REASONS TO BUY
Durable
Insulated
Brews clean and well-balanced coffee
Great for groups
REASONS TO AVOID
Difficult to screw/unscrew lid
Expensive
Heavy
Requires more water to clean than other methods
Planetary Designs BaseCamp Travel Press Review
A rugged and insulated french press that produces clean and well balanced coffee, ideal for making coffee for larger groups
If you've got the space for this press and weight isn't a concern, it's one we highly recommend.
Credit: Mary Witlacil
RELATED: Best Camping Coffee Maker of 2024
Our Verdict
With options for a 32 or 48-ounce vessel, the Planetary Designs BaseCamp Travel Press is our favorite brewing device for larger groups. It features an innovative press design that stops the coffee extraction process once you press, helping to produce clean and well-balanced coffee. The double-wall insulated mug keeps your coffee piping hot for quite a long time, and the durable design will keep you and your crew caffeinated over the long haul. This mighty press is on the heavy side, so it is best suited for car campers, vanlifers, glampers, and folks traveling in R.V.s. Or just your kitchen at home, too. If you love French press coffee but can do without the sludge at the bottom, this is absolutely a product to check out. Get the scoop on how it stands up to the competition in our review of the best camping coffees.
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product
Planetary Designs BaseCamp Travel Press | |||||
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| Awards |  |  |  | | |
| Price | $60 List $60.00 at Amazon | $21.93 at REI Compare at 2 sellers | Check Price at Amazon | $13.00 List $14.40 at Amazon | $36.99 at Amazon Compare at 2 sellers |
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| Bottom Line | This burly, well-insulated press is great for making tons of well balanced and clean coffee for your whole crew | A cool and innovative pour over device that is compact, easy to clean, and delvers tasty coffee every time | Great taste, easy to use, and lightweight - we love this plastic iteration of the classic glass and ceramic versions | Durable, light, and compact, this is a fantastic option for backpacking trips or any kind of light travel | While this unique brewer has a bit of a learning curve, the final flavor is the best in our test suite |
| Rating Categories | Planetary Designs B... | MiiR Pourigami | Hario V60 Plastic D... | Primula Coffee Brew... | AeroPress Coffee Maker |
| Taste (40%) | |||||
| Ease of Use (25%) | |||||
| Group Cooking (15%) | |||||
| Portability (10%) | |||||
| Weight (10%) | |||||
| Specs | Planetary Designs B... | MiiR Pourigami | Hario V60 Plastic D... | Primula Coffee Brew... | AeroPress Coffee Maker |
| Measured Weight | 34.5 oz | Dripper alone: 4.89 oz Dripper + case: 5.52 oz |
Dripper alone: 2.95 oz Dripper + scoop: 3.37 oz |
1.1 oz | Press alone: 7.98 oz Press + spoon + stirrer: 9.39 oz |
| Brew Type | French Press | Pour Over | Pour Over | Pour Over | Pour Over/Press Hybrid |
| Main Material | Stainless steel | Stainless steel with Hardshell powder coat | Hard plastic | Nylon filter | BPA-free polypropylene |
| Filter Needed | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Notable Features | Brew-stop filter eliminates most sludge | Easy to clean, collapsible pour over with slim carrying case | Cone shape, large hole, ribs along side | Rests on any mug | Easy to clean, re-usable filter |
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Our Analysis and Test Results
If you need a coffee brewer that is ideal for bigger groups but still produces delicious coffee, then the BaseCamp might be the model for you. We love the burly design of this press and the Bru Stop filter that eliminates the typical sludge and bitterness of most French presses. While it is heavier and commands more space than other brewers in our review, it fits well in most car camping kitchen kits. Despite our reluctance about French press coffee, our review team was pleasantly surprised by the flavor of coffee produced by this rugged press. The double-wall insulation keeps the contents hot, and the vessel is available in either 32 or 48 ounces (we tested the 32 ounce) to ensure you can fuel a posse of caffeine-fiends.
Performance Comparison
This press is not only durable, it's aesthetically pleasing to boot.
Credit: Mary Witlacil
Brew Features
The BaseCamp is an innovative spin on the classic French press. With their patented "Bru Stop" technology, Planetary Designs engineered the filter to stop brewing after pressing your coffee. Like most presses, there is a fine mesh filter, but here is where the similarities end. The filter on the BaseCamp has a rubber gasket that ensures a tight seal and is topped with a stainless steel plate that effectively traps the coffee grounds under the filter once you press. Now you don't have to worry about your last cup of coffee being one part bitter rocket fuel to one part sludge. That said, our only complaint about this otherwise flawless system is that the filter sometimes traps a bit of the brewed coffee underneath (about ¼ cup in our experience), making it inaccessible. While a testament to the effectiveness of the design, this can be frustrating if you're trying to get every last drop for a sleepy crew.
At the top of the Bru Stop filter, there is a tempered steel plate that stops the extraction process when you press your coffee. We were impressed by the clean coffee produced by this press!
