Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Ti pots and pans suck, IMO. Terrible heat conductivity, one of the very worst metals. You want the most conductive metal you can get for camp cooking, which is aluminum, 4 times better than cast iron. Copper is best, except for being heavy and a heavy metal poison as well. Copper clad SS is popular at home, but is less conductive than aluminum and also heavy. Thermal conductivity chart here:
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/th...als-d_858.html
When I did boil tests comparing similar size aluminum (Trangia) and titanium (Snow Peak) pots there was a >15% difference favoring aluminum. That is certainly significant but not an overwhelming difference, especially for most bike touring where fuel is readily available, but pots have to be carried up every grade, everyday.
The main challenge I find with titanium is it doesn’t disperse the heat evenly so there are “hot and cold” spots. At the extreme, this means part of your omelet is charcoal and part is still raw and runny. Mostly it means I need to stir my food frequently while cooking. My fix is to disperse the flame by changing the pot height over my alcohol stove or putting a heat disperser under the pot, e.g. a square of fiberglass fabric. I notice that the Snow Peak recognizes the titanium problem and their LiteMax canister stove sends the flame out sideways to spread the heat across the bottom of the pot.
Has anyone used hard anodized aluminum cookware? I notice a number of outdoor companies are marketing hard anodized aluminum cookware, which claim little or no aluminum contact or reaction with food. I have not tried them, but it seems like they might be as close as you can get to cast iron cooking at a backpacking weight.