I have been casting for over sixty years. I started with a Lyman 10# cast iron pot and Lyman dipper. I learned to do good work, but it is SLOW-W-W.
I progressed to a Lyman 11# bottom pour electric pot. I started doing some commercial casting. I added a 20# melting pot to feed the 11# bottom pour.
I then progessed to an RCBS 20# bottom pour pot(actually a 22.0 lb pot). Later, I had a chance to get another RCBS. I now have two but as I have gotten older, I generally only cast one pot full at a sitting.
Lee has the best value (I would only recommend the 20-4 Lee pot). RCBS has the best pot along with terrific customer service. If you can afford it, by all means get the RCBS bottom pour pot. If money is a problem, then the Lee is a value product with some (mostly, minor) problems that a lot of people have learned to live with.
I have used a dipper on thousands of bullets but I am a bottom pour man (and that includes thousands of very large black powder cartridge bullets). My standards are pretty dern high and I have no problems meeting them with a bottom pour pot. However, I learned to use one and it just takes a bit of a learning curve. I have some “students” that learned in a couple of sessions and are doing fine.
As has been said above, DO NOT DO ANY SMELTING IN YOUR CASTING POT. ONLY put clean ingots in your bottom pour pot. Crud gunks up the pouring valve and will give you no end of problems. I recommend a good fish fryer/turkey cooker (mine came from Bass Pro on sale for $30.00 or so) and get a 100#+ capacity melting pot (I use a six quart cast iron dutch oven from Harbor Freight but even better is a steel pot cut from a propane tank or a steel pot fabricated by a good welder). Another possibility is a large stainless STEEL cooking pot. Avoid ALL aluminum pots like the plague - they can fail when melting lead causing a catastrophic failure. Molten metal dumped all over your feet and legs is not something ANY of us needs...
Like anything else, I have ever done, you have to do some before you learn how...
Lyman makes a good pot but their customer service is not nearly as good as RCBS and Lee, in my experience.
FWIW
Dale53