Cycling UK Forum

SA_SA_SA wrote:

bretonbikes wrote:......It also requires skill - like lighting the meths without taking the hairs off your hand .....

Either a long nosed butane gas lighter or firesteel (keep the metal blade still and draw 'stone'/flint back towards you) are the easier lighting methods I find (long lighter is of course the easiest).

Yes but that is the 'easy way' - all it needs is confidence, a standard lighter and the reactions of a cobra QED...

I have just taken delivery of a 27UL with kettle, not too expensive at £45.
I have bought it for a French trip where I can just pick a litre of alcool a bruler off the shelf in Carrefour for 1.60 Euros when buying my other supplies. Compared to buying gas cylinders it will have paid itself off in a few trips!
Last year I took my old primus but it also needed me to carry meths for priming and lots of spare paraffin (plus heavy trangia fuel bottle to enable clean filling), plus ti kettle and bowls. The Trangia works out lighter even without carrying two weeks fuel.

I tried boiling 600cc of water on both stoves and both used 16g of fuel (plus 4g of meths for the Primus) though the Primus was outdoors and the Trangia inside. I had thought it would use much more fuel than the paraffin stove.

The pans were called 1L pans in the blurb that I read, they are only 900cc and I wouldnt like to use them with 750cc in, 600cc is a reasonably full pot.
I think the kettle will remain at home, it is reasonably full at 450cc.

I will also be much happier to use this inside the tent on rainy days, I had to take the paraffin stove out each time or in heavy rain in an open porch trusting the volume of water to prevent the fabric catching easily.
My cooking is normally of the adding boiling water to couscous and heating tins of ratatouie etc style backed up with plenty of raw fruit and veg. The Trangia may make me a bit more adventurous as I will have lots of fuel to burn and it can simmer.
I do like the French boil in the bag dried pulse and grain mixes, even if I cant remember what they are called.

A question for Francophile-Trangiaphiles the Carrefour Alcool a Bruler has 90 written on it, does this mean by any chance it is already diluted with 10% water? Je ne parlez pas Francais.
Being tight as a Yorkshireman (Cardies being the Welsh equivalent) I will probably bring a gallon or two back with me from France as it costs too much here.

A bit more experimentation. Boiling 600cc of cold water outdoors in a reasonably sheltered but a bit breezy spot.

Primus stove 3m30s to assemble and light, 3m 20s to boil. 3g of meths 11g of paraffin. 6m 50s
Trangia stove 1m to set up and light 11m 30s to boil. 14g of meths. 12m 30s

The water in the Trangia was not boiling very convincingly but bubbles had been raising for quite a while and it did start to make some slight rattling noise. The Primus water was boilling furiously.
The Primus wastes fuel in getting started so doesnt suit small quantities as well as the Trangia it also doesnt simmer very well.
It would be much better at boiling a large quantity of water but I dont really need that.

Anyone roasted a whole chicken on a Trangia burner?
The producer of the Firebox stove range does a good job in this video using a trangia burner inside his Firebox Nano stove and a Zebra billy pot as a camp oven. He has other videos baking bread etc using the same oven concept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBQqOL7Ohyc

meic wrote:A question for Francophile-Trangiaphiles the Carrefour Alcool a Bruler has 90 written on it, does this mean by any chance it is already diluted with 10% water? Je ne parlez pas Francais.

It's probably something like ......
90% Ethanol. <- the amount of alcohol in it.
9.5% Methanol. <- makes it poisonous.
0.5% Pyridine. <- makes it taste bad.
Plus a trace of colour.

meic wrote:I have just taken delivery of a 27UL with kettle, not too expensive at £45.

Welcome to the club

I just wanted to weigh in with my experiences, I got my 27 in 1997 as well as a silver Sigg fuel bottle. I've tried loads of other stoves but it's always the trangia that I come back to. I've got the Triangle for day trips too as you can fit the lot inside a single pot. It's a worthwhile upgrade to the non-stick pots/fryingpan IMO.

Someone mentioned that meths will destroy the Sigg fuel bottle. At 19 years old, mine is still fine. It's always had meths inside in various quantities.

For lighting and extinguishing, once you get the hang of it, it's dead easy.

Forget burn times and weight, some of my most memorable touring experiences have been when I've stopped for a night by a river/valley/wherever, set up the Trangia for a cup of tea and sat on the grass watching the water or listening to the football on a portable radio while it boils. But you'll know what kind of person you are, if the fastest boil time or lightest weight is all that matters to you, this isn't the product for you, in any of its forms. But if you want something that's bombproof and will last and last, then I'd seriously consider it.

Now that it is more important that modern Trangia 27/25s are turned into wind (to avoid base melting (see much earlier in this thread), why not just put two rows of holes all the way around instead of 4 on one side.

