titanium cook pot

Check out REI during their super clearance if you want cheap titanium cookware. I got a 5 piece set at the last super clearance for ~$30.
 
Wow, I didn't think that it was bad for hanging over an open fire. Thanks for the heads up. I guess it will be SS; cast iron is just crazy heavy, although I would bet it would be a good alternative in killing a grizzly bear if I can't reach my 357 magnum quick enough lol. Also, thanks for the addition of the fact tidbits on aluminum. Interesting!
Is there a video or whatever on appropriate ways to heat food using a pot over a fire? That would be GREAT and helpful to watch.
 
Titanium is strong and light, so you can make it thinner and still get a tough pot. What I like about Ti is it doesn't pit like plain aluminum pots will. Hard anodized aluminum pots are a great buy and get around the pitting problem with the anodizing.

IMHO, the heat transfer issue is too small to bother about-- the Ti pots are so thin that it is much ado about nothing. If I were building aircraft parts or brake rotors, etc, then I might want to get out the engineering books.

Sources for good pots:

http://www.brasslite.com (good alcohol stoves too)

http://antigravitygear.com

http://backpackinglight.com

The new REI pots are just repackaged Evernew models, IMHO

Snow Peak makes my favorites-- the 700 model pot comes with a lid and is big enough to boil water for a dehydrated dinner and then some. It will fit around a Nalgene too. The 600 is my ultralight choice. It will fit around a Camelbak one liter bottle. The 600 still boils enough water for one meal and perfect for solo camping.
 
Dannyboy Leather said:
You DO NOT want to hang titanium cooking pots designed for backpacking over an open fire. As a demonstration, our backpacking club hung a titanium pot over an open campfire. It was destroyed in short order.
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That's quite weird.
Not that I want to dispute your experiment but I fail to understand. I did check that titanium have higher melting point than both Al and Iron, and if it works on stove, why wouldn't it be capable of sustaining open fire heat.

Maybe your pot was particularly thin, because I have two Snow Peak titanium pots and neither came with instructions about open fires. Actually some makers make stoves out of titanium.
I guess I'll have to check myself, I have little use for pots that can't withstand open fire anyway.

Edit: found that:
http://www.trangia.se/english/2937.faq.html
Is it possible to use the titanium pots over an open fire (like the aluminium pots)?
Yes, it is possible to use the titanium pots as well over an open fire. Please handle the titanium pots carefully, since they have worse heat distribution capacity than the aluminium pots. Thus, the titanium pots more easily get overheated, which causes a change in the colour of the pots (to blue/black) and dents.
 
Dannyboy Leather said:
First, Titanium IS NOT better than other metals for cooking. It is only lighter weight which can be an advantage on the backpacking trail. It will boil water faster only because it is so thin. We have a pile of titanium cooking pots, cups, etc., that we use strictly for backpacking with specialized backpacking stoves. You DO NOT want to hang titanium cooking pots designed for backpacking over an open fire. As a demonstration, our backpacking club hung a titanium pot over an open campfire. It was destroyed in short order. The instruction sheets that came with my own personal titanium cook pots highly recommend not using the pots over an open fire. They simply are too thin and lack the durability. When cooking with titanium on a low heat stove, you don't want to turn your head for a moment since you can burn your food even faster. The only pots that I will hang over an open fire are made of either stainless (I like MSR stainless pots), heavy aluminum (some of the backpacking aluminum is too thin), or cast iron. BTW, I own the pot that you show in the REI link. Again, not a pot for the open fire. :)
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Great info! :)

Can stainless steel or heavy aluminum pots be placed IN a cooking fire or ON hot coals, or will this damage them?

Thanks......
 
Most of us probably know that you can boil water in a paper cup. The water keeps the paper from getting hot enough to combust. I would think you could cook on fire or directly on coals with stainless steel, aluminum or titanium for mostly the same reasons. But--I'm not yet ready to put my titanium anything in the coals to find out. :)
 
I regularly put an aluminium billy onto coals. Not sure if I'd put it directly into the fire which I do with cast iron on occasion (usually ruins the seasoning I find). I have several titanium pots that I use on a fuel stove and I wouldn't hesitate to put them onto coals. Haven't actually done it so I could find out I'm wrong but I think they'd be OK. Like aluminium however I don't think I'd put them directly into the fire. I don't have any stainless pots or pans but I think they'd be fine on coals and probably OK in the fire as well.
 
Couple of things bear repeating after numerous posts seemed to cloud the waters on Ti cookware.

First off, one does not 'cook' over flames, one 'cooks' over coals when using a campfire in the proper manner. 'Hobo style' not withstanding, cooking over coals allows more control of the heat source/temperature reaching your pot/skillet.

