Playing with a new stove.

[Nalsheen]

Apologies if I have put this in the wrong place.

I picked up a Swedish Army Trangia from ebay, ordered Thursday night and it arrived this morning! So the first thing to do today was go in the garden for a play.

Set up the burner and windshield on the patio flags. As I'm testing this I didn't bother getting it out of the wind, just used it in the open.

It light straight away. This caught me by surprise so I ended up dropping the match into the burner!
I put enough tap water into the mess tin to fill the fry pan. Put this straight onto the burner as soon as it was light.

I put the fry pan over the main pan to act as a lid, which probably made it boil a little bit quicker.

After about 10 minutes it came to a boil and I had more than enough hot water to make a brew and wash up.

This is the first time I have used meths and I'm fairly impressed with it. Next task will be trying to cook some sort of meal in it.

 

[NS40]

The swedish army trangia is a great bit of kit. Solid, self contained and does the job nicely.

I keep mine filled with coffee sachets, cup a soups,stock cubes, matches, spork, couple of full size cups (I don't like the little folding cups) and the meths burner (which I keep inside a couple of ziplock bags to stop the smell tainting everything.

It's a great system for using over an open fire too, especially when I learned that you could slot a stick into the D rings on the handle of the lid.

 

[Andy BB]

This is a great piece of kit - probably the best value-for-money kit available anywhere. Lots of videos on youtube to explain tricks and tips.

Couple of suggestions. There are ways of adjusting the bale handle on the main pot to stabilise it for pouring. This works, but I find it easier just to lift the big pot and rest it inside the little pot for pouring hot water- provides great stability. Although some say you should wait until the burner "blossoms", I could never see why.
Light it, and whack the pot straight on, as you did. This not only uses the heat produced from the burning meths immediately so none is wasted, but warms the burner up quicker for a faster bloom. The civvie Trangia burner simmer ring works ok - sorta - or you can make your own easily enough out of a tin-lid, but the tatonka simmer ring works even better.

In cold conditions, isolate burner from the frozen ground/snow (green twigs/branches/silicon, fibre-glass or carbon-felt mat etc), warm up the meths and burner first by putting it in your pocket. If you can't be bothered to do any of that, roll up a little tube of kitchen/tissue paper and place around the lip of the burner, soak in meths and ignite. Thats worked for me down to -20C and I have no doubt it would work at even lower temps.

 

[Nalsheen]

Thank you for the tips.
Silly question: where did my photos go?

 

[Andy BB]

Thank you for the tips.
Silly question: where did my photos go?

Give up - where did they go?

 

[andyc54]

They are great big and heavy but still worth lugging about as there so handy,as for lighting mine i use a fire steel no more dropped matches

 

[Sttrory]

Turn the pot stand upside down you can rest the burner on the burner rod/stand then you can use any size pan/pot

 

[ged]

... Next task will be trying to cook some sort of meal in it.

One of my favourite bits of kit. Apart from boil in the bag meals you'll definitely want a simmer ring or something similar to do any cooking. Otherwise the flame will be too hot and you'll burn the food. As Andy says you can make one easily enough. A tent peg or something like that is handy to adjust the flame. The pliers on my multi-tool get used a lot when I'm cooking with a Trangia.

 

[Andy BB]

You've got the stainless steel version (only one "ring" round the top of the main billy (the alu ones have 2). Which means that it doesn't spread the heat as well as the alu one. so watch out for hot-spot burning, and you'll need to stir your stews/porridge etc more frequently!

 

[tenderfoot]

The swedish army trangia is a great bit of kit. Solid, self contained and does the job nicely.

I keep mine filled with coffee sachets, cup a soups,stock cubes, matches, spork, couple of full size cups (I don't like the little folding cups) and the meths burner (which I keep inside a couple of ziplock bags to stop the smell tainting everything.

It's a great system for using over an open fire too, especially when I learned that you could slot a stick into the D rings on the handle of the lid.

Did you know that the big versions of the plastic kukska/mugs fit ? Available online from hoods/militarymart(and you can nest a small one inside the big one!) and the big ones hold a lot more than most other mugs apart from the crusader. great bit of kit.

 

[Nalsheen]

Just a quick update on this. I used it to cook my lunch this afternoon.

I put nearly a full "shot" of meths into the burner, then put the big pan full of water on to boil.

After about 10 minutes the water seemed hot enough so I chucked in some noodles. Then put the lid back on.

It was doing pretty well but ran out of fuel before the food was ready. Unfortunately the only meths I had was the last dregs of a bottle my dad had had in the garage for a while, so I couldn't finish cooking on this.

Ended up finishing my lunch in the kitchen. It still gave me just over 20 minutes of burn time with not much meths, so I think if I added a simmer ring to this it would be fine.

 

[spiritwalker]

would have put the noodles in straight away they would have started to cook before the 10 mins was reached also just use the right amount of water for the job otherwise your wasting fuel. Another tip although not really necessary you could have a second burner ready and lift the windshield over it (with pot grips) they you can double your cooking time.

 

[Hammock_man]

I always use the lid/pan the other way round. That is to say over the top of the pot rather than IN. Seems to give a pressure cooker effect. 99% of the time I use it for boil in the bag meals or just heating water for coffee. Also allows me to thread a stick through the d rings which acts as a cool (cold) handle. The main pot works great as a stew pan, hanging over a wood fire.

10 mins to come to the boil seems a long while as the burner can hold a good amount of meths and throws off a loverly big flame.

Another tip if I may. Use the pot to carry food/tea/coffe and keep the meths and burner seperate. I find even a hint of meths ruins food for me and I love cooking with meths. Add a small pinch of table salt to 500ml of meths and it gives it a hint of colour when burning, makes it safer during the day.

 

[Andy BB]

Good to have some differences in usage! I use the top pot as a lid when boiling exactly as shown in the pics - its both easier to put on, and importantly, much easier to get off (particularly important when handling the big pot full of boiling water!) However, when using as an oven say in the coals of an open fire, I'll put the top pot on as Hammock Man suggested.

Its also true that the slightest whiff of meths can contaminate the taste of food, so either carry it separate as suggested above, or - again as suggested earlier - double ziplock it (I also separately double ziplock any teabags etc carried inside it.)

 

[ged]

...Its also true that the slightest whiff of meths can contaminate the taste of food, so either carry it separate as suggested above, or - again as suggested earlier - double ziplock it (I also separately double ziplock any teabags etc carried inside it.)

I use meths from French supermarkets, it isn't unpleasant at all. Almost like wine. I mean the smell, you understand.

 

[Andy BB]

I always stock up at Carrefour too Worth trying the alcohol gel you can buy there too - not in a Trangia, but for priming paraffin stoves, getting wood going - works much better than Greenheat in a Crusader set! Wife keeps nicking it for lighting the fire in the lounge.....

 

[Nalsheen]

Anyone recommend a good place to get Meths? Roughly how much should it be?

 

[swright81076]

B&q or wickes sell it. About £3 a bottle

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Andy BB]

You can buy in bulk on ebay - works out much cheaper. Or - even cheaper than that -buy methanol - again on ebay. Burns pretty much the same as meths, but Methanol is potentially very poisonous, so take care if you go down that route.

 

[rik_uk3]

Anyone recommend a good place to get Meths? Roughly how much should it be?

Go Outdoors £15 for five litres
Ebay, methanol is about £30 delivered for 25 litres.

ALWAYS insulate the burner from cold ground, exposure to cold ground slows down cooking time and these burners can well do without slowing down A thick bit of cardboard works well as an insulator.