Gas cooking on a Trangia - views?

[meic]

I dont use a windshield with the Pocket Rocket because I am using it for ultra lightweight trips and the extra gas burned weighs much less than the shield, especially as the Rocket is well enough behaved to be allowed in my tent.
MSR do not recommend using the clip on type shields, or using the stove in a tent for that matter.

[Heltor Chasca]

Windshields nowadays are so light and packable they are a no brainer. Foil ones? Concertina built ones?

Meths for Trangia. Gas or white fuel for my Primus. Easy. I prefer not to hybridise.

[Eton Rifle]

Lord knows I've tried to get on with meths over the years but it just isn't for me.

The last straw was trying to use meths with a Trangia on a family camping trip. A [rude word removed] to light, even in summer temperatures, incredibly difficult to control, you have to wait for the burner to cool down before you can refill it, soot on pans, hotspots. A nightmare. I ended up buying the gas burner during the holiday, just to avoid having to use meths any more.

With the gas burner, the Trangia really comes into its own as a stove. It's nicely controllable, a remote canister, so no problems with overheating and it takes seconds to fit a fresh canister. The canister rotates freely on the hose, so you can invert it for liquid feed in cold conditions. The burner itself fits inside the Trangia kettle and, of course, you have no concerns about smelly meths contaminating the pans.

[Tangled Metal]

I used to feel the same about metha and also thought Trangia stoves were overweight. Back in my ul days it was an old primus can top stove and 1 pot water boiling style of cooking. The whole kit was a couple hundred grams (98g stove, about 110g for my Vargo ti-lite pot or sub 100g for my AGG 3 cup pot).

Now I'm a family and that means proper meals. My partner had a Trangia so we used that. I've learnt to use meths and I've accepted Trangia stoves have their positive features. I'm still never going to use one in close to zero degrees. The burner has too much mass to warm up IMHO.

I'm still scarred by the 1hr plus attempt to bring water to the boil for pasta one January. I got it lit ok but the meths ran out before a rolling boil was achieved. It was a hungry night on the one pack of crisps and 3 beers i managed to get at the pub during last orders!

[meic]

There is some sort of tray that goes under the burner which you put some extra fuel (paste?) on to preheat the burner pot. I think that it is Trangia themselves who make and sell it.

[Tangled Metal]

Yes there's also a military spec Trangia and a cold weather version too. Trangia do more than what is stocked at Cotswolds Outdoors but I'd still rather use a gas burner with a pre-heat tube.

However I've used a few other meths stove options that work in colder conditions. My AGG cookset consisted of 3 cup pan with lid, gross, cozy, neoprene case which works as additional cozy and a can stove. The stove came with a ring shaped tray. You poured meths into it and lit that meths. Apparently this then set the meths in the stove off. It certainly warmed it up so it lit quicker but you mostly just set fire to the grass with that tray. Meths is a messy fuel.

[meic]

Meths is a messy fuel.

Nowhere near as messy as the paraffin which I mostly use.
At least the French meths smells gorgeous.

[Sweep]

I'm still scarred by the 1hr plus attempt to bring water to the boil for pasta one January. I got it lit ok but the meths ran out before a rolling boil was achieved. It was a hungry night on the one pack of crisps and 3 beers i managed to get at the pub during last orders!

On pasta, avoid the italian advice that you need a lot of water. You don't. And neither do you need to keep the gas on once it is boiling - just cover and insulate the pan. I once had appalling issues with pasta and a ton of water with a normal gas stove in the western isles. It didn't seem windy but after that i learned what wind shields were for.

In short, minimise the water. For a single person you don't usually need anything like a litre of water, which is what these "performance" figures are often based on.

Ediit - i see you use a cosy - will let my comment stand for others.

[Tangled Metal]

Reminds me, i must learn what meths is in different European countries before we go out there this summer.

I use just enough water to reduce fuel needed and i even used to use a cozy so i didn't use as much fuel.

