Alchohol stove in the cold??

[SkunkWerX]

If you use it in the cold, it needs a little insulation underneath. Trangia sells a plastic disc gizmo for that purose that doubles as a screen to drain pasta, etc. You can warm the stove up faster by using a pan (tin foil, etc) under it and light a little puddle of alcohol to get it all going.

Dale,
Yes everything I have heard says you want to warm the unit/keep it away from cold surfaces.
Without buying any more gadgets, or pads, find a rock or a dirt spot (Fire hazard - beware) and dribble a little fuel, light it, then place the unit right on/next to the ground flame. This should warm and light the unit itself.

The other "standard" way is to dribble some fuel on the outside wall, the added effect beyond warming the outer wall, it becomes easier to light, as you only need to hold the flame to the outside wall, instead of over-the-top.

Lastly, a lot of tree-hugger hikers, or those in areas prone to fire, will simply place the device inside their coat, and warm it up slightly with body heat. It doesn't take much warmth to get them fired right up.
I have read , many times about poor performance or lack of lighting in Cold Temps, which is why I tried it, and posted here. Nothing like experimentation.
There is a lot of information floating around cyber-space, so one I a while it's nice to verify it.
- - -

I "think" it would take some really drastic cold and maybe high elevation, snow, ice, wind and just plain horrid conditions to cause an absolute failure to light.
We are supposed to get some nights down in the teens° F , so, I'll try it again, to see if there is a threshold where the stove balks on proper ignition.

 

[Normark]

Hey Skunk...

Yaa that "preheat" really works well..

In my cooking kit I have a lid of a Skoal tin that I pour the preheat fuild in..I'm going to switch it out though for a slightly larger lid though as it's a little small..

I basically just splash a little into the lid,, or let it overflow slightly, then fire it up with a Firesteel..

Hopefully this weekend I'll be trying it out in the woods now that we have a decent snow...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST

 

[DaleW]

Dale,
Yes everything I have heard says you want to warm the unit/keep it away from cold surfaces.
Without buying any more gadgets, or pads, find a rock or a dirt spot (Fire hazard - beware) and dribble a little fuel, light it, then place the unit right on/next to the ground flame. This should warm and light the unit itself.

You sure don't need anything fancy. A peice of bark would do it. I'm talking about setting up on snow. The top off a margarine tub or an old tupperware lid would be plenty.The Tragia goodie is just a plastic disc. They like to engineer things to death, good Swedes that they are

I bought one of the Mini Bull Designs stoves and it came with an aluminum foil cupcake wrapper. A circle of aluminum foil with the edge crinkled up will work fine. You should haul some foil for wind screens anyway-- wind and these little pop can stives don't mix.

The physics of it is to just get enough vapor going to get it lit. If you can insulate it, you save a lot fuel waiting for it to warm up fully. There's nothing more frustrating than having to refuel when your stuff is nearly done.

 

[Any Cal.]

To cut the cans at a specific height, put a razor blade in the pages of a book with maybe 1/2 sticking out. Put the book and the can on the table, and spin the can against the book and blade while keeping the bottom on the table. After a few trips around, you will have a nice even score line you can tear.