How the Five Compare on the Numbers
If you make tea once a week the weight of the pot is irrelevant. If you make it three times a day it is the figure you feel, because an empty pot has to be lifted, filled, carried and poured every time. These five publish empty weights from 0.57 lb up to 1.34 lb, which is more than double across the set.
The useful surprise is that weight does not track capacity here. The 1.34 lb pot holds 10 oz and the 0.95 lb pot holds 1200ml. Thickness, a protective holder and hand-blown glass all add mass that has nothing to do with how much tea comes out, and only two of these five say anything at all about the handle.
What the table cannot tell you is what any of these weighs full, because nobody publishes that and the water is the larger part of it. A 1200ml pot of tea adds far more than the difference between 0.57 lb and 1.34 lb of glass. The empty figure matters for a different reason: it is what you are holding before the water goes in, and it is what the wrist feels at the end of the pour.
Where the Weight Goes
The Heavy Pot That Holds the Least
Yama publishes 1.34 lb for a 10 oz pot, which is the one combination on this page that looks wrong until you read the reason. The glass is hand blown and the maker says it is crafted to be thicker and stronger, and the pot is an all-glass kyusu with a side handle rather than a loop. Mass is the design, not a side effect.
HIWARE publishes 1.21 lb for 1000ml and says the same thing about its glass, that the body has been optimized to be thicker so it is stronger for everyday use. Two of these five are therefore heavy on purpose, and both are the two that permit stovetop heating. The thickness and the permission are the same decision.
The Light Pots and What They Give Up
Rishi Tea publishes 0.57 lb on a 400ml pot and says nothing about a stovetop, a microwave or a handle. HARIO publishes 0.67 lb on 700ml and says its heatproof glass has been treated to resist shattering, that it is hot water safe and dishwasher safe, and nothing about a hob either.
Those two are the lightest objects here and the two that are not described as cookware. For a daily drinker who boils water in a kettle and pours it into the pot, that is no loss at all. For one who wants to reheat the pot itself, it is the whole difference, and neither listing closes the question.
The Handle, the Pour and the Fill Line
Two Handle Claims, Three Silences
STNTUS is the most specific, calling its handle widened and thickened and tying that to being more user-friendly and safe, and adding that the spout will not cause splashing. At 0.95 lb for 1200ml it is the lightest pot here relative to what it holds, which is the combination a daily drinker actually wants.
HIWARE names an ergonomic handle for a sturdy grip and a non-dripping spout. Yama’s handle is a different thing entirely, a side-pour kyusu handle the listing explains by history rather than ergonomics. Rishi and HARIO publish no handle description at all, which on a pot lifted several times a day is a real gap.
Knowing When to Stop Filling
STNTUS puts a water level scale on the glass, the only visible fill guide on this page. HIWARE takes the opposite approach and prints an instruction instead: do not fill more than 1000ml of water while boiling tea. Both are answers to the same daily question and only one of them survives being forgotten.
Rishi, HARIO and Yama publish no fill guidance. On the Yama that matters more than it sounds, because the listing asks you to heat water gradually at a low temperature with a trivet underneath, and gives no mark to fill to. A 10 oz pot has little margin for a confident pour from a kettle.
Leaves, Steel and Washing Up
Four Removable Baskets and One Lid Filter
Rishi is the outlier: the strainer is built into the lid and unscrews from it for washing, and the maker frames that as a feature, saying it keeps all of your tea in the pot for future steepings. That is a brewing decision as much as a cleaning one, because the leaves stay in the water until the pot is empty.
The other four use a removable basket or filter. HIWARE names 18/10 stainless steel and says the lid fits whether the basket is in or out. STNTUS names 304 and says the filter comes out directly for cleaning. HARIO describes a large strainer that lets leaves expand, and Yama a removable mesh filter, neither naming a grade.
What Each Maker Will Let You Put It Through
HARIO states hot water safe and dishwasher safe in plain terms. HIWARE allows the top rack or hand cleaning. STNTUS allows the dishwasher and then asks you not to use it, to reduce collisions in the machine, which is an unusually candid pair of sentences.
Rishi describes unscrewing the filter from the lid and washing it without naming a method. Yama publishes no washing instruction at all, which on a hand-blown pot asked to be heated gradually is the one instruction you would most want. Three of these five therefore leave the daily wash partly unspecified.
Which One Fits Your Kitchen
Lightest pot in the hand. Rishi Tea publishes 0.57 lb on a 400ml pot with a strainer built into the lid that unscrews for washing. It publishes nothing about a stovetop, a microwave or a handle, so treat it as a brewing vessel only.
Mid-size pot for one or two. HARIO publishes 0.67 lb on 700ml, with glass treated to resist shattering and a plain dishwasher permission. It also publishes its size in millimeters, as W173 by D132 by H108.
Most tea for the least glass. STNTUS publishes 0.95 lb on 1200ml, a widened and thickened handle, a water level scale, 304 steel and a stated range of -20 to 150 degrees Celsius. The best weight-to-capacity figures here.
Wants to reheat on the hob. HIWARE publishes 1.21 lb on 1000ml, permits gas or electric at medium heat and the microwave, names 18/10 steel and prints a 1000ml fill limit. The extra weight is thicker glass.
Single serving, poured sideways. Yama publishes 1.34 lb on a 10 oz hand-blown kyusu with a side handle. It needs a trivet and gradual heating, and publishes no washing instruction or fill guide.
What We Could Not Verify
These are the figures we went looking for on the manufacturer listings and did not find.
- A full weight for any of these five. Every figure here is the empty pot.
- A handle description for the Rishi and HARIO pots.
- A steel grade for the Rishi, HARIO and Yama strainers.
- Any washing instruction for the Yama pot.
- Whether the Rishi or HARIO pots may be heated on a hob at all. Neither says either way.
- Why the HARIO dimension fields of 5.6 by 6.4 by 4.6 inches do not match the millimeter figures in its own bullet.
