Boiling water without a pot.

L

loraksus

Joined
May 31, 2007
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Looking for a thread like this, can't seem to find it.

So... post your ideas on how to boil water w/o a metal pot.
I'll get a few out of the way

1. Nalegene bottle (please no chemical leeching flamewar) - but is it better to boil by hanging the bottle over an open flame or dropping hot rocks into it?

2. Find / use metal cans, etc.

3. Find a rock with a "bowl" in it and drop hot rocks in.

4. umm... metal canteen... ok, I need some help here because I'd be pretty screwed without any of the above ;)
 
I remember reading that you could "boil" (not sure if its truly boil or not) by filling a plastic bottle with no air at all. But a few raised the points that this may leak ptoxins from the plastic.
On a survivorman he boiled water using his hat which was made of a dense fabric,by putting hot rocks in.
 
I'm also conserned about chemicals leeching out the plastic from boiling. I've seen Les Stroud doing this also, but I'm not feelin comfortable with this at all.
Sorry, but I also don't want to start a flamewar about this, I'm just interested.

I've used folded tinfoil paper to make a small box. It's strong enough to get water boiling, but it's a very weak structure. There are pics on the net how to fold the tinfoil. It's real easy and it works! After this you better keep the box folded because unfolding will make the thinfoil weaker.

CZ
 
This past summer on the Wilderness Learning Center Advanced Course, one of the participants boiled water in an old USGI canvas water bucket. It only took a few rocks pulled from the fire to heat the water. We used it for washing off after long days of practicing skills.

A bit of advice, make sure to leave room in the container to accomodate the water displacement.
 
I've boiled water in a fresh deer hide before.
We scraped the flesh off.
Dug a pit and placed the hide inside flesh side up.
We heated small rocks (Don't use river rocks or limestone? as they may explode) and added water to the hide pot.
We quicky dipped the hot rocks in water to remove dirt and ash and placed them in the hide. It seemed to boil fairly fast.
If the rocks were placed in a small basket it helped in the romoval and finding of them when they cooled off as well as lessening the displacement of water.
The water/meal was very slimy but it worked.
 
tin foil
maybe a glass bottle or jar. I know this is not practical but in a pinch it could work.
 
When I was a wee lad in Boy Scouts we boiled water in a paper cup. We used the paper conical cup that you might find next to a water fountain. It was flimsy and didn't produce much water, but it did work. The water saturated the paper enough to keep it from igniting with the exception of the paper above the water line. This would burn down as the water lost volume to evaporation. I have wondered since if you could fold piece of paper into a cup shape and do the same.
 
Once upon a time we made cups for boiling water out of birchbark. Trim the branch and hollow it out. As long as the water stays above the level of the flame the cup doesn't burn. If I recall we made tea from Spruce Needles in the bark cups we had carved.

Tasted a little...tree-like (?)
 
Native Americans cooked in baskets with hot rocks. You could line a pit with a plastic garbage sack and do the same. Put some clean rocks in the bottom to keep the hot rocks off the plastic. This is a good reason to work a pot into your PSK. For cheap and light, there is a grease pot by Stanco at Kmart that works great.
 
daddymac said:
When I was a wee lad in Boy Scouts we boiled water in a paper cup. We used the paper conical cup that you might find next to a water fountain. It was flimsy and didn't produce much water, but it did work. The water saturated the paper enough to keep it from igniting with the exception of the paper above the water line. This would burn down as the water lost volume to evaporation. I have wondered since if you could fold piece of paper into a cup shape and do the same.
Click to expand...

Yup. You can also use other paper like objects to do the same thing, typically birch bark (where the technique originated with the Native Americans).
 
Similar stuff has been suggested, but I've done it by digging a hole and lining it with foil, then making your fire-ring around it. The ground gets more than hot enough to boil water and it keeps a 'purification factory' going continuously, just keep adding water. Way less effort than using rocks, but you have to strain out the ash. You will need a scoop (my psk is in an Altoids tin) to get the water out.
 
I have (only once) made a container from bark and heated the water (small bubbles) with rocks heated in a fire.

Once hollowed out a section of log (with a 225Q) and heated about 1.5 gallons of water to rolling boil with rocks heated in a fire - but the water tasted "funny." Probably used the wrong type of wood - oak.
 
i seen a buddy boil water in a styrofoam cup once. i thought he was crazy till he done it.
it took him a while. his mom has pictures of him doing it at a campout.
 
richard j said:
i seen a buddy boil water in a styrofoam cup once. i thought he was crazy till he done it.
it took him a while. his mom has pictures of him doing it at a campout.
Click to expand...
He was "crazy" - when he done it. I can just see him hanging over da' cup to see what's what. :rolleyes:

Burning styrofoam can give off cyanide gas. Your buddy is pushing for a Darwin Award nomination. :thumbdn:
 
Coffee can works for me. Yeah, it's almost a pot. I'd say it would be worth the extra bulk to carry a small pot or can with you if you're going to spend the night. Nothing like some hot soup or a cup of tea/coffee to raise the spirits out in the woods.
 
all my buddy done was boil water to see if it could be done. he didnt drink any of it either. he didnt have to look over the cup since you could see the water boiling easily off to the side. he held the cup by the lip on one side and off to the side of the fire where there wasnt much flame to catch the cup on fire.
 
"All I did was . . . . "

That statement has commenced many a sad story.

Review. Burning styrofoam. Cyanide gas.

But, then, many a drunk driver makes it home unscathed.
__________________________________________________________

In a survival situation, don't add unnecesary risks.
 
Thomas Linton said:
"All I did was . . . . "

That statement has commenced many a sad story.

Review. Burning styrofoam. Cyanide gas.
Click to expand...

Wikipedia:
"hydrogen cyanide is contained in the exhaust of vehicles, in tobacco and wood smoke, and in smoke from burning nitrogen-containing plastics,"
not sure how you are going to avoid all that.
But where possible I try to stick to air for the lungs.
 
This might sound pretty lame but for quick outings i have used a cambells soup can just for me. Pretty cheap method but only last for 10 boilings maybe.... but back to topic......Coal burned containers using hot rocks, birch bark with hot rocks and using animal rawhide with hot rocks...dont know how well that last one would work





Excuse me if these are stupid ideas Im a noob
 
Water boils at 212°F and styrofoam melts at about 250°F. In my experience, I placed a styrofoam cup on a flat rock where it got heat but no direct flame. The cup melted, spilling the contents into the fire, before the water ever reached boiling.

-- FLIX
 
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