Trangia Stove, Part II: Some Questions

[steve-in-kville]

I tried my Trangia mini out this evening, just to boil some water. First off, I can see why a wind screen is needed. Is there something commercially available?

Also, how on earth do I adjust the simmer ring? With the little pot handle thing?

I was using HEET as fuel. Is there something better?

The stove put out some impressive heat and I had the pot boiling in maybe 5 minutes. I definitely see my self making a few home-brew stoves this fall/winter!

 

[Stumps]

I don't know much about the stoves, but I do know you need to use the HEET in the yellow bottles, not the red.
Don't ask me why because I don't remember.
I preferred to burn denatured alcohol back when I used one. It didn't smell as bad to me.
HEET was usually easier to find when I would hitch into a town for resupply though.

 

[leghog]

I don't know much about the stoves, but I do know you need to use the HEET in the yellow bottles, not the red.
Don't ask me why because I don't remember.

HEET in red bottle is mostly isopropyl alcohol (which should be the last choice of fuel for alcohol stoves --- just too much water in it).

HEET in yellow bottle is almost all methyl alcohol. The yellow burns cleaner and more efficiently but its fumes are toxic.

Truly the best readily available fuel option for alcohol stoves is denatured alcohol (some brands primarily consist of ethyl alcohol). Check the MDS for the denatured alcohol to assure you get one with a high ethyl alcohol content and lower nasty content (put in to make the denatured alcohol undrinkable). Klean Strip Green Denatured Alcohol and Crown® Denatured Alcohol (green can) are very good denatured alcohols for stove fuel. 95%-100% ethyl alcohol.

 

[pinnah]

There are 3 basic options for windscreens. The first are the folding panel types. Vargo among others makes them.

The second is DIY aluminum flashing windscreens. These roll up (but do not fold) inside of a pot or around a fuel bottle. I don't know of any commercial versions.

The third is heavy gauge aluminum foil which can be bent and rolled. DIY ones can be made from stir bought foil roasting pans (many YouTube videos) and these will work fine for a small pot like the Trangia Mini.

MSR sells an aluminum screen for their gas stoves that I have used and they are nice as they have a round reflector which is good to use when placing an alcohol stove on a wooden surface, as they can burn the wood when they heat up. NOTE: the most recent MSR windscreen I got put the cut out in the middle, essentially wrecking it for alcohol stove use. The older ones had the cut out on the end and were easily trimmed off.

Any foil or flashing screen will require some DIY to sort out. Stumps picture above shows the basics to get a decent chimney furnace effect. You want air holes along the bottom to feed in air and something like a pencil to pinkie width gap around the pot side so it can breath.

This all sounds worse than it is. Once you work through the basics a few times, these stoves become light and forget - very easy to manage.

Regarding the Trangia simmer ring... It's sort of like the Great Pumpkin. Lower your expectations.

Once it's on the stove, you can try to use a stick or spoon to tap it one way or the other. You may need to loosen the pivot a bit to allow that to happen easier. Generally though, you learn roughly where you want it to be and drop it on in that position.

Even better, just forget about simmering all together and change your cooking style to blow-torch style boiling based meals. That's generally were we all end up anyway.

I use the simmer ring as a snuff ring and fashioned a small handle for it for a length of wire hanger, a magnet and some JB Weld.

Eventually I moved to a Batchstovez burner, which like Stumps cat stove, has no moving parts. Just let 'em burn out.

Regarding fuel, I'm with Leghog and prefer denatured alcohol (any hardware or *Mart store) but will use yellow Heet (most gas stations or car parts stores) as a last resort.

 

[leghog]

MSR sells an aluminum screen for their gas stoves that I have used...

For my Trangia Mini I use an MSR screen cut in half. It's in my pic in the other alcohol stove thread started by steve-in-kville.

 

[STAINLESS90]

Pathfinder makes a very nice bottle stove that works with trangia, solid fuel tabs, and twigs/small sticks. I own one and love it, it also nests with a camp cup and my 32 oz. stainless steel bottle.

As far as fuel I just use HEET mixed with some green food dye and avoid cooking in an enclosed space. I also have ditched the simmer ring, it never really worked for me that well anyways.

