I’m after something lighter than lugging gas canisters around on solo overnighters and the Trangia Mini appears to fit the bill. Other than making my own out of a red bull can (I’d like something robust, not sure that qualifies), should I be looking at anything else? Less than £20 for the Trangia including pot & pan seems pretty good value. I’ll be using it for boiling water mainly but also the odd spot of “proper” cooking. Cheers.

More expensive (+ no pot/pans incl) but how about :-

https://tracksterman.tumblr.com/post/2461217083/triad-review

Tracksterman can’t be wrong 🙂

Jetboil they’re very light and efficient.

hmm cheers. Drac, Jetboil just do gas stoves dont’t they?

Clicky linky for a small stove test,

http://ianbarrington.com/

Other than making my own out of a red bull can (I’d like something robust, not sure that qualifies)

Is there a guide for doing this?

LOLs at the bivvi-enthusiasm just now, it’s the latest winter-mid-life-crisis activity!

I think there is on the show bivi kit thread recently

Thanks flatfish, useful link. cynic-al, how did you guess I was going through a mid life crisis, is it that obvious? That bivi thread has some info on making your own.

heres the link for the stove.
http://ygingras.net/b/2007/6/a-better-soda-can-stove

I found this pot, cozy, spork and pot grabber in Ellis Brigham a couple of weeks ago and whilst i don’t need it i feel the need to buy it every time i drive past.
http://www.gsioutdoors.com/activities/pdp/halulite_minimalist/ultralight_backpacking/

so slightly dearer by a fiver but i reckon better than a trangia.

Bear in mind that with any alcohol burner you’ve got to carry the fuel, and not only do they use significant amounts of fuel, but you need a robust fuel container which won’t be light. If you really want to go light then IMHO it has to be solid fuel. The usual trouble with that is that if you use a normal burner it burns very yellow – ie sooty and not that hot. I’ve made myself a “chimney” stove for it (alu can bottom, steel can top, as the alu can’t take the heat) which directs the airflow in at the bottom and out the top – convection does the rest, creating a strong airflow which allows the fuel to burn properly. The stove and fuel required for a night’s bivi weighs less than a typical fuel bottle.

cheers aracer. I’ve heard that solid fuel tabs are very quick to burn out, hence you need to take a lot of them. problem?

class olshen (sp?) sell a trangia copy with 2 pans, frying pan, burner, stove etc for £10, bargain.

Home built burners are a marginal improvement over the trangia ones, if you want a trangia to burn quicker, chuck some dry grass in the bruner to act as wick.

I like the White Box stove http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product230.asp it’s a little bit of recycled beauty

I have a mini trangia that doesn’t get used much. The burner is very heavy compared to say, a pocket rocket.

My pocket rocket and a small canister are way lighter than the trangia burner and a small 200ml plastic bottle of meths.

I’ve got a mini Trangia plus a selection of coke-can type meths stoves that I use with a Ti mug. I very rarely use them though as I’ll either take a pocket-rocket and the Ti Mug or (most often) a Jetboil.

Making the coke-can stoves was fun though and they do work pretty well.

Mini Trangia’s a good option as you can always use the lightish weight pans with other stoves, such as gas, as well as with the Trangia burner. I don’t mind the weight penalty of the brass Trangia burner as you can control the flame and screw shut any unused meths inside the burner.

IMO, the main issue with the mini T is the lack of a sufficient wind-break. You either have to make one out of foil, etc. or build one out of rocks. Not a problem with the larger Trangias and you’d need an additional wind break with most other stoves anyway.

As for what’s best for what & when. I tend to use a pocket rocket type gas burner for solo one nighters but the Trangia (mini or larger Trangia or both) for longer trips or family overnighters. On the longer trips I find meths more economical and easier to manage/obtain than specialist gas canisters. You can also improvise with the Trangia and burn solid fuel or twigs if your camping companions have necked all the meths after their ridiculously inadequate trendy hipflasks have run dry 😉

Trangias are terrible. I’d rather take small gas cannisters tbh. At least then you can cook stuff.

Can’t imagine trying to cook with a tranny for a family! 😯 I have used a coleman two ring burner for that, which was awful (anyone want it?) and a MSR Whisperlite, but I think I want a Camping Gaz two ring + grill. Camping Gaz pretty ubiquitous.

