Hot spot

I did a quick stove test outside. I was melting some snow in my evernew titanium 0.9 liter pot and during this process a cavity formed under the snow cause I didnt pack it tight enough. This created a discolored spot on my pot because it got so hot. Do I need to be concerned about using this pot again? Will this release dangerous chemicals?

It is not coated.

Uncoated Ti is fairly inert stuff. After all the pot was designed to be heated up!!!!

Are you dumping any water in the pot before you pack the snow???

I agree with TR. You need to use water with the snow. Jimshaw wrote a pretty good primer about this in the winter section.

Shrike
it has nothing to do with packing it has to do with ice subliming directly into steam and scorching the pan. If you don't have any liquid water to start with do this:

Warm the empty pan holding it above the stove maybe six inches and put in one half teaspoon of snow, no more. Swish it around in the warm pan until it melts, add one more half teaspoon and do the same. Now warm it up a bit closer to the the heat and add one whole teaspoon and swish it around and it should melt, then add another teaspoon. continue doing this. In a minute or two you will have a couple ounces of water and you can put the pan on the stove and slowly add snow but not enough snow at any one time to absorb all of the water. stir constantly. I like to then heat it up pretty hot and then add more snow so it melts instantly. Keep the pan water warm so there is no condensation on the bottom so the stove burns better.
Jim

You can take one of those abrasive 3M pads - the reddish-brown ones - and scrub off the scorched spot, if you want. Seems like I am always scrubbing out scorched oil - but then again, I do like my popcorn!

Thanks all. I will definitely put a little water in next time. I never thought that the pan would get that hot with all the snow in there but it did. Andy I will try using a scrubber on it.

don't melt snow without a little water in there..

snow is a *fantastic* insulator. without some water in there it sits there and insulates itself from the flame, holding the heat on the bottom of your pot.

Don't feel bad, I've seen that mistake done a *lot* here.. Can tell you haven't had to melt snow for water a lot

So often, experience is the best teacher! Don't worry, unless there's a hole in your pot, you haven't ruined it!

Phat: I am not a winter camper..... yet!!! I just felt like melting a little snow with my tea light stove and well, my inexperience showed through.

OM: I know exactly what you mean. Experience is the best teacher. I made the mistake of buying too much gear before my first trip. I found out during that trip that it was all WAY too heavy. No more liquid fuel stove for me:) Pack weight before, 45 pounds. Soon to be pack weight, less than 11 pounds. YEAH!!!