MLD Ti Pot Smells

Ben, yeah, it was a lot of work. Felt a bit strange having to put so much effort in, just to ease my mind, but I think it was worth it – hopefully it will last many journeys. I really like the size shape and weight of the pot, and I am hoping after a few nice meals I will think of it as a good little friend. Right now it feels a bit like a demanding acquaintance :-P

I appreciate this thread — I just got this pot, and had noticed that the bottom looked a little, I don't know, greasy or something, though not a lot of smell. So I scrubbed the heck out of it, boiled some water in it, did it all again — it's looking a lot better now, and without the greasy film on the water surface when heating water.

The only thing I have (had) against this pot is that it was a little challenging with a pot this narrow to scratch/mark lines inside at the 1.5 and 2 cup level, but I managed to get something that works when the light is right. That's one nice thing about not having a non-stick coating (I only felt comfortable marking my previous pot on the *out*side).

Looking forward to using it this coming year.

A quick update:

I was doing an infrequent load of dishes in the dishwasher, on high heat (I like to periodically run my toddler son's bottles, utensils and such through a high heat cycle), and tossed the MLD pot and lid in, and they came out completely odorless.

Maybe steam is the magic bullet.

Hi everyone again,
Sorry to take up peoples time with this, but my pot still smells and its really bugging me. Since I last posted I've tried boiling it in water and detergent, followed immediately by spraying with a fairly full on kitchen cleaner and thorough scrubbing with the green plastic scourers. To no effect, the metal smell remains.
I am now boiling it again, this time submersed in water with some tea leaves thrown in, hoping the acids in the tea will be beneficial and cover the smell somewhat.

But could someone do me a favor? Would someone be willing to scrub their MLD pot with a green plastic scourer, then rinse and dry, and sniff? I want to eliminate the possibility that it is just the exposed bare metal smelling, as I believe I read somewhere that titanium also oxidizes like aluminum, but I'm thinking maybe it takes longer, so before it oxidises I can smell it? Is this possibly what I am smelling? Because surely I have eliminated the manufacturing lubricant by now?

My major concern is the the baking may have baked the lubricant on to the pot when I placed it in the oven.

Thanks for any further help with this,

Michael

"But could someone do me a favor? Would someone be willing to scrub their MLD pot with a green plastic scourer, then rinse and dry, and sniff?"

I think I clumsily said I already tried this above, to no real effect, at least not by itself. It was followed by three boiled pots of water, and then a cycle in the washing machine, on high heat. The smell is completely gone.

I want to say that I can absolutely assure you it's not the bare metal, but I'm not a metallurgist, although I've been using and abusing and even once plasma cutting titanium components on bicycles and cars and other odds and ends since around 1990, and nothing made of titanium I've ever handled or used has had any particular inherent odor.

Your previous post gave me hope, but then I tried all those techniques and didn't get the result I had hoped for. What you say was my understanding also, which leads to my concern over the persistence of this darned odor! I don't have a dishwasher though, so have had to rely on the old school methods I've outlined. I'm very thankful you gave it a go, I just wish I could get your results! Thanks for the info though – I thought titanium was pretty darn inert.

Michael, before doing anything else I used a green scourer and dish soap to wash mine, and it seems okay from just that simple step. It's possible the smell is still there, though, because I'm starting to get a bit of a cold :(

Thanks Ryan, that seems to be the consensus. Hope the cold passes without too much inconvenience.

"I don't have a dishwasher though"

Surely someone you work with has one! If not, if you work near Fort Belvoir, I'll get it from you and take it home and put it in my dishwasher for you.

"I thought titanium was pretty darn inert."

It darn well better be. I've got two screws made of the stuff permanently embedded in one of my fingers!

Funny, I forgot about that when I was posting earlier. I guess that's as good a testament to titanium's safety as you're going to get!

For that matter, a friend of mine has a perforated titanium plate in his cranium.

Yeah, we live hard here in Hollywood! ;)

Good luck with the pot; it'll improve!

Happy weekend!

Thanks Douglas, that's a very kind offer – people here are great. Unfortunately I live in Australia. But I would have thought submersing and boiling it in water and detergent would have been a similar. Maybe its the steam effect that would make all the difference that I can't get?

Oops! Ironically enough, there's an Annandale in the Northern Virginia area, where I work. Hence my offer. You know us danged yanks, we think EVERYTHING refers to the US!

Yeah, I have a titanium screw in my elbow :-) But I thought there were different grades, ie some with more aluminum, so I thought maybe that's part of the smell. Long shot I know.

There are different grades, oh YES!
CP: commercially pure – 'soft' in a manner of speaking, can be bent and shaped
6Al4V: about 50% of the world's Ti consumption is in this alloy. It as hard as the hobs of hell, and unbendable when cold. However, it can be hot-formed.
There are other alloys too …

As to the smell – 99% confident it was a drawing oil.

Cheers

Michael,
If your are getting flavor from your pot when cooking with it but don't smell it when at room temp, that means that the higher temp is accelerating the release of off-flavor causing compounds from the surface.

Heating the Ti pot in your oven (at a moderate temp) should speed the driving off of those problem compounds. The high temp won't "bake the lubricant onto the pot," it will evaporate off the potential compounds.

What fuel are you using? Esbit tablets do have an odor associate with them.

What have you cooked in previously?

Unless it's your food, so have someone boil water in your pot and in a stainless cook pot from your kitchen, then serve you each of the boiled (but cooled) water without revealing which is from the Ti (i.e., in a glass). This might help confirm that it is the pot…and not your food, your taste buds, or imagination. Not trying to be sarcastic here, just want to eliminate other causes.

I am a material scientist and work for one of the world largest food companies to identify new packaging materials for everything from cookies to coffee, so I can assure you that this is what we would do in similar situations.

Please feel free to PM me with any other questions or to talk about your findings.

Tom

Thanks for your input Tom. I haven't eaten from it yet, I have been trying to eliminate the smell before consuming anything cooked in it. I have done so much cleaning of it that is probably is quite safe to eat from, so I may try your suggestion. And rest assured I didn't find your post at all sarcastic – I like a good, analytical, scientific suggestion. A blind test with my girlfriend as lab assistant, could at least ease my concerns, and sounds like fun :-)

And thanks Roger – good to know, I thought that must be the case re grades of the alloy.

You are wrong for that Tom…