Trangia question

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Barriejohn

New Member
Oct 6, 2016
2
0
Wyszkow, Poland
l have a question l have a Trangia triangle and a trangia burner l tryed boiling 32oz of water in my XTS olicamp in my garage it boiled in 8.50 min but it smoked out of the fins on the olicamp making black stripe,s up the can the alcohol l was using hat 90% the distance between the burner and a pot is 1,1/4 ins, but the olicamp is 1/2 in higher because of the fins, what can this be, thanks barrie
 

IC_Rafe

Forager
Feb 15, 2016
247
2
EU
It's just soot, you get that with any flame. No need to worry about it, just clean it after use :).
 

Rabid

Nomad
Dec 15, 2014
392
60
Sleaford Lincolnshire
When I use my trangia I fill the cooker with fuel and then add 10% water to the fuel that stops the problem of sooting up and it doesn't alter the heat significantly.
 

Andy BB

Full Member
Apr 19, 2010
3,290
1
Hampshire
Ah - the 10% water addition hypothesis! In my youth (many, many years ago) I did a series of tests to ascertain what impact this actually had in my trangia. My results were somewhat predictable; had a small effect on sooting, increased burn times (ie getting water to boil) by about 10-15% (nearer 15%) and shortened overall length of burn by about the same amount. In short, the burner was about 15% less efficient.

My theory for these results - and I am totally open to correction on this! - is as follows

- at Trangia temps, water doesn't split down into hydrogen and oxygen atoms - it simply turns to water vapour/steam. So it doesn't add any additional combustible fuel to the mix.

- Some of the heat produced by the alcohol burning is used to convert the water into water vapour (you don't tend to get a remnant of water in the trangia burner when the burn is finished, indicating that any water present has been vapourised.)

- The water vapour itself may act to wash away a bit of the soot present on the bottom of the pan, leading to the slight improvement on the level of sooting found.
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
When I use my trangia I fill the cooker with fuel and then add 10% water to the fuel that stops the problem of sooting up and it doesn't alter the heat significantly.

Don't add water for crying out loud, it just slows down the cooking process :rolleyes:
 

shindig

Tenderfoot
Dec 30, 2013
63
2
Scotland
I used to use maths and 10% water and felt it made a difference, I think it was the placebo effect.

I use boiethanol now and don't anywhere near the sooting I did with meths. I no longer use water as it does slow down boil times.
 

Trotsky

Full Member
My trangia kit is black with soot and seasoning, I wipe off the fresh loose stuff and carry on. I consider it proof I've used it in anger and haven't bought it to pretend. My trangia billy gets a good coating of soot when I use it for baking a damper, it's just what you get cooking over fire as opposed to cleaner burning gas. That soot is useful though, heat it up in some sort of crucible till it glows and the greasy residues burn off and you're left with an excellent black pigment.
 

PDA1

Settler
Feb 3, 2011
646
5
Framingham, MA USA
As your alcohol was marked 90%,I am assuming that it is isopropanol. It does not burn very well in a Trangia. You should make sure you are using ethanol (denatured ethyl alcohol or what used to be called methylated spirits or meths). Smoke will be very much reduced.
 

Tonyuk

Settler
Nov 30, 2011
933
81
Scotland
I use bio ethanol and the sooting seems to be less than when i used meths. I think it might have something to do with the purple dye. The bio stuff can be had quite cheap too.

Tonyuk
 

satosato

Forager
May 29, 2009
154
0
London
, is not as effective as the meth? I still it true that the bio stuff, ethanol, is not as effective as the meth?
 

Tonyuk

Settler
Nov 30, 2011
933
81
Scotland
Meths is ethanol mixed with a bit of methanol to denature it, plus the dye. Bio-ethanol is the same (ethanol is just ethanol after all) but doesn't seem to have the dye, i don't know if it has any methanol in it, but they'll be something in there to stop you drinking it. If anything my trangia running on bio seems a bit faster, but this could just be placebo.

Tonyuk
 

PDA1

Settler
Feb 3, 2011
646
5
Framingham, MA USA
Bio alcohol is just another denatured ethyl alcohol(ethanol) - bio because they use "natural" starting materials(such as corn) to make the alcohol via a fermentation process. The denaturants ate 3% isopropanol, 3% methylethyl ketone and .0001%(or less) Denatonium Benzoate which makes it taste really foul. Methanol denatured alcohol is no longer legal in EU countries. Methanol denatured alcohol is still common in the USA. In the USA,pure methanol is a popular fuel even though it is poisonous to humans.
 

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