 

[OldNavy]

for fuel the best stuff I've found is

 

[leghog]

I'll disagree. You want as much ethanol as possible, if for nothing else than safety. But they'll both burn well.

for fuel the best stuff I've found is

Methanol 65-75 %
Ethanol 20-30 %
Isopropanol 0- 5 %
Methyl Isobutyl Ketone 0- 1 %




Kleen Strip Green

Ethanol 90.0 %
Methanol 5.0 %
Ethyl acetate 1.5 %

 

[neeman]

Trangia recommends methanol sold in England as methylated Spirits or in America as Heet

See Trangia Names of fuels in different countries
http://trangia.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/fuel-list-bransle-lista.pdf


For a windscreen for the Mini, I use household aluminum foil folded to double or triple over and held together with a paperclip works very well
It folds flat
There folding aluminum panels that I use for my propane stoves and these also work well for the Mini
Ultra light weight screens is by Toaks, which roll up to a tube, and wrap very well

The simmer ring when used allows you to reduce the flame to a low light
In the Mini it does not work very well and there is less control of the flame
But the simmer ring in the full 25 or 27 system is wonderful as the flame is so enclosed by the built-in windshield
It is the only field stove that you can cook and a very low light with minimal fuel
So cooking rice or lentils or a stew becomes possible in the backwoods

 

[sparky42]

i really enjoy alcohol stoves & have used many of the mass produced models including the vargo titanium line, the go bag, the white box, the big stainless from self reliance outfitters, & of course the reliable old trangia...
while compared to the little 1oz. vargo triad, the trangia may seem big & klunky, but they both have their place...

when space isn't a consideration i think the trangia is my favorite, it doesn't burn as hot as some others, but that conserves fuel & the boil times are comparable to the others... that is except for the big stainless from self reliance outfitters, maybe i had a dud, but the boil times were considerably longer than the trangia or any others, the burn was very weak...

now, the trangia is a top jet & so it needs a pot stand, for this my preference is the evernew titanium cross stand which imho provides exactly the right clearance so the flames stay blue & spread under wider pots, however since it is a top jet it also works well with narrower containers... i like to keep a leatherman ps4 in the mess kit & use the little pliers to lift the cross stand off stove when ready to snuff the flames... there was an ebayer who made what was called the mojo stand for the trangia (shown in pics), they work well only for larger diameter pots, & has too much clearance above the flames for my taste... if you have soot on your pans from an alcohol stove, in my experience it is from being too far from stove & a lot of the flame turns from hot blue to cooler orange/yellow, or it's some junk in the fuel...

i've tried the simmer ring on trangia, but there was always still a pretty significant hot spot that would burn food if not constantly stirred, even if i raised the pot up a couple inches higher from stove, so the simmer ring is basically just a snuff cap for me...

a nice thing about the trangia is the larger capacity, so you can get burn times as long as half an hour when filled... for fuel i use only everclear 95% ethanol alcohol, this can be used medicinally as well as a firestarter or party starter, burns hot & clean... it is pricey & not available everywhere however, so i guess denatured alcohol would do as my second choice in a pinch...
i prefer not to carry fuel in the stove because there always seems to be a little seepage that makes the mess kit contents kinda moist & smelling of everclear... perhaps that could be solved by getting a new o-ring for the lid, but it's not that big a deal to me...

there are other brands out there that use the same basic design as trangia, like esbit, & the titanium one from evernew, neither of which have i tried, but i do have a surplus swedish army trangia stove that works well but has different dimensions & doesn't fit the evernew cross stand...

anyhow, for windscreens i like the hinged folding aluminum panels, vargo makes a short squatty one which is good when space is a consideration, however they are so short they only work well with the low clearance vargo stoves... most of the time i use a tall windscreen (9.5 or 6 inches), & think it works best because you can use it with all kinds of stoves, & the taller panels keep the flame in close to the sides of pot heating it faster... basically, take the biggest windscreen you can carry i say... well, with one caveat i guess, i can't vouch for the durability of these generic folding windscreens, the testing & casual use is nothing like day in & day out regular duty, & if they do break not sure about the possibility of field repair, so maybe a backup windscreen option like a nice roll of aluminum flashing could be tucked away...

trangia with evernew cross stand & large generic windscreen

mojo pot stand, a really nice fit for the trangia, but not good for small diameter containers, & too much clearance above flames...

