Big Pot

[Mortblanc]

Simple question;

Do you have a pot big enough to boil up the water needed for a day?

I live in the southern U.S. and our temps are climbing to above 90f on a daily basis. The high temp comes at around 5pm but the buildup of heat starts around 11am, with temps above the safe level from noon onward.

Using the traditions of my forebears as a guide, in a SHTF situation any heavy work would take place before noon. That heavy work would include any cooking for the day.

Our tradition was to have the big meal of the day at noon and eat lightly in the evening to avoid cooking late in the afternoon. This avoided heating up the house when things were already out of control temp-wise.

Many families had a "summer kitchen". Meaning they cooked outside on an open fire, rather than on the hearth inside, or latter they moved the woodstove outside under a pavilion.

In the afternoon the fire would be allowed to die down so purifying water would be easier if it were done in the cool morning hours in a quantity that would last the remainder of the day.

How big is your biggest pot?

[Tigs]

we have a 22 litre cooking pot which is used for many things boiling water is just one of them

[Highlander]

We dont have a particularly large pot, [ pressure cooker size],....thinking that its quicker to bring to boil a smaller amount more often, when needed,...... the climate temp is not so much a problem over here

I guess its a lot to do with how many you are cooking for

[NorthernRaider]

We have / had a 25 litre stainless pot but also had an water boiler from an old scout hut to use and its 40 litres, but for my americans friends info many water sources in the uk are deep artesian or aquifer sourced and very pure as it is. Up in Scotland much of the water used in wiskey production is taken straight from the hills. Equally in parts of Wales, The Chilterns, Derbyshire, High Pennines etc natural spring water is bottled in huge amounts and it doesnt need filtering either.

Trouble is boiling water requires massive amounts of energy so most of us have invested in Berkfield gravity filters which negates the need to boil water, but a few more have improvised water filters based around charcoal , gravel and sand principle with the charcoal coming from wood burning for other applications.

Nothing wrong of course in getting a large boiler pot of course for every from doing laundry to making never ending stew or making jam and preserves in

We nearly brought home a huge cast iron pot from an RV we were at in southern Colorado but the shipping costs were going to be insane.

[preservefreak]

I do have a 25ish litre stock pot (can't remember exactly how big it is now) but I would never boil water in it unless really desperate for a clean drink (which one day may be my highest priority).

If I had to boil water I would do so in a ghillie kettle/kelly kettle over the course of the day using off cuts off wood and sticks. I'd then store some of it is thermos' for hot water later in the day and let the rest cool down for drinking.

But boiling is our last recourse. We have a Berkefield with 4 Sterasyl filters (10,000 litres each) and 4 super-sterasyl (2000 litres each). As well as that we have powdered bleach put away in vacuum packs and water purification tablets in our bug out bags.

In a long term event we will eventually have to boil water though so this was a good question to think about

[Skean Dhude]

I have several big pots but at this time they wouldn't be used for boiling water. They are there for making stews, soup etc. for the group.

[bigpaul]

a large..and I do mean large...camp kettle should be kept on the fire at ALL times so that hot water is readily available, for washing,hot drinks, washing up and cooking.

[Sunna]

i have a large cast iron pot [ the ones you see with plants/shrubs in ] used back in the day for washing ,i have others witch i drilled holes in for plants so no use now.
its got a thick layer of rust and iv tryed buy hand to clean it up no joy ,id like to get it into water boiling/washing condition tool time !!!

[Straight Shooter]

I have 1 20ltr ....2 15ltr pots plus loads of other sizes .