a meths question....

[lannyman8]

hey all.....

i have been toying with the idea of getting a trangia mini, but me being me wont spend that much on a stove and pan set....

i really like the idea of the use of meths/alcohol stoves, its clean easy to use and ok for the enviroment if you use ethanol instead of methanol....

i have used a few home made stoves, lynx can type and they work well for a brew, the problem is i find in the winter they are very hard to get going, i also know that its easyer to use them when you pre heat them, but still it takes a long time to get going and just seems a bit of a faf around....

again i still like the idea of the use of meths so anything i can do (without spending money) to make things better......

this is more for when im over night so putting the meths in my pocket is not an option, cold mornings waking up for a brew are the sort of thing im looking for.....

i normaly use a wood stove but am looking at moving away from this for "STEALTH" reasons....

many thanks.

chris.

 

[SimonM]

On a "real" trangia burner you have a well that runs around the circumfereance of the burner. If you fill that with meths, as well as the main section, and light it, it pre heats the burner bringing it to full bloom faster.

On a home made stove, try standing it in a little puddle of meths and lighting the puddle...and avoid the mini Trangia as they are too small to be of any real use!

HTH,

Simon

 

[lannyman8]

thanks simon, i have a tragia stove but not the components, the bloom comes from the rim so you cant put a pot on top... not sure if its a true trangia stove though????

 

[peaks]

hi,
you might want to consider using the trangia burner with either 4 masonry nails or the titanium trivet sold by Backinglight (http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product500.asp?PageID=110). Both are really good for placing in the well of the trangia and putting the pot on top and firing up. I find that using something to insulate the burner from the ground (like a plumbers mat or a flat piece of wood) works well then priming the stove by putting meths in the well around the rim works - plus a good windshield. I carry meths in a hip flask and keep it around my person or in the sleeping bag to keep it warm. Think this would work for trangia clones as well.

 

[Shewie]

I usually keep enough fuel for a morning brew in a flat plastic squeeze bottle, I tend to grab it in the morning and chuck it inside the sleeping bag or a pocket for five. I sometimes wear a thin fleece pullover which has a chest pocket in it, a flat bottle stays in there all night without me noticing.

I can't say I've ever had any bother with mine Chris, even well into the minuses. As long as the fuel isn't cold and I've let the stoves prime then they've chugged along okay. I think the Lynx type stoves work really well in the cold, it's easy to spot when they've primed too.

 

[decorum]

i normaly use a wood stove

Which type? Someone may know a way of mounting a meths burner in it ~ then you'd have more bases covered and would have spent no money

 

[lannyman8]

hhhhhhhmm, my problem may be insulation and cold meths...

my wood stove is home made from tins jobey, im also working on a compact wood gas stove and i also have a flat pack wood stove which sits in my jacket...

a burner sits in the wood stove fine, but have still had problems with that taking ages to bloom and just not get very hot/not boil my water when cold...

thanks for the help gents, things to think about are keep my meths in a small flask to keep it warmer and insulate the burner unit and pre heat propperly???

now all i need is some cold weather to test it....

regards.

chris.

 

[Brewers Whoop]

I think I've got a Trangia burner kicking around in the shed Lannyman, if that's any use to you?

 

[Andy BB]

What I do with Trangias and cold fuel (ie sub-zero temps) is to roll a little bit of tissue paper, add a bit of meths to it and drape it around the "lip" on the Trangia. Light that, and it never fails to get the Trangia burning nicely. Maybe do something similar for yours? Or make a wick of the tissue paper?

 

[lannyman8]

I think I've got a Trangia burner kicking around in the shed Lannyman, if that's any use to you?

thanks BW, but i all ready have that type of burner......

many many thanks though.

regards.

chris.

