I did this once back in 8th grade after school one day, circa '92-ish. I was boiling water to make some box mac-n-cheese. Decided to go sit on the couch while I waited for the water to boil. Ended up crashing out on the couch and woke up to the smoke alarm going off after the water had boiled off and melted the pot similar to the picture.
I don’t get it, what’s going on there?
Coil stove with no governors for temp that did not shut off when all the water boiled out thus deforming the aluminum pan
How is that even possible? The pan melted through the burners???
Pot either was empty or boil off the water. Element doesn’t have a safety and kept heating.
Eventually it’s gonna get to the plastic deformation stage.
I’m sorry but fucking what? Are the burners powered by Hell itself?
No, this is a known issue with coil elements.
What?! I didn’t realize my burner could pull double duty as a fucking foundry.
There are some other saftey concerns, but yeah, those coil elements would work in a small one.
How?
Stove hot.
I don’t understand how this could happen unless that pot is somehow plastic? Maybe 3D printed?
This is a ‘fun’ experiment - you can boil water in a fire using a plastic bottle.
The water absorbs all the energy and prevents the container from melting (same principle).You can boil water in a leaf using the same principle.
Wouldn’t PLA catch fire with temps that high?
Yes.
It’s aluminum, and I have seen it first hand. My brother is not attentive… He almost burned the house down a couple times.
Those coil heaters put out a lot of heat at full power. Once all the water evaporates, that heat raises the temperature of the pan very quickly.
Don’t set a pot to boil and then go do something else in a different room, especially if that something else is playing age of empires.
But if you watch it, it won’t boil?
Keep it in your peripheral but don’t stare directly.
“A watched pot never boils over” is the full saying.
This is why you don’t put empty pots on hot burners.
You are actually supposed to do that with triple ply steel though. You have to wait for it to heat up before you put your oil in, I forget the reason but it’s a big nono not to
And this is single ply aluminium.
That’s carbon steel and cast iron. Not aluminum pots.
Don’t believe I said aluminum though
Yeah, but a pot like this isn’t really intended for that purpose. You’re supposed to boil things in it, not try your damnedest to melt the pot.
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Aluminium pan.
Aluminum melts at 1220°F (660°C).
Yes, but it softens and loses structural integrity at 150⁰ (300⁰ F).
Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams but it can soften them enough to collapse a building.
I got one for you.
Taking the plastic electric water kettle off its base, completely ignoring the plug and cord attached to said base, and setting the kettle on the stove to heat the water within.
Why would anyone willingly use aluminium pots? Besides the demonstrated problem, it has also been linked to Alzheimer’s and other health risks. No way I’m putting something acidic in there or heating it up
Because that is what they sell at the store and most people have no clue that aluminum is bad for your health.
To clarify, because I see confusion: pot vs pan
A pot has pot handles, usually small loops on either side.
A pan has one long handle like you see in the photo.
So, this is not a small pot, this is a tall pan.
Specifically, this is usually called a sauce pan.
I get that you are laying down some technical language on us, but a tall pan is a pot in common English. Oil pans, bed pans, evaporating pans, gold pans, etc all use “pan” to describe that they are shallow vessels, significantly wider than tall. You can’t “pan for” a heavy particle in a “tall pan” because it’s not functionally a pan; a tall pan is a contradiction.
I would describe a sauce pan as a “culinary pan” but an actual pot, like how a tomato is a culinary vegetable but an actual fruit.
I agree with your classification but reading nearly any recipe will contradict us
This is some high quality pedantry; and I’m here for it.
But a tomato isn’t even an actual fruit…
“Actual” refers to the ordinary “plain English” meaning. Under the “plain English” definition, i.e. non-technical, non-domain-specific, a tomato is a vegetable.
It’s a botanical fruit, but an actual vegetable.
