What's better for cooking? Titanium or aluminum?
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- Опубліковано 1 тра 2020
- I've totally changed my opinion on titanium pots. Now I need to get my hands on a 700 ml aluminum pot.
I spent a few hours comparing the time to boil 2 cups of water in different pots.
Conclusions:
1) Most weight savings come from volume reduction, and not from the material of construction. Once you get down to 500-700 ml pots, the weight savings of different materials are marginal.
2) The thermal conductivity of aluminum is far superior to titanium and stainless steel, and therefore aluminum pots are the most efficient.
3) The weight saving of a titanium pot (if any) is offset by the need to carry more fuel (compared to aluminum).
3) The shape of the pot, specifically the diameter, is very critical. Smaller is better.
4) The BRS mini stove burns 1g of fuel per minute. A small 110 g (net) canister will be good for 100 minutes or so.
5) I can boil a cup of water in just under 3 minutes under ideal conditions (no wind, lid on pot, starting with room temperature water). I need 6 cups of hot water per day (One coffee, one oatmeal, a soup for lunch and my dinner). One small canister will boil 33 cups, which is equivalent to 5 days if you're very careful. More like 4 days because of other factors.
6) Good luck boiling 2 cups of water in a titanium pot using alcohol.
Cheers,
Marty
__________________________
#BRS_Mini #Backpacking #Martyupnorth - Наука та технологія
Conclusions:
1) Most weight savings come from volume reduction, and not from the material of construction. Once you get down to 500-700 ml pots, the weight savings of different materials are marginal.
2) The thermal conductivity of aluminum is far superior to titanium and stainless steel, and therefore aluminum pots are the most efficient.
3) The weight saving of a titanium pot (if any) is offset by the need to carry more fuel (compared to aluminum).
3) The shape of the pot, specifically the diameter, is very critical. Smaller is better.
4) The BRS mini stove burns 1g of fuel per minute. A small 110 g (net) canister will be good for 100 minutes or so.
5) I can boil a cup of water in just under 3 minutes under ideal conditions (no wind, lid on pot, starting with room temperature water). I need 6 cups of hot water per day (One coffee, one oatmeal, a soup for lunch and my dinner). One small canister will boil 33 cups, which is equivalent to 5 days if you're very careful. More like 4 days because of other factors.
6) Good luck boiling 2 cups of water in a titanium pot using alcohol.
And.. titanium bond with carbon far more easily than aluminium. That's why there is more probability to get scorch when cook food in titanium pan than in aluminium pan.
thank you for your work
Hey Marty. After watching this video I thought I'd do my own boil test. I have a Snow Peak 750ml titanium pot and a MSR Pocket Rocket. Rolling boil of 2 cups of water in 3 minutes flat. With the lid on.
Pot shape makes a difference, but I think that BRS stove design pushes too much heat around the pot or away. It's even worse with a breeze. I would agree that the Al pot is faster and lighter. It burns food faster too if you do more than just boil water.
I found this very interesting. I like you thought process and how you explain things. Thanks.
Indeed Marty is absolutely one of the people I enjoy listening to about anything I always come away learning something that I can apply to my own life 👍👍✌
This video influenced my purchasing decision. Thanks.
I’ve never been a huge fan of titanium myself. Lighter yes but not the best on fire. Most of my pots and cook sets are stainless steel. Bomb proof. Thanks for sharing.
. . . .And I'm back. LOTs of test results, shoulda made a video however, the summary is that YES, Al boils water faster than Ti. That's under controlled circumstances, 2 cups of water, no lid, test done twice on each pot (Al, Ti, Al, Ti). Boil times were: 1:56, 2:20, 1:56, 2:19 so average of 1:56 & lets say 2:19. Average fuel usage was 8gm for Al, and 8.5gm for Ti so a bit more but burned longer. An astonishing 17% faster!. I'm sending you an email with more details / data
That's awesome.
You make an excellent case for anodized aluminum. The power of mis-information about the health risks of using aluminum pots is amazing eh!
Thanks. Indeed it is. I found nothing bad about aluminum in my search. Someone already sent me a link to a nice aluminum pot that's only $18 Canadian.
@@Martyupnorth that is a great price. Is it on Amazon? Can you post the link (either in this message or the video description?
@@MDKDAF www.mec.ca/en/product/6005-628/Bugaboo-Bottle-Cup-710ml
Wow thats a detailed comparison. Think am gonna buy the anodized aluminum pot you put the link to below and test this. Thanks for the video, shows the engineering in you haha.
Pretty interesting
Excellent video! I appreciate a very educated and thorough test when I see one. You saved me some money as well. I was about to "upgrade" to titanium, but after this video, I'm just going to stick with alumimum. Thank you. Also, I'm in High River AB myself, so it's nice to see a test at a similar altitude. God bless!