I’ve heard that solid fuel tabs are very quick to burn out, hence you need to take a lot of them. problem?

That’s a problem with using them in a standard burner (or on their own sitting on some silver foil as is/was favoured by many top MM/Polaris racers). Putting them in a chimney stove and getting them to burn properly tends to mostly get rid of that problem – the first advantage of the stove is that it more than makes up for its own weight in terms of fuel saved, even for a single solo night.

Trangias are terrible. I’d rather take small gas cannisters tbh. At least then you can cook stuff.

I’ve managed to cook

Sausages,
Bacon,
Eggs (fried)
Baked beans
Toast

On a trangia, and finished before the sausages had lost their temperature.

Can’t imagine trying to cook with a tranny for a family!

Neither would I want to take a Camping Gaz two ring + grill on a bivi trip (then again personally I’m with you on the inadequacy in general of trangias – my solid fuel stove boils water a lot faster).

Mini Trangia’s a good option as you can always use the lightish weight pans with other stoves

I get your point there – I still use Trangia pans (dating from well before Mini Trangias existed) with gas stoves when I go camping with one of those. However for bivis and other ultra-light trips, why is anybody using anything other than silver foil take-away containers?

If you want to see some empirical evidence then this web page may be of interest.

It compares different fuels and stoves and shows the trade off between weight and cost versus length of trip. An alcohol stove for a few days use is always going to be lighter than the equivalent weight with a gas stove. Though when you look at carrying more than 5 days fuel a gas stove is lighter.

Stove Geek Zone Test

My personal setup is one of these

stove

Very lightweight and fits in a ti-mug (though mine is the aluminium version which was cheaper though discontinued now).

Teh beauty of a trangia is they just work. I have had trouble with gas ones in windy conditions or when its cold. For me it will be gas when warm, trangia when cold

Hi quality geekery link there jimmers

I’ve had far more trouble with trannies in the wind than I have gas. Except poorly designed gas ones I suppose, sans windshield.

MSR liquid fuel ones are the best of course but not lightweight compared to either trannies or gas. Trannies do drink meths like a tramp tho.

Why aren’t I surprised that you like Trangias TJ? 🙂

The secret to using alcohol stoves is having an effective wind-break. I can get 500ml of water to a near boil (noodles don’t need boiling water) with only 20ml of meths.

molgrips – when it gets cold and the can is half empty the gas will not vaporise properly and the gas stove hardly works. Dunno why you have trouble with trangias – they work better wth a bit of wind and you turn the windsheild round to get teh right amount of wind in them

Never seen anyone have an issue with one.

It compares different fuels and stoves and shows the trade off between weight and cost versus length of trip. An alcohol stove for a few days use is always going to be lighter than the equivalent weight with a gas stove. Though when you look at carrying more than 5 days fuel a gas stove is lighter.

Stove Geek Zone Test
I reckon that backs up my solid fuel approach. Given their listed weight of burner, it can only be a standard steel hex burner – mine is far lighter (26.52g on my excessively precise scales), which immediately puts it 3rd behind a couple of gas stoves for 5 days use, but then as said above I reckon it more than saves its own weight in fuel for 1 night use, so on that basis I can deduct the stove weight times 5 from the fuel weight which makes it an easy winner!

what about a Svea?

I used to be a big fan of hexy stoves for that reason. Though got tired of having to clean the soot from the bottom of cookware.

I have heard that if you rub a used tea bag (wet) this cleans pots a treat. Never tried it.

I used to be a big fan of hexy stoves for that reason. Though got tired of having to clean the soot from the bottom of cookware.

The usual trouble with that is that if you use a normal burner it burns very yellow – ie sooty and not that hot. I’ve made myself a “chimney” stove for it (alu can bottom, steel can top, as the alu can’t take the heat) which directs the airflow in at the bottom and out the top – convection does the rest, creating a strong airflow which allows the fuel to burn properly.

Mess tins and hexy blocks also as above wet mud and grass or tea bags to clean and it does work

I’ve made myself a “chimney” stove for it..steel can top

Isn’t that less efficient, how many blocks does it take to boil 500ml for example?