[Joe.B]

I'll be in Germany and Holland with my Trangia this summer and don't expect any issues finding fuel. I don't recal the name it goes by but virtually every supermarket and decent sized shop sells it as a cleaning product.

I've just returned from a short six day winter tour of Skye, Uist and Barra and had no real problems with the Trangia. On the frosty mornings I had to use the wick method to light the meths but even in the coldest weather I've always been able to light it with a single match when using a sinple rolled tissue paper wick. I used lots of fuel but then given the time of year I expected to.

I tiny dash of water in the burner will reduce sooting though on a short trip I'll live with the soot and scrub the pans once home.

[Tangled Metal]

I've tried wood burning stoves before so the sooting from meths never bothered me. Not sure I've noticed it TBH. Everything goes into the body of the stove and I've never had it mess up anything. Mostly use that Vango ethanol stuff without the methyl purple dye. Perhaps that's better for low sooting.

[Tangled Metal]

One thing about the burners, do not put the loud on until completely cold. You can get pinholes that way. Although we know that we still managed to experience the leaking burner. Well it would leak to a point where there was a hole then work ok. Trouble is that point was less than quarter full.

We were less than a week in the Oban area of Scotland and ended up buying 500ml or 1000ml of meths every day. The burner was full to the brim and in the time it took too fill a pan with water then turn back to light it the meths had gone. What was weird was how there was no fire around the stove from the leaked meths. There would be evaporation but the amount of meths should have meant some left to burn.

Anyone know if any Trangia clone burners are any good? Or if there's some other meths burner that doesn't fail that works as well in the Trangia pan and windshield setup?

[leftpoole]

but Gas with a Trangia is to me a no no.

John

Why?
I'm not advocating shunning the fine properties and smell of meths.

Just as an alternative.

What is the point of a trangia? It is for simplicity.
The Trangia is designed to work well with a slight breeze, hence those little holes in the windshield.
Gas stoves do not really require shields.
It is just a novelty from Trangia to make more money by selling gas conversion kits!
John

[Tangled Metal]

Gas stoves certainly do need protection from wind. Convection is the mechanism of heat transfer surely. That means even a small breeze can cause loss of heat energy to the atmosphere.

Trangia windshield contains a lot of the energy around the pan base and sides. It's an older version of the caldera cone design. To think it doesn't have a positive effect is seriously wrong.

Why do you think aftermarket windshields are bought and used? What about the high efficiency jetboil heat exchanger stoves? Is all about transferring heat from the fuel to the pot and food contained in it. The better exchanger stoves incorporate wind protection. Probably the most efficient gas stove is the msr reactor range of stoves that causes radiant heat to be the transfer mechanism I believe. That effectively removes the loss through wind and convection away from the pot.

Of course it's perfectly OK to view it as wrong just because it's not meths. Trangia is traditionally a meths stove. The fact gas and multi-fuel stove burners are available doesn't make them right to some Trangia purists. Personally i have no qualms using a gas burner. Indeed the only issue i have is tree £60 cost for the Trangia branded one. £30 less 15% discount gives £25.50 at Cotswolds. You can get it cheaper. The Trangia branded is £51 at Cotswolds with the discount. The cheapest I've seen it is £45 with free delivery online. Can't remember where now though. I remember being horrified when a mate bought a Trangia branded one for about £35!!! That was on offer about 12 years ago too. £60 now gives me nightmares. Especially since you can buy a cheap stove, like the Vango remote can stove, and remove the legs. Seriously in think a fire maple remote can stove is even cheaper way too bodge a Trangia gas burnerm IIRC primus used to make them for Trangia once. Primus also designed and made jetboil stoves when they first came out too I got told. The agreement broke down and primus made their own.

[leftpoole]

Hello,
Whilst I see that some people prefer to run on Gas, I see a Trangia as what it was originally intended to be. That is, a Methylated spirit all complete stove. The fact that a Gas kit is available is not the point as (in my opinion) the manufacturer is simply trying for extra custom hence selling the kit for Gas. Maybe a Petrol option soon ?
I use Trangia myself.
All the best,
John