 

[PDA1]

As suggested, place the alcohol stove on insulation. In addition, use some method of burning alcohol on the outside of the stove to encourage blooming. Many good ideas are goven below. Another is to place the stove on a shallow pan a little wider than the stove with a couple of mls alcohol in it (Trangia sell one of these as a winter accesory). Alternatively, wrap a band of fibreglass wick around the body of the stove, pour a few drops of alcohol onto it and use that to prime the stove (see minibulldesign.com for pics and vids). I have the Clas Ohlsen Assaklitt trangia copy which has pans, an outstanding windscreen, and keeps the stove a few cms off the ground for ca. UKP 10. This is (IMO) very effective and good value.

 

[lannyman8]

yep i need to insulate and prime better, the meths being warm should help loads though too....

many thanks.

chris.

 

[toilet digger]

perhaps you could prime with your home brew?

 

[bikething]

perhaps you could prime with your home brew?

Wouldn't that make his pot of food fall over?

 

[toilet digger]

Wouldn't that make his pot of food fall over?

i've seen his cooking . my dogs would turn their noses up at the contents of his crusader mug!

 

[lannyman8]

i've seen his cooking . my dogs would turn their noses up at the contents of his crusader mug!

lol.....

thats what i get for trying to cook bread in a mug....

perhaps i should stick to knives...

 

[Andy BB]

lol.....

thats what i get for trying to cook bread in a mug....

perhaps i should stick to knives...

Great idea - threaten folks with your knife and nick their food

 

[Glydr]

I take a both a trangia set and a hexy stove and mess tins as a secondary, as well as using a fire as much as I can.
The trangia I find was a great investment, worth spending the money on, had years of service from it, meths is only £1.49 for a small bottle round the corner from me, most places like B &Q and camp shops do it at £2.50 or even £3.50 I've seen it for.
I've recently calculated which is the most cost efficient fuel out of meth or hexy, with an almost full trangia burner, I could boil my one man kettle three times,
with the round hexamine tablets it takes three tablets to boil the same kettle once. At £2.50 for 24 hexamine tablets (bog standard price everywhere seems to sell them for), the meths is by far the most cost efficient, however the payoff with the hexy stove is one of compactness.

 

[northumbrian]

As suggested, place the alcohol stove on insulation. In addition, use some method of burning alcohol on the outside of the stove to encourage blooming. Many good ideas are goven below. Another is to place the stove on a shallow pan a little wider than the stove with a couple of mls alcohol in it (Trangia sell one of these as a winter accesory). Alternatively, wrap a band of fibreglass wick around the body of the stove, pour a few drops of alcohol onto it and use that to prime the stove (see minibulldesign.com for pics and vids). I have the Clas Ohlsen Assaklitt trangia copy which has pans, an outstanding windscreen, and keeps the stove a few cms off the ground for ca. UKP 10. This is (IMO) very effective and good value.

i have the clas ohlsen kit to mate and can fully recomend it , ive tried it out in the recent high winds and had no probs !also if you can get your hands on the swedish army trangia burner you will notice that it has a slight hollow around the burner lip in which i pour a little meths to help it bloom in cold weather or if you have a civvi burner you can put it inside a old sweet tin lid or a ally pie tray and pour a little meths in it to help it bloom on cauld days !

p.s military mart was selling the whole swedish army trangia set for £7.99 but the p&p is £5.99 ? or try the asaklit spirit stove for£11.99 from clas ohlsens but they dont deliver and the nearest ones to you will be either the toon or leeds ?

cheers andrew.

 

[ged]

As others have said, warming the burner and the fuel is key. If you have any warm water from the previous night (e.g. in a hot water bottle) you can quickly warm the burner for example by putting it in a pot and pouring warm water on it for a few minutes. I'm assuming that the burner has a lid which seals well of course.

There are many ways to make a wick to heat the burner quickly using a little bit of fuel. If I need to I usually just pour a bit over it and set light to it. The whole thing goes up in a ball of flames and gets nicely warm quite soon. Any non-combustible mat wit a bit of fuel on it will make a good heater.