Yes! save your money. I've blown thousands on titanium and I'm buying aluminum now because it works so much better. This guy helped me materialize a thought here. There's a whole titanium market here with cookware and it absolutely is not a conductive material. good for silverware and anything your not trying to get heat to your food with. My titanium cups actually insulate my coffee from getting cold... if I said that right LOL Have a good day brother:)
Thanks for uploading another entertaining and educational video Sir👍👍✌
please be well,stay safe Marty 👍👍✌
A great alternative but in stainless is the Stanley Adventure Camp Cook Set 24oz.
Good to know, I'm always paranoid about running out of fuel. I always weight my canisters before and after my hikes but have never done an in depth experiment like you did. Thanks.
l was asking myself to which degree l was saving weight or not with my 2l titanium pot (exclusively for melting snow). I always thought the shape was right, but not the material (especially given the size and temps l tend to use it). No doubt, l'm going to have to run my own tests 🤓😎 l'm versed in the scientific method so l did enjoy following your logical and rigorous approach to the test. Thank you! 😊
Altitude must play a significant role in this. I am at about 30 ft above sea level. I use alcohol or esbit for all but deep winter. When I do use canister it's either the BRS (averages 7g of fuel for two cup boil) or a Snow Peak Lite Max (about 6g for a two cup boil) and I always use Ti pots.. either an MLD 850, Toaks UL 650 or 550.
Alcohol or esbit for everything else, using the same pots. I use a small caldera cone and either a Starlite or Toaks Ti Siphon burner with once ounce of Denatured Alc and my boil times are in the five to six minute times. In winter I use a Sterno Inferno pot (which is aluminum) with the above setup (it has heat sink fins on the bottom) and get boil times of just over four minutes with under an ounce of fuel.
The times you were getting with alcohol are quite foreign to me. I think those times can be improved if you were inclined to really geek out on alcohol setup
Thanks for the info. Altitude plays several; important factors in combustion and boiling. The most important one is the partial pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere. At sea level our atmosphere is 21% oxygen. Where I live and hike the "effective" percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere is 15% or lower, which really affects the combustion efficiency of a hydrocarbon like alcohol. A car that gets 20 mpg and makes 125 hp at sea level will get a significant de-rating when it is driven at high altitude. Another key factor is the boiling point of water. It's barely 200F where I live (94C). That's fine if your boiling water to make coffee or tea, but it's too low to properly cook pasta. We need to burn more fuel, less efficiently and longer to achieve the same cooking result. That's basically why I don't use alcohol stoves in the mountains. Cheers.
Dude lol this has me rolling right now, I just got on the titanium boat after really liking a 750ml steel pot with hangar, so I got the titanium equivalent with the hanger & went from 8oz to 4oz. BUT. I just boiled both the titanium pot & the steel pot & also added my older 1,000ml Olicamp XTS pot & it boiled 22 seconds before the titanium & steel. Mind you it does have a heat sink on it so there is that, but I thought the titanium would have won. If smaller is better I really now want to see the boiling speeds of smaller Aluminum WITH heat sinks on them.
I guess this being said I only care IF I'm using fuel? If it's on the fire then I'm going with the lightest for sure, but this has me now thinking for long trips the Olicamp is coming with me.
Dude right on a video that actually helped me lol. And it comes from the dude that inspired me to get into this lol, cheers my woodland hommie.
Glad this was helpful. Coincidentally, I was in my shop this afternoon, refilling butane canisters. Hands down, aluminum is the best. It just got a bad rap over the years.
Your the first I've seen address this. Knowing what I do about both these materials I've known all along that titanium isn't a conductive material. Aluminum, is actually used for electric wire sometimes (or used to be) because its extreemly conductive. I've blown thousands of dollars on titanium and that was a dumb mistake for me. You've just helped me materialize a thought here. Sometimes you can even tell titanium is not wanting to conduct heat, the way you get hot spots in it, you have to actually heat the material up before it will transfer. My loose theory is hard to explain, hopefully that was worded okay. Thanks for the video, thats really good info.
Aluminum got a really bad reputation years ago because of some really bad science. People believed that it caused Alzheimer . Maybe if you eat aluminum. It's such a fast reacting chemical, that it immediately gets coated with an oxide that does not leach in water. It's totally safe as a cooking material, and has superior qualities. I use aluminum cookware all the time. Thanks for your positive feedback, I appreciate it.
I have a Toaks 750 ml pot and it takes over 6 minutes to boil 500 ml of water on my MSR pocket rocket deluxe. I have a GSI 1.1 Lt.anodized aluminum pot and a Sterno 500 ml aluminum. Both take 3 minutes 10 seconds. I did this test back to back to back under identical conditions, around freezing no wind. Titanium might be light but that’s the only thing it has going for it.