I used to be able to manage with two blocks.

Isn’t that less efficient

Why would it be? The whole point of the stove is that it encourages convection airflow by limiting the airflow to a vertical direction past the fuel. With a normal hex stove the tablet is surrounded by air so that a good convection flow doesn’t happen, and rather than getting lots of fresh oxygen to the combustion site, the tablet remains surrounded by combustion products. This means that the tablet burns hotter and more completely with my stove, thus more efficient. Proof in the pudding – a normal stove has a weak yellowy flame, with mine it’s blue and roaring.

Or are you misunderstanding the point of the stove – I note your emphasis in the steel top but, which is only steel because the heat gets so intense at the top that an alu can weakens and bends (I tried alu first).

You mean 2 complete tabs (the tabs I have break into 4)? No idea how many mine uses, but I’ll bet it’s less given my experiments comparing my stove with a normal hex burner showed that. If I’m feeling any better this evening I’ll have a go at a side by side test to prove the point.

I think I understand more now. I was thinking of the equivalent of heating a steel plate with a hexy tablet underneath (albeit with a windbrak) and putting the mess tin of top, bit like a smaller version of an arga cooker.

Yeah, 2 complete tablets. That was with the usual army style folding stoves with zero wind. If there is any wind I could easily use double that.

My setup now uses the Caldera windbreak and my Ti-mug sits in the top of the windbreak with no gaps underneath the wind break. I can use solid fuel tablets with that. Might try that to see if hexy tablets work well with it.

when it gets cold and the can is half empty the gas will not vaporise properly and the gas stove hardly works

Yeah, but how cold? I always understood that if it was cold enough to hamper gas stove performance then 99.9% of people wouldn’t be camping anyway. I have a pocket rocket type thing (although not MSR) and a Whisperlite, which works in all weathers and burns different fuels etc. Actually, woudl be surprised if that’s much heavier than a Trangia plus fuel bottle.

Never seen anyone have an issue with one.

Well now you know one 🙂

I found they either burned your food on high or did nothing on low, and used tons of fuel.

when it gets cold and the can is half empty the gas will not vaporise properly and the gas stove hardly works

I did the SDW a few days after New Year (few years ago) with a couple of mates bivi style over two days. The morning was a little frosty (below freezing). They had to give their gas stoves a rather serious shake to get a semi-decent flame out of them.

I had solid fuel tablets which just worked.

Here’s some pics of my hex burner – sorry no action shots, I’m not up to it today.

We have Trangias, a MRS Whisperlite multifuel, various kerosene stoves, and various gas stoves (primus, MRS pocket rocket etc). on a Bivi, without exception I’d go for the small gas stove (with shield) and cartridge, everytime. They are just loads easier and quicker and more adjustable flame.

when it gets cold and the can is half empty the gas will not vaporise properly and the gas stove hardly works

The ones where you can direct feed the liquid fuel don’t have loss of power in cold conditions.

I have had trouble with gas ones in windy conditions or when its cold.

get a wind break (which also retains the heat), get one that can direct feed the liquid fuel.

This is the only foto I’ve got, but was taken on the Glacier Blanc at 3000m at about midnight, pasta meal for two, it was very cold and we had no probs, direct fed the liquid gas and used the shield.

Shields are the key. I have the larger trangia and as much as I have tried to like it IMO it performs poorly in comparison to the smaller gas models, with fuel its heavier and it is less controllable, as well as being larger.

My setup of choice, all fits into the mug.

molgrips – Member

“when it gets cold and the can is half empty the gas will not vaporise properly and the gas stove hardly works”

Yeah, but how cold? I always understood that if it was cold enough to hamper gas stove performance then 99.9% of people wouldn’t be camping anyway.

Below about 5 C with a half empty can the issues start IME. NO amount of shaking will help much I found – with a half empty can thd fuel gets colder as it vaporises in the can as so the pressure drops to the point it hardly comes out.

The ones where you can direct feed the liquid fuel don’t have loss of power in cold conditions.

Which are? Genuine interest. I have never heard of this? How does it work? YOu have to turn the can upside down?

I have a pocket rocket.

We have a Jetboil and it is fantastic.
Not done a bivi trip, but it should be perfect.