all the food off the dishes and usually drink all the gray water.
This reduces the chances of attracting animals by dumping food residue
nearby, but makes it unpleasant or unsafe to use a sponge or scrubber to
wash the dishes because of the possibility for contamination. Instead,
we usually eat all solids off the dishes, then rinse anything left with
a little water and drink this water that now contains some small bits of
food. But it is very difficult to get dishes clean using only a spoon or
fork because of their shape and rigidity. This scraper was appealing
because it looked like it might help a lot with getting all the
particulate matter off the pot before adding water. This is nice because
gray water is much more pleasant to drink when it has less solid food in it.
On my first trip with is, this scraper did a beautiful job removing
cooked on lentils and rice. The soft rubber side easily lifted the gooey
mess off the pot, then all I had to do was figure out how to get it off
the scraper. On this trip, with just family members, I chose to lick it
clean. This is what I would have done if I had been using my spoon, but
for some reason my group found it to be less acceptable to clean the
scraper by this method.
I also used the GSI compact scraper was an outdoor cooking class I led.
I wasn't sure that I was going to use it, but threw it in because it was
so little that it was worth having in case we wanted it. The first night
we cooked chili and cornbread and when the instructors started cleaning
the pots, I pulled it out. The other instructors were very impressed. It
scraped up the stuck-on, gummed up chili and it was easy to scoop the
mess off of the scraper and onto a spoon for someone to eat. Any burnt
bits easily scraped off with the hard plastic side. After we got all the
particles off the pan, we added a little water and used the soft rubber
side to finish cleaning the pan. We poured the gray water into a bowl
for someone to drink, and I dropped the scraper into my bowl, rinsed it
off with some water, and drank that gray water. We ended the night with
the cleanest group dishes that I have seen so far on a trip. The second
night, I was not involved in dishes, but one of the other instructors
came to find me for the scraper to do the dishes. I do not think I will
go on a group trip again without one of these scrapers.
Over the past few years I have discovered that it will melt on the edge
if used in a hot pan. It also has gotten a few nicks along the edge from
tackling burnt on food, but it is still in fairly good shape and is
perfectly usable. I have used it on a variety of pans and have not
noticed any damage to these pots and pans. I am generally gentle with my
Teflon pots so that I don't scratch them but I have not noticed any
problems. And it is easy to hold and use and makes it much easier to
clean up after group meals.
What I like:
1) Cleans dishes easily and well
2) Light weight and compact
3) Large enough to be easy to hold but small enough to pack easily in my mug
Possible improvements:
1) It might be even better if it had a few more holes so it could be
used to strain water off of pasta
2) It would be wonderful if it were heat safe
Summary:
I bought the GSI compact scraper because it was cheap and looked like it
might make doing the dishes on camping trips a lot more pleasant. It has
surpassed all of my expectations, proving itself to be an extremely
useful item. It has quickly become something that I would not want to
forget at home, and I highly recommend it to anyone who does dishes in
the woods, but particularly to those who drink their gray water.