That's my conclusion as well. Aluminum just has such a bad (unwarranted) reputation. Aluminum has been found to be toxic, but only if you ingest it directly. You are not going to take in aluminum from cooking on an aluminum surface. Cheers.
Great! I always use aluminum or steel pots either over open fire or on an gas stove. I own a titanium pot but I dont like it. I think it is slower to cook on, harder to clean and it is more expensive.
Right on. That's my conclusion as well.
That’s really interesting... my 750ml toaks Ti pot and MSR pocket rocket deluxe will boil 2 cups in 2 min. What elevation are you at? I have used it at 8kft and it only took 3 min. Anyways thank you for doing this comparison! Cheers!
I did this at home where the elevation is just over 3,000 feet.
Wow, fantastic test! Great job!
Glad you liked it!
@@Martyupnorth what's happening Marty, I was hoping to see and hear your opinion piece on the draconian Liberal agenda to disarm legal and lawful citizens of our once great nation.
Perhaps , we could disband this government and replace them with some people of integrity and freedom principles?
I did the same with my BRS and 750ml Ti pot.
Took me 3:30 WOT and used 12g gas to boil.
Only opened the stove to 1 turn and boiled in 3:42 using 9g.
Seems WOT is way less efficient but I did do this in my basement.
I would be interested in getting a 750ml Al pot.
Tested alcohol stove on Ti pot and took 11
minutes lol.
What do you mean by WOT? Thanks for doing the alcohol test and confirming my suspicion.
Martyupnorth WOT = wide open throttle lol. Not the right context for a stove i suppose.
...full power lol.
The Alcohol stove was also done in my basement in perfect no wind conditions so you can imagine with wind and temperature differences.
Thanks for this video. I decided to buy trangia instead. U just save me some money Sir. I am glad for that. :)
Glad I could help
Interesting video. Times should be reduced using a lid so you should get more out of your canisters.
Good point. It's surprising how much a lid helps.
And this my friends is what happens when an engineer with a few decades of experience is stuck at home for a month!! I actually like that my titanium pot cools down faster after I'm done boiling water. It means that I don't have to wait forever to drink my tea and that I also won't burn my lips on it. On the flip side, in the winter I use a pot cozy to slow down the heat loss.
The thermometer was touching the bottom of the pot causing the temperature to be read correctly around 120!
I don't think the pressure drop in the gas canister be noticeable for boiling two x two cups of water! considering that it contains liquid gas and releases gas at low controlled pressure.
Nice test during Corona isolation, though. 😉☺️
I could spend days doing this kind of stuff. Reminds me of my university days. I ordered a new aluminum pot that has almost the same dimensions as my titanium pot. It will be fun to do a proper side-by-side comparison. I also want to see exactly how many cups I can boil with a new canister. I curious to see if the boil time of each cup will increase as the canister pressure decreases. Or as you suggested, maybe it's not a big factor. Cheers.
Thx for video! from health care view isnt titanium better then aliminum?
Aluminum being a poison is basically a myth. You would have to eat big quantities of aluminum to harm yourself. The same can be said about almost any substance. If you're just boiling water or cooking, neither aluminum or titanium is hazardous. Both are extremely resistant to corrosion, so there's no way they would leach into your food or water.
What is healthier to use? Aluminium or titanium, that is my main concern. Don't want aluminium to be leaching into my boiled water.
That's a modern myth. Aluminum is one of the least corrosive metals on the planet, that's why it's used to make boats, planes and beer cans. It even resists attack from acids. Same with titanium. Both are perfectly safe to boil water.
Yup
Also my conclusion that titanium sucks for boiling water. Anodized or non anodized is the fastest boiling containers
"She'll be mad when I showcase her stove being dirty". LOL. You know, you could clean it first, before filming...... :-0
OK, I am pissed that I watched this, now I have to go and do some testing. I'll get back to you in a bit! Oh, just kidding about being pissed, I'm actually VERY interested in the result as I bought a Ti pot thinking it would be better.
For your anodized aluminum, check out MEC, they have the "MSR Trail Mini Duo" which I'll be testing shortly but they also have the "MSR Ceramic Solo" in two different sizes. Both are Anodized Al. I think the Ceramic pots have a Ceramic coating over the Anodized Al whereas the Mini Duo doesn't but the Mini Duo comes with a cup and removable silicon sleeve which, if removed, would decrease the weight even more from the stated 289g.
Play Jeopardy music for awhile as I'm off testing . . . . . . .
Hey Don, did we ever cross paths at work?? Did you live in Fox Creek in the early 90s?
@@Martyupnorth Nope, don't think we did, I was never in Fox Creek. Early 90s would have me in Calgary where I've been ever since.