Trangia Mini

When I made my first alcohol stove I went shopping for denatured alcohol, but no one knew what that was. Then I discovered that it is just Metholated Spirits that the Americans know by a different name.

I have been able to boil 2 cups of water from a tablespoon of fuel with several different designs (Photon stove, Cat Food stove & pressurized stove). It was fun taking soda cans or tuna cans and making a stove that works, it could be a very handy post-apocalyptic skill!

But overall I prefer my cheap butane/propane gas stove - I can turn it up or down and shut it off once done. I can boil up 2 cups of water within 3 minutes and I can repeat that more than a dozen times on one canister. It really doesn't weigh much and I am not that bothered about the weight/size saving. The alky stoves seem to be affected more by wind too.
 
Double_Tap said:
I've not used it yet, so I wonder if folks would recommend the Trangia over the Vargo models?
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The Vargo is much, much lighter, but also a bit finicky. It will do the job, but I wouldn't want to rely on it as my main stove, as it doesn't hold much fuel and is completely bare-bones.


The Trangia has a couple of features that few other alky stoves have - the best of these is a removable cap that seals tight. That means, if you are cooking and finish before you use up all the fuel in the stove, you can just screw on the cap and save the un-burned fuel for later. Very handy. I also use this to fill the stove up before a day hike, so I can just unscrew the cap and light up the stove to make a quick lunch or cup of coffee.

The second cool feature of the Trangia is the simmer ring, which allows you to reduce the heat if you want to do some real cooking. Normal alky stoves are mostly good for boiling water, but with the simmer ring you can do a lot more fairly easily.
 
I have a trangia 27 te next step up from the mini, fry pan 2 1 litre pots ( I usually only carry one) and tea kettle I have a ten gallon tote full of stoves . the trangia gets the most use. I have msr dragonfly, pocket rocket, colemans, 3 optimus stoves, brasslite etc.
Roy
 
Well this thread has me convinced on the Trianga! I was convinced I needed a snow-peak giga for the small stuff, but I think I'm going to go with the Trianga now. Thanks for your info guys. I like the simplicity of it and fact that I can buy 4L of methyl hydrate for $10 as opposed to relying on butane canisters. I know it will beat my fondu cannisters and thats all I care about for now.

Great thread!
 
kgd said:
Well this thread has me convinced on the Trianga! I was convinced I needed a snow-peak giga for the small stuff, but I think I'm going to go with the Trianga now. Thanks for your info guys. I like the simplicity of it and fact that I can buy 4L of methyl hydrate for $10 as opposed to relying on butane canisters. I know it will beat my fondu cannisters and thats all I care about for now.

Great thread!
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And, k, in case you're interested, MEC carries just the Trangia burner, if that's all you want. I didn't see it on their website, but I saw it instore. If you want one, and can't access it, let me know and I can pick it up for you. I'm thinking about picking one up for myself.

Doc
 
Bushman5 said:
yo Hawkeye, go to Home depot, in the paint solvent aisle, and pick up a liter of METHYL HYDRATE (Marine Stove fuel). White bottle, pink/blue label. You will be VERY happy with the results
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I did this today... and melted the penny on the fill port for my penny stove!:eek:

Did you know pennies turn silver when melted.

I did something different, I used a clay pot as a stand for the stove, it got HOT. but when I went back to my regular setup no more penny melting occurred.:confused:

Heat retention or the vast difference in air flow is my guess, more likely a combination of both.
 
For those of you who live in cold climates, Trangia also sells a small attachment to make the burner fire easier. It's basically a little dish that clicks onto the bottom of the burner. You fill that dish up with a small amount of alky fuel, and light it - it doesn't jet or burn fast, but it does warm up the brass burner enough for the alky fuel to form vapors and make the jets work properly. I've heard it works really well when you start pushing into the sub-zero temperatures where alcohol stoves don't want to work well.
 
MustardMan said:
For those of you who live in cold climates, Trangia also sells a small attachment to make the burner fire easier. It's basically a little dish that clicks onto the bottom of the burner. You fill that dish up with a small amount of alky fuel, and light it - it doesn't jet or burn fast, but it does warm up the brass burner enough for the alky fuel to form vapors and make the jets work properly. I've heard it works really well when you start pushing into the sub-zero temperatures where alcohol stoves don't want to work well.
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I looked the attachment up. I suppose you could use a tealight candle to pre warm the stove. You could even prop the stove up and use the lid, without the O ring, to prewarm the stove with some lit fuel in it. Never tried this, but it should work instead of buying more stuff. l
 
I did this today... and melted the penny on the fill port for my penny stove!

Did you know pennies turn silver when melted.
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Modern pennies are copper plated zinc, not solid copper. A solid copper penny probably wouldn't melt like that. Search thru your pocket change.

I enjoyed experimenting with homemade alcohol stove several years ago, but when it came time to reoutfit for backpacking, I went ahead and bought a small canister stove, the Coleman MAX from Wal-Mart. It was chaeap ($30 +/-) doesn't take up much room in my pack and doesn't weigh much. And it is a lot less fussy to cook over. I can adjust the flame (to a certain extent), and most of my cooking involves bringing water to a boil for rehydrating meals of making coffee. A single canister prepared two meals with more than half volume left. More elaborate meals I use a campfire (baking, frying, etc.).
 
the canister stoves are better simmer and turn off to get back on the trail,but we all dig alcohol stoves you know one stove is never enough like one knife..................
 
THE PUNISHER said:
the canister stoves are better simmer and turn off to get back on the trail,but we all dig alcohol stoves... you know one stove is never enough like one knife..................
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True. True. When I was messing with those stoves, my best design was a Kiwi shoe polish can sitting inside a slightly larger tuna can. The tuna can was the support for the pot and the priming cup for the stove. IIRC, I bought a quart of denatured alcohol from my local Ace Hardware in the paint section.

On my last overnighter, I did use the canister stove and appreciated the ease and simplicity, but I also built a nice campfire (trioxane firestarter and shaved cedar, then oak). Real men gotta have real fire. And knives.......:)
 
Mark me one for a canister stove, Done the metho stoves to bits.
Denatured alcohol can be diluted up to 40% with water. It will lower the burning temp but it produces less soot. Not something you would do all the time but if TSHTF it might be a handy tip.
Another tip is to rub the bottom of you pan with soap when you get home it washes off much more easily.
When cleaning the bottom of the Alloy pan try not to scratch it. It just makes it harder to clean next time.
It is important you only use the simmer ring to put your Trangia out if you use the travel screw top the heat of the stove will melt the rubber sealing ring and you won't be able to travel with Metho in your stove.
I got this cheap. I understand it is called a Simon stove.Burns really well I just can't work out how to stop it. No putting the lid back on doesn't work. Ignore the oil bottle that was for something else.
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Carl
 
I'm sure it does Doc, but the one I have it isn't the right fit. It is a bit tight and with the expansion with the heat it wouldn't go on, it became quiet exciting while I tried to work out what to do. In the end commonsence prevailed and I just let it burn out. Fortunitly it was a practise run so there wasn't any danger.
Carl
 
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