Titanium pots

[stormin norman]

I am looking into possibly purchasing a titanium cooking pot and would like to hear some experienced opinions on the standard pot vs the non-stick pot. Does the non-stick coating make any significant difference or is it not worth the extra money? Thanks in advance for your help.

[sail13]

Before you spend all that money on a Ti pot check out Antigravity gear they have a nonstick Al pot that weigh alittle LESS then a Ti pot and cost less then eight dollars.
The web cite is: http://antigravitygear.com/products/cookware.html
Hope this helps someone save some money

[Peaks]

My thoughts are that much of the stuff you pack inside your pack will probably damage the coating. Plus, most backpacking does not get cooked on, unless you are careless.

My preference is the uncoated pots, and I haven't had a problem.

Non stick is useful if you are doing frying, but thru-hikers generally don't fry. It's usually heat up 2 cups of water.

[poison_ivy]

I agree with Peaks... I have the non-stick Evernew ti pot. The only thing I use the pot for is boiling water, so I don't really need the non-stick coating.

Haven't had any trouble with the pot getting damaged from items in my pack -- I travel with the cover on it, so that hasn't bee an issue.

-- Ivy

[Youngblood]

I use a 1.3 litre Evernew titanium pot with non-stick coating and flip-out handles. I like both features... a lot! Sometimes I cook ramen noodle, liptons dinners, etc in my pot-- I always eat out of my pot. With the non-stick coating all I do is add water and use leaves to clean. I think in the past I have scraped some burnt stuff off with my finger nail. You do have to be a more careful about scorching things with thin titanium cookware... especially powdered milk. The flip-out handles makes it easy to hold and pack. I have always packed my stove inside with either a Crown Royal stuff sack or an aluminum pre-heating 'saucer' to protect the bottom of the pan. I used mine on a AT thru-hike, have used it since then and will use it next week. It doesn't look new. It has a tear in its stuff sack, receding rubber-like insulation on the handles and some signs of wear on the non-stick surface, but it still functions fine.

I haven't used any other titaniun pot, so I can't compare it against those.

Youngblood

[gravityman]

There is a lot of literature on the web about the toxicity of non-stick coatings when they get burned. People lose their pet birds all the time to putting a teflon coated pot in the oven, forgetting it is there, turning it on, and then burning it. If you ask me, if it kills a bird, I don't want to breath it!

Since backpacking stoves tend to burn pots all the time, I stay away from teflon coatings on those pots. We do have it on all our pots at home, but I kinda wish that I didn't now... I'm afraid it is going to turn out to be one of those things that you wish you had known...


This is from www.busybeaks.com/QA%20teflon.pdf

"The overheating of PTFE has been found to cause lung problems not only in birds and rats, but also in humans.1,2,4 In
people, the disease is known as "polymer fume fever," and is rarely fatal. The respiratory tract of birds is uniquely sensitive
to the products emitted by overheating PTFE because of a bird's unique respiratory system. Evolution has produced a
system that is extremely efficient in exchanging gasses in order to provide very high levels of oxygen to the muscles of flight.
Birds have traditionally been utilized as sentinels for toxic gasses in coal mines because of this trait. Certainly, then, very
small amounts of a variety of air borne toxins can have serious effects on a bird's respiratory system. Examples of such
toxins include not only overheated PTFE, but also aerosol sprays, tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, natural gas, ammonia,
and burned foods and cooking oils.4-7 The symptoms associated with exposure to these toxins varies in each case from mild
chronic pn eumonia to acute death."

[Youngblood]

Originally posted by gravityman
There is a lot of literature on the web about the toxicity of non-stick coatings when they get burned. People lose their pet birds all the time to putting a teflon coated pot in the oven, forgetting it is there, turning it on, and then burning it. If you ask me, if it kills a bird, I don't want to breath it!

Since backpacking stoves tend to burn pots all the time, I stay away from teflon coatings on those pots. We do have it on all our pots at home, but I kinda wish that I didn't now... I'm afraid it is going to turn out to be one of those things that you wish you had known...

Thanks for pointing that out. These are all good things to know. I have forgotten about things on the stove at home and boiled all the water out. However, I use an alcohol stove on the trail and have never had that problem. The alcohol stove that I currently use has a maximum burn time of about 10 to 12 minutes and I don't think there is any possiblity of it boiling all the water out. Even if I started with an empty pot I would be surprised if it were capable of damaging the pot.

Now if I were using my old Whisperlight, I think I could melt the pot...but I got tired of worring about gas fumes, fireballs & such and switched to a more beign alcohol stove.

Youngblood

[gravityman]

Yeah, not a problem with an alcohol stove. I use the giga power (pocket rocket style stove) and with that you can burn the bottom of the pot with water inside it! :)

Gravity Man

[Youngblood]

Yeah, I guess it is important to match the pot with the stove. When I first got interested in backpacking I bought a Whisperlight along with the MSR stainless steel pot set. I think I switched to the titanium pot at the same time I switched to a Trangia alcohol stove. (Since then, I switched to a homemade alcohol stove that uses 2 tins from tealight candles as its burner.) It makes more sense to talk about the entire cooking system, burner and pot, otherwise people might get it to some unthought of problems.

Youngblood

[Jaybird]

Stormin'

i use the MSR 1.5liter ti pot (w/lid)...mostly for just boiling water...(approx 2 mins with the MSR Pocket Rocket stove)

i pack a fuel cannister, my headlamp, my ti spork, & a pair of socks inside while backpacking...no scratches..no worries.

aluminum might be cheaper, maybe a couple bucks less...but aluminum bends easy & several guys i've hiked with have burned thru their alum. pots. yikes!

titanium is worth the few extra bucks...& it'll last forever...or until some new, liter gadget comes along for us gear-heads.
hehehehe;)


Jaybird
www.trailjournals.com/JAYBIRDandJIGSAW

[stormin norman]

Thanks for all the help. I think I need to decide if the weight differential is worth the cost for simply boiling water.

[kank]

I'm not trying to get into a "which is better" game of semantics, but I would question whether aluminum has durability problems for most hikers in an "ultralight" forum. If you burn through an aluminum pot, you're doing something wrong (like using a whisperlite ;)). My MSR Blacklite pots aren't perfect, but they will probably outlive me (can't say the same for the non-stick coating after my friend used a metal spoon to cook spaghetti one night). In 5 years of use, I've put one tiny dent on the lip of the 1.5L pot (I don't use the 2L pot at all). I now prefer the hard-anodized aluminum like GSI uses in some of its products. HA aluminum is naturally non-stick and resistant to chipping/shaving.

Titanium is a good investment and you will probably never wear out a titanium pot, but the difference in price between Ti and Al pots is usually more than just "a couple bucks". Aluminum is also a better heat conductor, so you are more likely to scorch your pot/food in thin titanium than in aluminum (admittedly, this is partly because titanium pots can be made thinner). Still, they haven't found any links between titanium and alzheimer's... ...yet :rolleyes:.