MSR Reactor & Windburner with blackened pots

This is a test to challenge the theory that a blackened pot saves fuel from a fire source with lots of radiant heat. MSR Reactor and Windburner are two stove systems that employ radiant heat. The test has shown that painting the pot bottom black makes a negligible amount of difference in terms of fuel savings. Since radiant heat is achieved mostly via electromagnetic energy in the infrared spectrum, and not visible light spectrum, the colour of the object to which heat is to be transferred makes little to no difference.

Radiant heating has 3 elements, emissivity, absorptivity, and reflectivity. This test did NOT fully address the reflectivity of the radiant heating question. A further test could be done with a shiny pot vs. blackened pot using a radiant heat source. That might give me a reason to buy more camping stuff...

[WayPointSurvival]

Interesting test. Again as you stated, the test would also need to be done using a radiant heat source such as an open fire with the pots hanging at the same distance above the fire or to one side of the fire to see if the reflectivity makes a difference. I think that as long as the pot is sitting on the stove and is in direct contact with the burner you are getting a lot of conductivity as well as the fact that the amount of radiant heat is negligible to the overall pot as it only affects the bottom which is a very small surface area. And the anodized color is already a grey color, not silver which you made note of. Also, the heat fins on the bottom of the pot make a huge difference in heat transfer and it was very interesting that painting them black seemed to have an insulative effect. Therefore, my observation based on your test is, if you are using a stove, the boil times will probably show very little difference, possibly too small to be measured. I think that the main difference would be in an outdoor setting over a campfire. Just my thoughts and experience on the topic. I will probably do this test myself at some point. Thank you for taking the time to make this video.