Newbie with Trangia questions

[Iteki]

Brought my new Trangia (series 27 duossal) on her maiden voyage today, and had a couple of questions.

1) How far up can I fill the fuel? I ran out between boiling my potatothingys and frying my bacon, leading to unacceptable delays in my dinner! Luckily there was snow all around so I could quicky cool the burner and add more meths.

2) Isn't the flame supposed to be coming out the jets? Mine appeared to just flame right up the middle and never reach the jet-stage, might it have been too cold, it was about -2.

3) What's the deal with the simmer ring? I could really have used it on my bacon, which I fried to within an inch of its life. Do you push the flap over half way or something? Does that not mean you have very hot on one side of the frying pan and not on the other? I must be missing something.

I guess I better go introduce myself in the intro thread (and wash my Trangia, but not too much).

 

[jason01]

Brought my new Trangia (series 27 duossal) on her maiden voyage today, and had a couple of questions.

1) How far up can I fill the fuel? I ran out between boiling my potatothingys and frying my bacon, leading to unacceptable delays in my dinner! Luckily there was snow all around so I could quicky cool the burner and add more meths.

2) Isn't the flame supposed to be coming out the jets? Mine appeared to just flame right up the middle and never reach the jet-stage, might it have been too cold, it was about -2.

3) What's the deal with the simmer ring? I could really have used it on my bacon, which I fried to within an inch of its life. Do you push the flap over half way or something? Does that not mean you have very hot on one side of the frying pan and not on the other? I must be missing something.

I guess I better go introduce myself in the intro thread (and wash my Trangia, but not too much).

You can fill it as high as you like but the higher you fill it the longer it takes to heat up and the less fuel efficient it is in terms of output/fuel usage, one of Trangias little quirks.

The flame should be coming out of the jets, not so much an issue of ambient temp but of the temperature of your burner, try preheating it in your pocket, I like to preheat with a nightlight underneath but this isnt possible with all burner setups, another option is to slosh a little fuel around the flange on top of the burner and burn this to help the burner heat up. Putting the stove/windshield together and getting the pan on top usually helps it all heat up as well.

The flame ring can be as open or as closed as you like as long as it doesnt extinguish the flame, and its best to put it on after the burner has heated up for this reason, use a stick or your cutlery to adjust it if you have to, with some practice you'll get used to what settings you need for what youre cooking. The burner ring also improves fuel consumption. The flame is fairly diffuse so restricting it doesnt matter too much in terms of heat spread, but hot spots are an issue with any small camp stove thin pan setup, the smaller the flame the less of a probelm this should be, but dont expect it to work like a cast iron thick based pan on a range.

 

[daveymonkey]

also make sure its out before you fill it up again,sounds obvious but you sometimes cant see the flame especially during the day but you only ever do it once

 

[British Red]

also make sure its out before you fill it up again,sounds obvious but you sometimes cant see the flame especially during the day but you only ever do it once

Aaah, the smell of burning hair

 

[Ben Trout]

Remember the burner is a twin walled thing, with a wick between inner and outers. I fill to the top, let the fuel soak away as much as it wants to, then fill again. That usually does me long enough.

Don't overclean it. A black surface is better for radiated heat transfer (my excuse anyway)!

 

[lardbloke]

An obvious tip, but I always pour the fuel from a secondary smaller bottle (enough to refill the burner), so if for some stupid reason the burner is still alight the entire fule container does not go up in your hand rather just a few ounces.
Also you have to position the windsheild towards a good draught to get draw the flames more.

As for the simmer ring, yes you push the flap over half way or to whatever you want. It only lets some of the heat through but is dissipated (but you will have hot spots, use them to your advantage) across the metal surface on which you are cooking on, so a liitle cooler and it does work. I just fry fast on it and then get something else cooking on it i.e water for cleaning.

 

[Aliwren]

Hi, I think your questions have already been answered however I have used trangias for around 12 years now - my tip would be to get the gas conversion kit at around £35 this clips in place of the burner unit.

I find this far safer use as you can see and hear the flame, you can turn it off with a switch, the heat is higher so food cooks quicker, you can vary the temperature as you cook, the pans stay far cleaner (esp if you have shiney new pans!) . If you have the larger set the burner fits in the kettle and you carry gas instead of fuel so not a huge space difference.

I think trangias are a great bit of compact kit and always use one camping.

Hope this helps.

 

[Martyn]

Brought my new Trangia (series 27 duossal) on her maiden voyage today, and had a couple of questions.

It doesnt need to be cool between refills, it just needs to be not alight.

 

[Iteki]

Thanks for all the advice folks! This is great stuff!

Ben , I didn't know there was wicking in there didn't let it soak at all. I hope I haven't like, burned the wicking or anything now by not having let it soak? I will fill up the burner with some meths and let it soak with the lid on when I get home. Is there any negative effect to keeping meths in the burner long term? Feels like it wouldn't be good for the o-ring?