Credit: Mary Witlacil
We like brewing a French press with a medium grind and a timer instead of guessing when to press or leaving coarse grinds to steep so long that they get bitter. For consistently good coffee, weigh or measure your coffee, add water to fill the vessel about 1/3 of the way, wait 30 seconds to 1 minute, stir, add the rest of your water, screw on the cap, and press at 4-5 minutes — fast, easy, delicious.
Taste
Compared to other brewing methods, the French press is typically unable to hold its own in terms of taste. This isn't the case with the BaseCamp. We were impressed with how this mighty press produced cup after cup of clean, well-balanced coffee.
Most French presses continue to extract coffee after you press, meaning that your last cup is thick with sludge and (almost) undrinkably bitter. With the Bru Stop filter and double-wall insulated vessel, the BaseCamp keeps coffee hot, clean, and delicious. A feat that is typically impossible with your average French press.
Even the most discerning taste testers were impressed by the absence of sludge in their cups. If you prefer clean coffee but need to make loads of it to caffeinate your whole squad, then this brewer is bound to impress.
Credit: Mary Witlacil
Ease of Use
French presses often earn high rankings in this category because they are low fuss and require minimal expertise to dial in your brewing technique. The BaseCamp is no different in this regard.
The BaseCamp didn't earn a perfect score in this category for a couple of (relatively minor) reasons. For starters, it can be challenging to screw the lid on tightly and even more challenging to unscrew the lid to clean out the vessel. To unscrew the lid, you have to flip open the snap lid to release pressure, but even then, it is challenging. The folks at Planetary Designs are aware of this issue and are working to solve the problem in future iterations. Secondly, French presses are more difficult to clean than other brewers because they require more water to clear all the grounds out of the vessel, which is a drag when water is at a premium. That said, the wide mouth of this particular press makes it fairly easy to scrub out with a rag between uses. If you plan to use your press primarily while camping, make sure to thoroughly scrub the filter as often as possible when you have access to abundant water.
To unscrew the lid, make sure you flip open the snap top to release any pressure.
Credit: Mary Witlacil
Group Cooking
This is the metric where the BaseCamp steals the show. It comes in both a 32 and 48-ounce size (we tested the 32 ounces) to ensure you're able to make enough coffee for all the bleary-eyed coffee fiends in your crew.
It is rare when a brewer strikes the balance between delicious flavor and a large enough capacity for group cooking, but the BaseCamp manages to do just that. However, if one round of coffee isn't enough for your crew, this press is straightforward to use and easy enough to clean, so you can quickly make another round of coffee. It is as easy as boiling more water, adding coffee grounds to hot water, and resetting the timer.
If you need to make loads of coffee for all your friends, then this press is for you!
Credit: Mary Witlacil
Portability
The BaseCamp is a much more portable redesign of Planetary Designs' old behemoth French press, but it still can't compete with the portability of a foldable pour-over device or packets of instant coffee.
It is highly unlikely that you're considering this bulky, heavyweight brewer for your upcoming backpacking trip. It isn't the most portable brewer in this review, not even by a long shot. However, if you're in a vehicle larger than a Scion IQ, this is a great choice for your future car camping trips, especially if you plan to camp with a crew of caffeine fiends. The rubberized bottom of the press makes it less likely to slide around in a van or RV that's on the move, which is why we love the BaseCamp for car camping, van living, glamping, or even just highly-caffeinated mornings at home.
While this 32-ounce press is almost as large as a 1.5 liter Nalgene and the handle commands some extra space, it is still a reasonably portable brewer for storing in your car camping kit.
Credit: Mary Witlacil
Weight
Rugged, burly, and durable are not the attributes we tend to associate with ultralight gear. The BaseCamp is all of these things, which is why it scored dead last in terms of weight.
At 2.16 pounds, the BaseCamp is not winning any gravity-defying awards in the ultralight Olympics. Weight-weenies and gram-counters, be advised — this is not the coffee brewer for you. But, if you're looking for a bombproof press for car camping, this is a perfectly reasonable weight to add to your kitchen kit. Or, if you need something for your home kitchen during the week and your van on the weekends, this is pretty ideal.
This heavyweight press isn't winning any ultralight awards, but it is burly enough to take camping, and will last for years (decades?) to come.
Credit: Mary Witlacil
Value
In the case of the BaseCamp, the adage "you get what you pay for" rings true. The price tag may be steep when compared to other brewers in our review (and the 48-ouncer is more), but it is impressively durable and well-designed. It also produces surprisingly clean and well-balanced coffee, and with the double-wall insulation, it will keep your coffee piping hot. If you can afford the high price of this burly beefcake, it will keep you and your crew well-caffeinated for years to come.
Conclusion
If you love the ease of French press coffee, but you need a rugged option for car camping that eliminates the sludge of your typical press, then the Planetary Designs BaseCamp might be the ideal option for you.
—
Mary Witlacil
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