Does anyone paint their titanium pots black?

I am new to the forum and to cooking in titanium pots. I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on if they paint their pots black in order to bring water to a boil faster etc. What type of paint do you use? I assume it is only for the outside? What about painting the wind shield black?

Nope and two points: it has no positive impact on stove efficiency (shown repeatedly in emperical testing) and good luck getting paint to adhere. (I've discussed Ti painting with a bicycle frame maker and it's a nightmare.) If you want a black Ti pot the easiest way is cook over smoky wood fires.

Carefully pairing stove and pot, with an emphasis on shorter, wider pots, tweaking your stove's pot support height, fitting a tight lid, carefully modulating your flame and using an effective windscreen will all improve stove efficiency. Changing the pot surface color will not.

Cheers,

Rick

No. I can't imagine that it would increase the fuel efficiency enough to matter for a short trip (say up to a week or 10 days.)

i always thought the color black absorbed light. not heat.

Boomer

Blackbody radiation of visible light or infrared are the same.

If you use a white gas stove which has a lot of red content to the flame, a measureable increase does come with black paint - over 5%, I have data, but with very blue flames (propane/butane) it is difficult to demonstrate a measureable increase. I do have some pans painted black with whats called "header paint" for hot rods. Its a nasty process. My one winter pan with the MSR heat echanger is painted black. I used it to collect the data on my XGK.

Many people believe blackened pans is a myth - perhaps they never took physics, but in all fairness its difficult to measure and matters little, however as has been pointed out, a good windscreen with about a 1/2" gap all around helps. I have not been able to measure any increase from insulating the top of the pan ( which many people swear to) as the temperature of boiling water is not really high enough to cause much radiation ( as opposed to the flame temp), though I suppose it might save some energy from heat loss through convection, especially if you have a low heat output stove.

A windscreen is about all that matters, that and a lid to prevent cold air blowing over the pot from carrying away heat, however again before the water boils, not much heat is lost through evaporation, and when its boiling (and might matter)its done anyway. Without a windscreen it doesn't matter much what you do.

I have to add that my data was taken on stainless steel pots. I think there is an infrared reflection situation that makes the difference. Thin Titanium pots appear to pass heat like a glass pan - little or not relected heat - from them, so why bother to paint them. Also if the pan goes dry, toxic fumes are given off.

Comon - bring it on.
Jim

Thanks all for the input.I won't be painting them black.

Adding to Jim's post, painting black will make a difference, but by how much, and is it worth it. I would say that if you want to, go ahead. Use engine heat paint, or oven paint. Now, for the windscreen, you want that shiny. It will help reflect heat back to the pot. You don't want it absorbing any heat.

thanks.. my mistake i guess

After a few trips with wood stove cooking, my pots are dark plenty enough, and stay dark, even when soot and gunk are cleaned off. No difference noted, they don't look new anymore, and nobody would like to "borrow" them...