Aliwren, your tip about the gas burner is probably spot on, but I specifically want a spirit burning Trangia Have lusted after one of these for about 20 years since I was a little cubby scout, and got to play with a buddies one last year, and damn if the charm wasn't still there! I am not going to be using this in any situation where I am in a hurry or where there is a risk of running out of fuel, so I am going to stick with the spirit burner for now.

 

[Nemisis]

Iteki its ok to store unused meths in the burner just check it every now and again as you can get some crystalising of the meths if left a really long time
Dave.

 

[jason01]

The wicking wont burn dont worry, its a fine wire mesh as far as Im aware maybe some rockwool in there too, though Ive never cut one open.

I dont like keeping meths in my burner but Im paranoid about leaks and leaking meths is horrible, it means you have to burn it dry every time you use it and can be wasteful of fuel unless you can gauge how much to use, it shouldnt be a problem if you want to keep it with fuel inside though, they are designed to work that way.

The simplicity, dependability and silence of the spirit burner is part of the pleasure of using the trangia IMO, gas works fine but its not the same and meths is a perfectly effective means of cooking once you get used to it. I must admit I was biased against them for a long time, we used them a lot as kids but as soon as we could afford it we swapped to high tech pressure stoves and I thought of trangias as slow, smelly and innefficient (which they are to some degree) I have quite a range of cookers to choose from and my preference has now changed omewhat, I generally reach for a Swedish army kit for bushcrafting and I like it a lot, for lightweight stuff I'll use a homemade Westwind stand with a foil burner works the same as a clickstand but its cheap and has les parts, Im a born again Trangia fan

 

[addyb]

Iteki,

I don't blame your for going for Trangia, I gave up on petrol burners a few years ago and haven't looked back since. I was tired of singed eyebrows, broken pumps, cracked o-rings and the noise. FYI: They are NOT Whisperlite's. That is a capitalist marketing ploy.

And so we get to Trangia:

a) You can buy a pre-heating attachment for winter use. Or, when you wake up in the morning to stretch and relieve yourself, carry the burner inside of your pocket to warm the meths up.

b) Simply close the simmer ring half way, three quarters, one third, whatever you like. It slows down fuel consumption as well, but at the price of heat.

c) Apparently you CAN melt snow with a Trangia. I was too scared to try it, but then I learnt that the Swedish military does it. If they can melt snow on a meth stove on -60 degree weather (thank you Ray Mears) then I can too.

d) Don't bother with grocery store fondue fuel, it stains your burner blue and crystallizes it. If you can, go to a paint store and just ask for Methylated spirits. It's what I use, and I'm guessing they has a higher BTU output than ordinary meths. It's cleaner burning too, and doesn't crystallize on the burner ring.

e) Stick a paper clip into your stove bag, it's useful for pricking out clogged jets, should they occur.

Enjoy your stove!

Adam

 

[Iteki]

Iteki its ok to store unused meths in the burner just check it every now and again as you can get some crystalising of the meths if left a really long time
Dave.

Crystal meth you say? Interesting

Again great advice, going to get a little paperclip and hook it onto the latching. Gonna hear with my sysadmin at work (an actual Swedish army dude) about fuel, I rekon what I am running on is the right stuff though (T-red as they call it here), it's 95% denatured ethanol. He might have a wise word or two, in which case I will pass it along.

 

[innocent bystander]

Iteki its ok to store unused meths in the burner just check it every now and again as you can get some crystalising of the meths if left a really long time
Dave.

And occasionaly the lid will become jammed on because of the chrystals around the thread. If it does, just run it under hot water for a moment and it'll open ( if you can warm water with a jammed trangia )

 

[Rod]

Iteki,

You can prevent your pans etc smelling of meths by ensuring that all the condensed meths on the inside of the simmer ring has evaporated or been wiped off and aired. Make sure you open it out completely.

Trangia is the only way to cook in the outdoors - except over an open fire - imho -so enjoy your stove - you've made the best choice. Reassuringly lo-tech!

If you aren't eating like a king, you're doing it wrong!

 

[Iteki]

Nother question has turned up. I have the Trangia fuel bottle, you know the one?
I brought it downstairs last night to try my newly made sodacan stove and when I tipped it over and depressed the button it came spraying out of both spouts at pressure Was that due to taking it from my warm flat out into the cold night or is that something I should be aware of every time? I guess I can just get in the habit of venting it "standing" first, but I wanted to check my bottle isn't defective.

 

[rugrat123]

Hi im am new to BCUK, have been following the thread about trangias ?
i have always used plain old Methylated spirits,
i did not now that thier was any other type of spirit to use for a trangia.
could some one explain the different types of fuel many thanks