I read in a post about Trangia cookware that HA and Duossal pots are great, but titanium not so good (for any stove) What is the problem with titanium? A lot of ultralight backpackers seem to be going that way.
I've been using titanium pots (mainly MSR Titan Kettle) for years without problems. But that was just for boiling water with various types of stove. The issue might be that Titanium transfers heat quickly and can create a hot spot making cooking tricky?
I've been using a Vargo titanium pot for years. I think the issue with Titanium is that it doesn't transfer heat as well as aluminium and because it is quite strong is usually made thinner compared to aluminium. This results in hot spots with burners with small diameter flame patterns. It makes cooking a bit more tricky: you have to keep stirring to avoid burning the centre of your meal. If you are just boiling water for hot drinks or to rehydrate dehydrated meals it is not a problem.
Titanium. Strength of steel, weight of aluminum. When just boiling water, a common backpacker need, one will never notice that Titanium does not cook well. There is the claim that aluminum was causing mental illness issues. (Possible, but officially Unsubstituted). It was about that same time that Titanium was being marketed. Coincidence??? Titanium does not dent as easily as aluminum. Titanium is thinner for given weight vs aluminum. Marketing products with certain characteristics is a strong influence in what is "Cool" to own, use, and also to collect. Sigg, Trangia, and other big name aluminum cookware sets went out if favor when titanium was named as the "New and Improved". It became the "One to Have". Ken
I wonder why Trangia doesn't include a titanium option? I can't imagine the tooling/dies/stamps would be much different.
The problem with "not much different" is that it is exactly like "slightly pregnant" If it is different by even a millimeter that means making all new dies and forming equipment with the associated testing, reworking, retesting etc. before production actually begins. Not a trivial investment.
I have had a couple small pots for quite a few years now that I have actually used, experiencing what others said would happen, hot spots, discoloration, even denting one on a trip where I tripped and fell sideways. Us who backpack use ti for the slight weight reduction. Duane
MSR Titan Kettle has worked fine for me for making meals from dehydrated portions. Also for making oatmeal it has worked fine. When I simmer food I will continuously stir the food to prevent it sticking on bottom.
Titanium is great for burning eggs in a pan or letting your coffee burn the bejesus out of your hand. Set that titanium cup down on your coffee is cold in no time. I do a decent amount of hiking and all of my cookware is now titanium because I'm only boiling water and rehydrating meals. To cook properly and efficiently you need a certain amount of mass for retaining heat in order to cook anything hence the wonder of cast iron and stainless cookware. If Trangia offered a titanium version of the model 25 I wouldn't want it. It's hard enough to cook on it as it is lol.
Trangia did offer Titanium pots and fry pans at one time, late 1990's - early 2000's. You can see them on the Trangia website, in their catalog archives. One example: Trangia catalog 2000 I've owned Ti Trangia stuff, have seen posts/videos from other people who own them, so they do/did exist. Ti Trangia stuff is really uncommon. I'd even venture to say rare. I can't even remember the last time I saw anything Ti Trangia for sale on ebay/tradera/other ebay sites/gear forums-sites. A few years ago (5 or 6?), on a whim, I sent an email to Trangia, asking if they had any old stock Titanium items laying around in their warehouse. They checked, and said they had a few pots, a fry pan, and that was it. I forget exactly what all there was, but I bought everything Ti that they said they had, and they shipped it to me. I could not bring myself to use any of it, so I sold them. They went to a collector in Japan. On a second whim, a few years after that purchase, I emailed Trangia again, and asked if they happened to have any more Titanium items, thinking 'who knows, maybe they found some other old stock', but they said they had no more. One thing I have found over the years, is that the people at Trangia are very receptive and responsive to emails and questions. Rather than speculating about why they don't currently offer Titanium options, perhaps send them an email and ask directly.