another mojo pic, from maker's ebay listing, not my pic

tall windscreen with silverfire scout

tall windscreen with canister stove

short vargo windscreen with vargo decagon stove which is a side jet stove with way to big a throw for this little windscreen especially with the larger diameter pots which in my opinion are optimal for use with side jet stoves, the vargo screen is much better paired with the top jet vargo triad stoves, these work very well with smaller diameter containers such as the canteens & nesting cups etc.

i did get rid of the self reliance outfitters alcohol stove, but by chance discovered the stove ring that comes with it is a perfect fit for the vargo triads, used with or without the included grill top & a little vargo windscreen it's a great minimalist combo, & easy to carry in the water bottle pouch kit...

i'll be testing the stove ring setup as an alternative for the bottle stove stainless90 mentions above because this is what happens to that when used as pot stand/windscreen for alcohol stove...

here's another thing, this site has plans for diy trangia stand...
http://www.survivalresources.com/Articles/Trangia_Stabilizer.html

finally, for lots more info & comparison reviews of alcohol stoves, check out hiram cook on youtube....

 

[billym]

Sparky,
Be careful of that canister stove and windscreen combo. You can cause the can to explode if you do that MSR states that in their user manuals.

http://d1l67pfsx3wblg.cloudfront.net/pdf/msr_pocketrocket_instructions_09_EN.pdf

Reference #4

 

[Cougar Allen]

The trick is to keep touching the canister from time to time while you cook. As long as it's not too hot to touch it's safe.

 

[gadgetgeek]

Simmer ring, since I didn't see any comments, its not really adjustable on the stove, you sort of figure out with practice how much to set it at, then pop it on. it does take some trial and error.

 

[sparky42]

Sparky,
Be careful of that canister stove and windscreen combo. You can cause the can to explode if you do that MSR states that in their user manuals.

http://d1l67pfsx3wblg.cloudfront.net/pdf/msr_pocketrocket_instructions_09_EN.pdf

Reference #4

WHOA! shoot i had no idea, thanks billym!
do not use with a windscreen? dang that bites...
well actually, it's not an MSR stove, it's a PRIMUS stove, more economical than the pocket rocket...
however, after a quick review, the primus directions also state not to use a windscreen! i would've never thought, guess that is because it can get too warm & "kill you" if heat is trapped by windscreen?

 

[sparky42]

The trick is to keep touching the canister from time to time while you cook. As long as it's not too hot to touch it's safe.

yah, from my experience the canister never heats up, even with the windscreen, but good to know...
tho i think i'll reconsider these & not be so casual in my use of them anymore, had been resorting to the canister mostly out of convenience & lower cost...

 

[billym]

yah, from my experience the canister never heats up, even with the windscreen, but good to know...
tho i think i'll reconsider these & not be so casual in my use of them anymore, had been resorting to the canister mostly out of convenience & lower cost...

Just back off the screen and leave the leeward side a bit more open. Safer but still got the wind screen. Also look for the leeward side of a rock, tree, tent etc to help block the wind a bit more. Most canister stove are basically the same and you can interchange their canisters.

 

[gadgetgeek]

a big factor with how much heat gets directed down is the size and type of pot, as well as cooking time. That's where it gets a bit furry, you do it 100 times, then change one thing, and trouble strikes. Its also one of those things that is rare though possible. Same with filling a hot metho burner, will it go off every time? no, but if it does... not good. Its why we have best practices. (although liability law makes it hard for companies out come out and say it.)

 

[sparky42]

good advice guys, thanks!
i bet the windscreen wouldn't cause overheating of canister if it was a couple-three inches out, & would actually work to block debris should the canister have a catastrophic fail...

 

[gadgetgeek]

Or add to the shrapnel load. the cans are designed to fail "gracefully" but the resultant fireball would be impressive to say the least.

 

[Anrkst6973]

I had never owned one, was a "stick fire guy" then there was a deer season a few years back that was cold as a well diggers u-know-what but dry enough to be under a near statewide burn ban, so I got the cheapest version of a trangia I could find, $10 from Camp-mor I think. Using my Vargo Hex as a windscreen and marine heater fuel from wallymart I was converted..hallelujah!! I'm still using that cheap thing and for a pot of coffee on a riverbank or a lil heat in a deer blind or a spot of tea with my Aussie brethren it's got to be one of the most useful cheap little gadgets I've bought in a lifetime of playing in the woods.