Originally Posted by
cyccommute
I'm not sure why people are looking for any kind of enhancement to conducting the heat from the stove to the pot in the first place. Anything stuck between the pot and the fire is going to require heat, i.e. stove energy, i.e. fuel, to heat it up. The aluminum of the pot will do a very admirable job of transferring the heat from the stove to the contents of the pot (sorry, but titanium isn't as good as aluminum no matter how much more you paid for the titanium
). The thinness of the aluminum is going to ensure that the heat moves quickly through it and not much of the heat is going to be wasted on heating up the metal of the pot.
I'm guessing it's not a matter of enhancing conduction, but of reducing hot spots. Sure, a thin aluminium pot on top of a Whisperlite will do an admirable job of transferring the heat from the stove to the contents of the pot: in fact, it'll happen so fast that the contents of the pot directly on top of the flame will scorch before the high-heat-capacity-food has a chance to transfer its energy to the surrounding food. By "wasting" energy to heat up the metal of a thicker pot or diffuser, you get the same amount of energy distributed over a larger area, resulting in more even cooking.
I'm not saying you can't cook rice in a thin pot on a Whisperlite, I'm just saying that it's very very tricky.