experience with alcohol lamps

[Chip]

Crack! Game over!

Try again!

Tsk tsk, that is too bad. It would make a nice paperweight.

[odarwin]

Crack! Game over!

Try again!

Tsk tsk, that is too bad. It would make a nice paperweight.

... An expensive paperweight

[MarshalN]

How much did you pay? These things are not that rare

[Drax]

Yikes.... sorry to hear/see that!

Uh, I hate to ask this question, but what does that say about the quality of the pot....?

[Chip]

... An expensive paperweight

Don't we all have some expensive "paperweights?"

Mine are made of iron and unfortunately lined with enamel. Some of us obtain these via TeawareTuition.

[blairswhitaker]

So I'm curious as I have always shied away from owning a ceramic kettle for this very reason, a good "fire clay" is very difficult to formulate and not always that reliable when it comes to handling any serious thermal shock. Did the kettle run dry or or what exactly?
We have a LIns kettle at the tea shop I work for, we use an electric element with it, it handles some really intense use. It is typically exposed to heat for nearly six hours out of the day, Lins seems to have a really great fire clay formula down.

[odarwin]

How much did you pay? These things are not that rare

RM350... for that kind of money, i could have gotten the largest lins kettle already... i didnt do my research well and its only when ive came back from the trip that i knew that lins was available in malayisa at purple cane shops. thou to be honest, ive had my eyes set on that "kettle" even before the trip cause ive seen those before in person and also in the magazines, im curious but didnt realized for sure until you pointed out that these are really not made as kettles but are intended to be just large pots.

Yikes.... sorry to hear/see that!

Uh, I hate to ask this question, but what does that say about the quality of the pot....?

i really cant say its very good quality, but i think based on my experience that clay is not bad, but not also very good... it feels fragile thou when you use it.

to be honest, after i got it, i was setting my eyes on the lins kettle and this "kettle" just came on as sort of like a very attractive and charming kettle just to have and was planning on just keeping it when i get a proper lins kettle. you can feel its fragile once you've handled it. and walls and more importantly the base is really not that thick.

So I'm curious as I have always shied away from owning a ceramic kettle for this very reason, a good "fire clay" is very difficult to formulate and not always that reliable when it comes to handling any serious thermal shock. Did the kettle run dry or or what exactly?
We have a LIns kettle at the tea shop I work for, we use an electric element with it, it handles some really intense use. It is typically exposed to heat for nearly six hours out of the day, Lins seems to have a really great fire clay formula down.

i was boiling porridge in it as advised by the shop... its to "seal" and make the clay watertight in case there would be very fine hairline. so i was boiling it and after a while i just smelled some slight burnt scent from the kettle... i do stir from time to time in hopes that the porridge wont stick to the base... but to my surprise when i emptied the kettle, there is a black carbon soot deposit on the inside... its exactly where the flame from the alcohol lamp is directed and at first i didnt notice the crack... so i went on to scrub and attempted to get rid of the black spot... its then that i saw the fine crack and saw that on the outside there is water seeping through.

for the lins kettle, what sort of electric heating element do you use? induction or just a hot plate? and do you ever use the same kettle with an alcohol lamp?


ps: i think the title of the thread is more appropriate if its "experience with alcohol lamps and a large yi xing pot" haha

-darwin