Ti cookware was made for backpacking with weight concerns such as high altitude mountaineering. it's now 'mainstream' in that anyone can afford to buy it; does that make it better than Aluminum or Stainless? Specifically if you are carrying lots more gear that needs the weight, then you sacrifice the weight where you can, ie, cook gear, as opposed to ropes. That said, Anodized aluminum is one of the better choices out there today for campfire cooking on the go. Base camp cooking is where cast iron shines in my experience. Otherwise you won't find many folks lugging that dutch oven far from their cars.

Stainless has a nasty habit of having food stick, then bake on, which is a bear to scrub off in the bush. Unless you have oil to cook with in stainless, you need to regulate your heat source better than 'just hanging the pot over some flames'. Stainless is heavier duty in quality brands, and will last if taken care of, but can dent, and get messed up just like aluminum.

After 35 years of backpacking I tend to carry whichever material will suit my needs for the given trip length. Kind of like knives, no one best pot material for all folks...otherwise there'd be only one material used! Choose Ti when headed to Everest and the ilk; Anodized Aluminum for 75% of the rest of your trips, stainless or cast iron for your base camping trips is what has been my experience.

For all things considered a quality set of anodized aluminum cookware will last you a lifetime. Ya' don't need no stinking 'non stick' neither, once it starts scratching up EVERYTHING sticks!
 
I have an aluminum cook set-up I've used for years. I can't remember if it works good or not. I never worry about alzheimers. If it happens, it happens. Think it could be related?
 
To kick a dead horse... I was meandering through some of the links you guys sent me, and there was a footnote at the bottom of the page that explained a little bit about the possible negative side affects of aluminum. I thought it was worth posting. Here is the link:

http://zenstoves.net/Cookware.htm

Here is the quote (found at the bottom of the links page):


Health Concerns

There are a few concerns that go along with choosing the right cookware for you.

The most popular cookware questions in the backpacking community deals with the safety of aluminum pots. Much of this concern deals with an old and outdated theory that suggests aluminum from cookware may be the cause of Alzheimer's disease. This is based on findings in the 1970's of high concentrations of aluminum in brain tissues of patient's with Alzheimer's disease. There are also many old urban myths floating around about the hazards of aluminum cookware, most notably Rudolph Valentino's death attributed to eating food prepared in aluminum cookware. The exact role of aluminum in Alzheimer’s Disease isn’t clear yet, and current research suggests that aluminum cookware doesn’t pose a real risk to developing Alzheimer’s or dementia.

There may be a hazard with the coatings often found on them. Teflon has been know to cause Teflon Flu (AKA metal fume fever or polymer fume fever). This happens when you heat up your cookware enough that the Teflon separates from your cookware and is inhaled. There are also concerns about blood levels of Teflon and a possible risk of cancer. If you use Teflon or other coated cookware, avoid overheating it, such as melting snow without first adding some water.

Galvanized steel containers should never be used for cooking, as it may cause heavy metal poisoning.

Aluminum cans have a heat cured coating inside and out. There may be some health concern with using this to cook with, but who knows?
 
All my oldest camp cookware is aluminium. I have an old soot blackened kettle my grandma gave me 40 years ago, which is still going strong! For cooking, as opposed to just boiling water though, aluminium is pretty poor. I find food sticks easily and it's difficult to clean in the field, it also pits and scratches very easily creating more potential for hygiene problems. I've got some lightweight stainless steel stuff which has been fine on open fires and all sorts of stoves, in fact my most useful pot is a stainless pan originally bought for a Trangia stove. I briefly had a great set of pans made of some kind of sandwich, with aluminium on the outside (lighter and greater heat conductivity I'm told) and stainless on the inside, I think they were called Duolux or something. They were really light, but tough. I think the drawback was their price (mine were supplied for a gear review.) Trangia did a deluxe set with them for a while, but I think it was too pricey for their market. Mine didn't get long-term use I'm afraid as both they and the stove were stolen.
 
I dunno what everyone's going on about, in reference to using titanium pots over capfires. I have run my titanium Trek 700, Trek 900 and Evernew 1.5L pots over campfires, gasoline stoves, butane stoves, esbit flames, natural gas flames, electric stove elements and a Sierra Stove, All With No Problem.

Titanium is the bomb, and there isn't a problem with it. Were you guys melting empty pots over a fire? You can do that to aluminum, even easier.
 
A lot of good info here about the pros and cons of various materials used in camp cookware. I was holding off buying a titanium pot until I could be more certain it could handle an open fire. I'll give it a try.

It looks like paying attention when cooking is a key factor (and logical), no matter what material is used.

Thanks to everyone who posted!
 
Mostly just boil-in-bag meals and hot drinks over alky stove for my MSR Titan Kettle or Vargo. Both light and keeps me going:

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