Aluminum pot sweating/leaking

[wlssox524]

Hey all,

I've been using a 15 g aluminum stock pot (one of the thick restaurant supply ones) for at least 10 batches now. It's well oxidized from boiling water and black on the inside. When I heat water up in it (I use it as a HLT as well) it starts to "sweat" eventually. It does not appear to be actively leaking, but beads of water appear on the outside towards the bottom. Any idea what this could be?

 

[Huff360]

How are you heating it?

Is it still being heated when the sweat appears?

 

[NivekD]

could be condensation...what's your humidity like?

 

[wlssox524]

I generally heat my strike water on a gas stove. It sweats as I'm heating it but more when the contents get hotter (I think)

 

[Indian_villager]

Well early on I could see the water resulting from the combustion condensing on the outside of the pot due to the excellent thermal exchange properties of the aluminum.

 

[Huff360]

Yeah, I'm going with it's the moisture of the combustion condensing.

Mine will do that on the turkey fryer every now and then. Typically it goes away once the water gets just above tepid or so.

 

[acidrain]

It's moisture from the propane burner condensing on it until it gets hot enough that it pervents the condensation.
Moisture is a by-product of the propane flame.