Having returned from my trip, I am not in love with the Trangia even though it did the cooking that was required of it.

My routine 20 minute brew up stops had become 30 minute brew up stops. You cant run the boiling of the tea at the same time as the drinking of the tea. Having a cup of tea always had to be intergrated in with another task to avoid waiting for it to boil.
At first I occasionally had great difficulty lighting the stove with my feeble lighter. They may run fantastically in any weather but only if you can start them! Then I came up with a solution, a small piece of toilet paper dipped into the meths and reaching above the lip instantly wicked the meths and let you light it. The paper didnt burn and the same piece lasted the whole fortnight, occasionally I had to lift it out again with the back of the pan handle.
One time when the wind was coming from everywhere my normally placid as a lamb Trangia roared like a lion when I lifted the lid, too much flame to just drop the cap on and kill it.

It did extend my cooking range by allowing 10 minute simmers as well as just boiling rapidly and fuel was cheap and available in France as expected. Yet I felt that I was always waiting for it and my tea never seemed to be ready at the right time.
I havent quite figured out what to do with all the bits when you open it up, especially on dirty ground in the wind. The plastic bags for the lighter and burner, the strap, the j-clothes and scourer packing between the parts to stop rattles and scratching.

For repeated tea stops you could always add a thermos to carry water preheated for the next stop, use that for your tea & heat the water for the next stop while you drink the tea.

I use the pan handle (held vertically so the slot is horizontal) to hold the partially open top of the simmer lid if I want to do anything with it when it is hot or I want to put it on the lighted burner.


For packing the Trangia I can do a walk through, with photos, of how I pack mine if anyone is interested. Apart from the bits of the Trangia (& some matches) I use 2 plastic bags (plus the original one the burner goes in) & can pack the whole thing (27 with 2 pans & kettle) so it doesn't rattle. When unpacked everything not needed for cooking can be kept in one of the plastic bags.

Rick.

meic wrote:Having returned from my trip, I am not in love with the Trangia even though it did the cooking that was required of it.

My routine 20 minute brew up stops had become 30 minute brew up stops. You cant run the boiling of the tea at the same time as the drinking of the tea. Having a cup of tea always had to be intergrated in with another task to avoid waiting for it to boil.
At first I occasionally had great difficulty lighting the stove with my feeble lighter. They may run fantastically in any weather but only if you can start them! Then I came up with a solution, a small piece of toilet paper dipped into the meths and reaching above the lip instantly wicked the meths and let you light it. The paper didnt burn and the same piece lasted the whole fortnight, occasionally I had to lift it out again with the back of the pan handle.
One time when the wind was coming from everywhere my normally placid as a lamb Trangia roared like a lion when I lifted the lid, too much flame to just drop the cap on and kill it.

It did extend my cooking range by allowing 10 minute simmers as well as just boiling rapidly and fuel was cheap and available in France as expected. Yet I felt that I was always waiting for it and my tea never seemed to be ready at the right time.
I haven't quite figured out what to do with all the bits when you open it up, especially on dirty ground in the wind. The plastic bags for the lighter and burner, the strap, the j-clothes and scourer packing between the parts to stop rattles and scratching.

Hello,
Trangias are brilliant. I use a Mini and a full sized one all my trips.
I have a number of other stoves not ever used.
You are obviously not a Trangia man?
Regards,
John

Well, I am a Trangia man now. I just spent a couple of weeks touring with one.

I used about a litre and a half of alcool a bruler, which cost less than £2, so I am a fan of that. Gas cylinders would have been around ten times that price and created three waste cans.
I appreciate the ability to simmer but I still feel more affection for my little Primus, next time I tour with the Primus, I may become more aware of the Trangia's advantages but for now I am probably reserving the Trangia mostly for French trips.

Lighters and Trangias not the greatest combo IME/HO. Matches much better, you can hold them in place without burning your hand. For cold weather starts some sort of wick may help, but not generally necessary.

To be honest meic i think you were trying to use tha trangia for something isn't designed for - short tea stops rather than in-camp tea. Why not take a mini gas stove as well, like a pocket rocket or one of countless copies? I use a gelert rocket (cost around £15) for my espresso -i swear it seems faster than my kitchen stove at home. Always good to have a second/alternative stove and fuel source as well anyway.

Or a small vacuum flask: fill with hot water at breakfast and you have your brew at a breather stop quicker than any stove.

Pete.

When I was touring in the US with meths, I took to carrying a flask and stopping at petrol (or gas ) stations and filling my flask with hot water there. They didn't usually charge me, if all I wanted was hot water (though some wanted me to buy *something*).