Trangia Stove

[islandpiper]

Chuck, just for your edification, when Trangia users report trouble making them operate well in the cold, they are NOT REFERRING TO COLD WEATHER IN FLORIDA. What they mean is COLD WEATHER IN DENMARK, or Michigan. When it is minus 16 or so, like later October in the U.P. the Trangia needs more TLC.

They are good little stoves. It would be better if you could just tap an alchohol tree out in the woods and fill them up, though.

piper

 

[oldsparkey]

I like the little stoves because they are simple , easy to use and produce. They take very little space and heat the meal up from warm to rolling boil just depending on where or what temperature you want to have your meal.
If you spill some of the fuel , no big deal it evaporates in a hurry and does not hurt anything , it is inexpensive to use and can be secured just about anywhere.
The simmering ring is one tool I like , it makes a smaller flame which takes longer to get stuff hot ( not a lot longer) and saves fuel. Plus out camping I am not in a hurry and the meals don't have to be fast food , anything moving slow can be had and those cans barely move when you are chasing them around in the food box , to open them. :lol:

It does get cold in Florida , if you don't believe me just walk into any 7-11 and ask to see there freezer. Heck one at the local grocery store sprang a water leak and it was a iced floor with icicles hanging from the pipes , a real winter wounder land. :roll:

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Engineering of the Trangia is superbly simple. Its genius, like a good knife, is hidden within its simplicity. But, it is underpowered for some jobs. Not all jobs, to be sure. Only some.

I like Chuck's idea of trading time for fuel. Good technique. It's the old, "White man build big fire, stand way back. Indian build little fire, stand close" principle. Now all we have to do, is figure out who told him to do that. SURELY he didn't figure that one out all by his little self??

 

[oldsparkey]

Engineering of the Trangia is superbly simple. Its genius, like a good knife, is hidden within its simplicity. But, it is underpowered for some jobs. Not all jobs, to be sure. Only some.

I like Chuck's idea of trading time for fuel. Good technique. It's the old, "White man build big fire, stand way back. Indian build little fire, stand close" principle. Now all we have to do, is figure out who told him to do that. SURELY he didn't figure that one out all by his little self??

It will not cook a whole turkey but is really good on heating up a turkey hash. In reference to your 2 paragraph.... You do know the old saying......... "Even a blind hog will find an acorn now and then" :lol:

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

... "Even a blind hog will find an acorn now and then" :lol:

A blind hog, finding acorns. Now THERE'S a picture.

Anyway, it's a good idea.

 

[hairymick]

I have both, the trangia 25 and the titanium Zip stove. It is the trangia that comes with me now on every paddle and bush walking trip. simple reason is that it is a better stove - period.

Zip is a fine stove, no question aout that - Trangia is superior.

A bigger burner, like Jack has said, MIGHT be nice, but the existing system will do all that I want from it and do it better, safer, cleaner and easier and with less fuss than the Zip.

I only got the small fuel bottle - have been using the stove on every paddle trip now since Christmas and there is still half a bottle of metho (white alcohol) left in it. I have been paddling on average, at least once per week.

I had the pleasure? of taking my zip camping last October. Between the time I left my home to the time I arrived at my camp site, monsoonal rains had set in and there was not a dry twig to be found anywhere. Only for the fact that I had gone to the trouble of taking a bucket of pine cones with me, I would have had nothing with which to cook my meals. Trust me whe I tell you that it can get cold here too. Not as cold as the US, but bloody cold anyway. It is no fun, stumbling around in heavy, rain soaked bush trying to find a handfull of dry-ish twigs just to make a little fire and then struggling to get the basterd lit and keeping it alight.

Much easier to pour a thimble or so of spirt in a trangia - light it and sit back and enjoy 8)

 

[oldsparkey]

Mick....

I have to agree with you 100 %. The little stove is a blessing and can be used anywhere without any worries of it flaming up , exploding or doing any of the stupid things the other gas fed ones do like even crapping out on you because of mechanical failure.
No repair kits to have along for the little stove , you feed it , it feeds you. I call it my insurance policy when camping because I can always depend on it for a hot meal or beverage , which ever I want no matter what the weather is like.

