Swedish Trangia Fuels

[Biddlesby]

I haven't been able to get hold of any meths (so far) for my Swedish Army Trangia so I tried some lamp oil. I filled it up to about a quarter, left it to soak for a while, then tried to light it. It didn't. So, I dropped a bit of cotton wool in the middle and lit that. The middle burned for about 15 minutes, but the gas ring didn't light.

First question - is this suitible fuel?

Second question - if so, can anybody shed light (as it were) on why it didn't light?

Third question - what is the best way to go about cleaning them? I understand you can use a pin to clear the holes, and indeed my not doing this may have been the root of my problem, but what about the inside? Does it even need cleaning? Would there be adverse effect if the burner were submerged in water?

Thanks

 

[PC2K]

lampoil isn't as volutile as alcohol and will NOT burn.
only alcohol will work in the trangia stove.

I never cleaned my trangia, it has made a lot of meal and i have yet to see a single hole getting clogged. Don't care about the stains and discolorations.

 

[underground]

I would imagine that as well as not lighting, *hypothetical comment ahead* if it did light, it would be incredibly sooty and not as hot as would be desirable by comparison to meths or the like...

We use lamp oil at home in some fancy glass lamps which SWMBO got from Spain. The soot from the orange flame is very visible if you look closely. That may be partly due to the fact that they have a wick, but either way it's messy and stinks a bit.

I reckon if your burner has lamp oil in, give it a fill of meths when you get it and burn it a while, should wash the muck out...

 

[RovingArcher]

If you have Heet, in your auto stores, it is pure methanol and is marketed as a fuel line anti-freeze/water remover and makes an excellent fuel for a trangia.

 

[Biddlesby]

Thanks all.

The lamp oil burned, and I managed to get a small amount of water to boil, but only because the cotton wool was acting as a wick.

 

[Spacemonkey]

If you have Heet, in your auto stores, it is pure methanol and is marketed as a fuel line anti-freeze/water remover and makes an excellent fuel for a trangia.

Is that the muck we use for preventing carb icing? I thought, though not 100% certain, that we use isopropyl alcohol (propan-2-ol) for it as well. Icidentaly, can isopropyl alccy be used in a trangia?

 

[Tantalus]

i can not help but think if people insist on trying different fuels in an alcohol stove sooner or later someone will be tempted to give petrol a try and end up in intensive care

please stick to alcohol, it is cheap and available from chemists or hardware stores

in emergency you can even try spirits from the off license, over proof works better as bog standard spirits (gin vodka brandy rum whatever its mostly the same) are only about 80 proof or 40 odd % alcohol

not trying to be a killjoy here but please be sensible

Tant

 

[Biddlesby]

There's some isopropyl in the shed; I'll try it when I get back from the EA meet.

 

[Toddy]

i can not help but think if people insist on trying different fuels in an alcohol stove sooner or later someone will be tempted to give petrol a try and end up in intensive care

please stick to alcohol, it is cheap and available from chemists or hardware stores

in emergency you can even try spirits from the off license, over proof works better as bog standard spirits (gin vodka brandy rum whatever its mostly the same) are only about 80 proof or 40 odd % alcohol

not trying to be a killjoy here but please be sensible

Tant

Hear! Hear! I've been getting a bit concerned (actually, I was sh*t scared ) someone was going to turn one of those little stoves into a bomb. They turn themselves inside out quite impressively I'm told, and coat the surrounding area in vapourised fuel in the process. D'you think we could maybe just refer to them as alcohol stoves for a while until the message sinks into us all.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Spacemonkey]

With all due respect, we're all adults here, responsible for ourselves. I understand your concerns, but someone would have to be preeeety stupid to try petrol, but then, I guess that was Darwin's point. After all, the amount of peole admitted to Odstock increases dramatically during the summer Barbecue Season when they can't get it going and throw some petrol on it. Durrr....
Anyway, the reason I ask about Isopropyl is that I have a heck of a lot of it, yet I have bog all Meths, so if I can save some money by using up the isopropyl, and it is only one carbon molecule away from methanol after all. Also, there may be a time when you do not have any meths yet need to use the stove, so it would be handy to know of safe alternatives that anyone else might have tried, or no-no's that someone has had disastarous results with. Makes sense to me.

 

[Tantalus]

sure go ahead mate , if we find a large crater with bits of Spacemonkey around we will know what happened

Tant

 

[Spacemonkey]

The amount I have, you'd better get Quatermass in.....

 

[Toddy]

The amount I have, you'd better get Quatermass in.....

Don't know about isoprop in the alcohol stoves, I do know the guys who blew one up. I suppose you could look on it as advancing human knowledge......be a hell of an autopsy if it did go up though. Hey spacemonkey, most archaeologists want to be cremated......how do folk who do your type of work want to go?
Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Spacemonkey]

Well, we could drink a shed load of meths if we want the job done properly. Our biggest fear is to end up going through the places we work as we know what the staff are like!!!!

I like the idea of a long boat cast out to sea and a hord of flaming arrows. I know it's just a Hollywood cliche (did it ever happen at any time???) but it sounds cool. Either that or cremated, and blasted in a rocket into the air. Then everyone can breathe me in. My dad's ashes would have to be mixed with gunpowder and fired through one of his guns think...

 

[Graham_S]

personally, i fancy one of those tibetan "sky burials" myself. you get chopped up into managable lumps and fed to the vultures. seems very eco-friendly to me.