Unfortunately, dishes are usually an overlooked accessory to life on the road, and we end up with dollar-store patchwork kits that are mostly functional but not thoughtfully designed.
Full Windsor’s Magware Family Cookware Set rethinks camp cookware and dishware by creating products that work together. The whole set packs down compactly so I can fit four large plates, small plates, large bowls, small bowls, forks, knives, and spoons (that’s 28 items!) in the space that I used to fit three plates and a bowl. It’s a pricy setup that needs a few refinements, but overall, the system makes a ton of sense and has come in handy a ton on vanlife trips.
Rating
⭑⭑⭑⭐︎⭐︎
Specs
Price: $466
Materials: 304/18-8 stainless steel bowls and plates; hard anodized 7075-T6 aluminum utensils; recycled polypropylene housing; recycled polyester bag
What I like
Super compact dish set; utensils magnetically attach to the dish so they don’t fall off, into the dirt; plates attach to the bowls as lids to keep leftovers; multi-colored magnets help you keep track of your plate when camping with a group
What I’d change:
Metal dishes adopt the temperature of what they’re holding; A magnet popped out of a utensil the first time it was dropped (about 2 feet); can look dirty even when they’re not
My call
With the Magware set, you’ll never be frustrated trying to pack plates from one set with a random bowl from another. All these pieces are designed together to fit together in one convenient pack. The magnetic attachments keep everything situated efficiently so they’re not ending up at weird angles taking up twice the space after a day of driving. With some refinements to justify the big pricetag, the Full Windsor Cookware Set can make for an ideal vanlife cooking solution.
Full Windsor Magware: Build
The Magware bundle from Full Windsor includes 4 large plates, 4 small plates, 4 large bowls, 4 small bowls, 4 forks, 4 knives, and 4 spoons. The bowls and plates are made from lightweight aluminum with color-coded magnets on the rim and a cool etched topo design with product information on the back. The flatware is made from lightweight hard-anodized aluminum in the same colors as the magnets on them (also the same as on the plates and bowls).
The design is well thought out, both individually and as a system. If I only bought 4 plates, they would be the best stacking plates possible – but if I pair them with bowls then I could have makeshift Tupperware also. The bundle of 4 sets of flatware matches perfectly with the plates and bowls with colored magnets but if I decided to do a solo backpacking trip, I could pull a single set of utensils and one plate that would be usefully lightweight by themselves and hold together magnetically.
Using the Full Windsor Magware in the van
I keep the entire Magware set in the van at all times. It’s a bit overkill for just two people but the 16 dishes are about the same packing size as the four we used to carry, so why not? The magnets are oriented so the spoon and fork go on opposite sides of the knife and curve away from the flat aspect.
It’s also nice to have extra dishes so one food isn’t sliding into the other and we can use extra dishes if we know we’ll be somewhere that we can wash everything easily instead of needing to do dishes after every meal. We’re able to invite people for dinner and provide them with dishes instead of making them bring their own – it’s not my grandma’s china but I think she’d be proud to know I’m hosting dinner on such expensive dishes.
All metal dishware adopts the temperature as the food it’s holding, which is the same challenge for Magware. Hot soup or delicious ice cream are not comfortable to hold in your lap so you need insulation of some sort. Holding the dishes by the tab with the magnet was usually comfortable.
Cleaning the Magware was easy, but getting it to look clean was more difficult. When the plates and bowls were left out to dry, even though they were completely clean there were still water marks that made my partner do a double take and ask if I had washed them. There’s also magnetically charged particles in all dirt and the magnets picked that up when I put two of the utensils on the ground before washing them. I haven’t been able to remove that due to the right angles on the magnets, even washing them inside a provisioned house. We also had a magnet pop out of a utensil the first day we used the kit. Full Windsor offers a full warranty but it was still disappointing.
I love the systematic design of this entire set so I was disappointed to realize when the knife is magnetically attached to the right side of the plate – the side a knife is “supposed” to go – the sharp edge is towards my neighbor. Proper setting etiquette is for the knife edge to be inward and I can’t figure out why that is with such an otherwise well-thought out system.
Full Windsor Magware: Final Word
If you’re ready to dive into a set of purpose-built camping dishes, the Full Windsor Magware set is better than the sum of its parts, creating a system that works better together than apart but is still singularly fantastic.
They really shine once they’re out of the cupboard. The utensils attach to the bowls and plates magnetically which prevents them from falling into the dirt when I’m walking from the van to the campfire or back. Color-coding on the magnets between bowls, plates, and utensils helps everyone at camp keep track of their dish all weekend long. And one of my favorite features is that I can put a plate on top of a bowl, attached magnetically, to keep leftovers in the cooler (though it’s not air- or water-tight so be careful).
Overall, it’s a nifty system that can be truly great with a few refinements.
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