Now you can cook a normal meal over it with there pots or get creative with there frying pan. Granted you can do the same with a frying pan over a small fire which is almost down to coals , just like tx river rat ( Ron ) did but with his small grill over the fire on several occasions during the last trip. Grill for the meat , the little stoves frying pan or a side frying pan you have along ( which I normally do for over a fire) I like to keep the one for the little stove for the use over it.

Using a small fire ....Then when the meal is done there are the hot embers to toss a few small sticks on to have a fire to sit by and enjoy while relaxing and thinking about all of the things that happen that day and the dreams of all the pleasures coming tomorrow. Including a hot beverage in the morning to get you going , in more ways then one. :roll: :roll:

Yep... It offers the best of both worlds. The thing that got me hooked on them was one trip on the Econ where around 3 in the morning I had a wake up call from Mother Nature and the person in the tent near me was cooking a bunch of Ramin noodles for a mid morning 3 AM snack. No noise , nothing from the tent but a pleasant soft light and the smell of those beef flavored noodles cooking. Dam they smelled really good. Might of been the aroma from them that woke me up , no idea but I did help out a really thirsty tree that was close by before getting back in the tent and trying to sleep thinking about his mid morning snack. :wink:

Again... The little Trangia Outfit does offer a lot of options on or what , where and how the camper wants to do it as far as meals and cooking.

Chuck.

 

[oldsparkey]

On this last trip I learned something , Necessity is the Mother of Invention or realization in my case. If you are using one of the little Trangia alcohol stoves

I was complaining about trying to put the flame out on the stove's burner when the cooking was done in order to save some of the alcohol and not just burn it up.
Putting the simmering cap on the burner when it is inside the upper windshield they have on there stoves a person would burn there fingers....... NOT anymore.

The solution is really simple , I guess that is how I found it. :roll:
The pot gripper will grip the upper windshield and you can remove it with the pot gripper so the burner is exposed and flush with the lower windshield and burner holder. Then it's really easy to put the simmering ring on the burner to either simmer something or to extinguish the flame.

If you have not been cooking with it for a long time the upper windshield can be removed with the hands leaving the burner in the lower windshield which also holds the burner. Just tap the upper windshield with a finger to see if it is hot and if you need to use the pot gripper to remove it.

 

[hairymick01]

Chuck,

I just re-found my trangia while cleaning out one of my sheds. i thought I had "lost" it along with so much other stuff. It was like Christmas for me. I bloody love that stove and will be using it again real soon.

 

[oldsparkey]

Having some time to kill this afternoon I did some web surfing about the Trianga Stoves to see if there was any other ideas about how to use them.

I found one that is quite interesting.
The 25 and 27 series with the two nesting pots can be used in reverse. In place of them fitting together the one has a different angle on it so it fits into the other , if you reverse them then the one will only fit into the top part of the other. The frying pan can be used as a lid or reversed and used as he describes below.

As this person said in his web site.....
It doesn't look quite as neat with two pots, but we're here to cook, not look good, yes? We could even turn the lid over and cook some meat balls or something in the lid while the pasta cooks in the bottom pot and the sauce warms up in the top pot. Pretty slick!

Here is his web site with lots of pictures describing this.........
http://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com ... ia-27.html

Chuck.........

 

[hairymick01]

G'day Chuck,

Thanks for the link mate. A very good write up indeed.

Here is the part I found perticularly apt.

The Trangia burner is a good compromise between speed and efficiency. The Trangia burner is not the fastest alcohol burner out there in terms of boil times, but faster isn't necessarily better. Faster burners tend to require more alcohol to do the same amount of boiling. A more efficient burner like the Trangia means that you don't have to carry as much fuel. But the Trangia is by no means slow. As I say, the Trangia strikes a very good balance between efficiency and speed.