Thursday, March 13, 2008

My Snow Peak titanium mug has me confused

My Snow Peak Titanium Single Wall Cuparrived today. I planned on using it both as a mug and as a pot for boiling water on the trail. What could be easier than to boil some water in the morning in the cup, dump in a packet of oatmeal and voila! instant breakfast. I was disheartened and confused by the tag on the mug, which says this on the front:

Lightweight, premium-grade Titanium Single-Walled Cup.


So far, so good. However, the back of the tag says:

Warning:
  • Do not place the product directly on a flame. It may cause deformation as well as discoloration. The pressure inside the double-wall structure will build up which may result in the product bursting.


So did I get a single wall or double wall cup? The double-wall is better insulated so a hot drink won't burn your lips. It is also heavier. I can see a double-wall exploding if it is heated because the gases in between the walls would expand faster than the titanium and would have to vent somewhere. I don't think the heat from a small backpack stove (the MSR Pocket Rocket Stove in my case) would warp titanium. Aircraft engine exhaust nozzles are made of titanium because it is so heat resistant.

So, my next step was to consult the Snow Peak website. On the single wall titanium cup page I found this gem of poor Engrish translations:


Titanium Double Wall Mugs and Cups
The Best Mugs and Cups you will ever own

Made from the Best Titanium, these stoves are not only the lightest on your back, but also on the environment. For years Snow Peak has been Salvaging Titanium off of expired Submarines. There are innumerable qualities to using Titanium, most of all it's strength and mire weightlessness compared to such metals as Aluminum and Steel are most important to Snow Peak.



Yes, even the single wall cup web page says double wall. WTF?

Let's analyze this paragraph a little more. First of all, there are many words that are improperly capitalized. I'm not sure how a lightweight titanium cup is good for the environment. The double-wall cup page doesn't say this so it must only be single-wall titanium cups that are good for the environment. Luckily, I bought single-walled. I'd hate for my cup to ruin the trail I was hiking on.

You know, I hate buying submarines because they always seem to expire before I can use the whole thing. Snow Peak has been Salvaging Titanium off expired Submarines so that's a good thing I guess.

Titanium has mire weightlessness according to the next sentence. Mire? Merriam -Webster defines mire as:

  • 1 : wet spongy earth (as of a bog or marsh)
  • 2 : heavy often deep mud or slush
  • 3 : a troublesome or intractable situation


So the cup's weightlessness is due to mud? Or is the cup's weightlessness troublesome? What did I get myself into?

Anyway, I looked at the tag and found a model number for the cup I bought. It is MG-043. This number is on both the front and back of the tag so it must be correct. The web page shows these details for the Snow Peak Titanium Single Wall CupMG-043:

  • Titanium Single Wall 450 MG-043

  • Material: Titanium

  • Capacity: 14 oz

  • Weight: 2.4 oz


So I did get a single wall cup. OK, I'm glad I got that settled.

Now that all the wall confusion is over with, can I heat the mug on a backpacking stove or will it explode or get deformed? It is fairly thin, but titanium is so heat resistant that I can't see anything happening to it from a small butane-propane stove. Tomorrow I am going to test it out and boil some water in the mug on my MSR Pocket Rocket Stove to test it out. I'll upload some photos so we can see what, if anything, happened to the titanium single-wall mug.




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