Wash Your Hiking Cookware and Pots Without Clean Water or Soap
Please be careful and use discretion when working with dirty water. We are not liable for any injuries. Do this at your own risk.
Unless you use your pot to strictly boil water, you will need to wash your cookware on the trail. While these biodegradable soaps are labeled eco friendly, large consecrations will hurt animals and flora. There are completely safe ways to clean your cookware without soap. These are three ways to clean your pots with or without soap and clean water.
Without soap in dirty water
What you will need:
water
pot scrubber
smoldering camp fire
1: locate water source
This method requires you to have access to water, but it doesnt have to be a free flowing spring. As long as you can find a puddle that looks descent you should be able to clean your gear.
First thing I must point out is all water, unless coming straight out of a filter or sealed bottle, is not sterile. Also items, such as the ends of filters, can become contaminated if touched with contaminated objects or hands. Try to avoid touching your face or other gear while using this method.
Steel pot scrubber
2: scrub pot with pot scrubber in water
For this method all you will is a steel or copper pot scrubber and a fire. I prefer the copper pot scrubbers because they are not has hard and so will scratch less, wont rust, and copper has antimicrobial properties.
Scrub out all that gunk and grim from the pot. Wash out pot in water.
3: shake out pot scrubber
After your done cooking wash the pot in river or other water source. Use the pot scrubber to get all the stuck on gunk and black stuff off the pot. Rinse pot and shake out pot scrubber.
4: sterilize pot and pot scrubber in smolder
Smolder
Bring pot and pot scrubber back to your fire. Next we will sterilize the pot and the pot scrubber in your fire, but a normal fire will be too hot and can damage and warp a pot. In this case you need to reduce the fire into a smoldering pile.
Place pot on smolder and let it stand for 10-15 minutes. You should see the water evaporating off the pot. The pot should get up to a temperature that it just about too to handle.
5: let them cool
Once the pots are sterile let them cool.
6: wipe clean
Wipe off excess ashes with a CLEAN cloth. Pots will be re-sterilized when you go to heat up water again. Now the pots can be places in your bag clean and without contaminating anything.
This method does have a chance to damage your pots if the fire or smolder is too hot. Its best to practice before you go out in the field and start practicing this. Aluminum and titanium damage easily while stainless steel holds up much better.
Also be advised that this method is not good for non-stick pots or pans. The scrubber can damage the non-stick coating. Flaking non-stick coating is said to be a carcinogen if ingested, or so I heard.
This can be done with clean water too
This method can also be done with clean water. There is no need to waste so much water either. Just pour some water into the pot and get your pot scrubber and scrub. Rinse out the pot with some clean water and then you can either sterilize or air dry. If you go with air dry make sure it completely, and I mean completely, dries out. Bacteria love to live in water.
With soap
If using soap be conservative with your soap. A lot of soap goes a long way. Try to dilute the soap with water when disposing and make sure not to dispose the soapy water near a river or stream. Do not wash your pots like you do at home! Wash and rinse them outside the water source and then dispose of the soapy water away from the source preferably a garbage or sink. The soap might be biodegradable but that does not mean it is not toxic for the animals or plants.
