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I was looking at my old patinad [1] Trangia 27... It's obsolete isn't it?
I've got a Alpkit Mytimug and a cheap light Chinese gas burner that performs all my lightweight cooking requirements. A fraction of the weight an bulk.
If I want to cook with Meths (almost never) I use a home made cat stove and the Mytimug.
I'm struggling to see where the Trangia fits in...
Discuss.
[1] Is that a word?
It was never a lightweight backpacking/bikepacking stove, to be fair. We still use ours on family days out and car camping.
*patinated?
Communal one pot meals such as on doe.
It was never market as lightweight kit but it's comprehensive robust and simple to use
Mine is still the go to for canoe trips, as long as you have meths and a safety pin there is no way it will let you down.
I love mine I have a small stove and shield that fits into my 650 alpkit mug but I prefer the trangia for actually cooking rather than heating water
Safety pin sweepy ?
Safety pin sweepy ?
To unblock the 'oles. Strangely, I've never needed to do that in pushing 20 years. I brillo pad the burner from time to time, maybe that keeps them clear.
They are still great bits of kit, it's just that there are so many other good options now that you can find the perfect stove for every trip (almost). For something like sea kayaking/canoeing trips where weight isn't the main concern, they are perfect. You can run it on gas or meth/gel, is has an efficient wind shield and it's pretty nice to cook on a stable system. I've also modified mine so it fries really well. Something that is overlooked is that on an extended trip - 2 weeks plus - it's not always possible to get easy to cook food that you can do in a ti mug perched on a pocket rocket. Having a couple of proper pans and a frypan means you can cover most bases. The smaller 27 is a tad obsolete now as sea kayak hatches are much bigger than 20 years ago when the small trange would just pass perfectly through the small 7 inch hatches that were in widespread use.
I've also got a primus gas spider express and a superlight alpkit/chines burner. Tbh the alpkit is great but having had one fail and warrantied I wouldn't be super keen to rely on it on a long trip. That goes for MSR stoves too.
Ah I see I thought it was some secret lighting method lol
I still use mine when car camping. Weighs less than the Calor double burner, grill & gas bottle.
Yes, its to poke the holes, twice i've had to do that now in 34 years- outrage!
And the amount of times its been the only stove on longer trips when other stoves have packed in means it'll always have a place, in the boat at least.
For a lot of trips tho, yes other alternatives are certainly lighter and more packable. Not many are as stable tho.
Hardly obsolete
we had 250 scouts in teams of 4 using them on the Overland expedition two weeks ago. They had to carry them 40km as well!
We tried jetboils but they are too unstable in a wind and kept getting knocked over by clumsy scouts. They are not as flexible or robust either.
I use my mini for kayak brew ups as well.
Old, yes. Not great, yes.
Functional, practical and huge strengths when being used with groups, yes.
Jetboils etc are awful things - only pay back extra weight and hassle on more than 4 days trek.
We use fold out gas stoves with groups now, they are better and mostly lighter than Trangia - and avoid some fuel issues.
Use ours all the time on the beach, in the woods, the kids like using it and the Kelly kettle. Not quick, tea tastes a bit of meths (if I've forgotten the posh fuel) but it's better than no brew and super reliable. One of our boys doesn't do sandwiches either, heating some soup covers that off.
jesus simon you must have killed the grass by now
That's an impressive burning time Simon. Did you need to top it up?
🙂
I have never found anything as good as purple meths to run mine on, the foreign equivalents don't burn as hot. But it still gets used every morning on coffee duty - I find that by the time I've ground the beans, abluted, sorted the 5yo out, etc, it's just about boiling.
I keep a Kelly kettle in the back of the van for post-run/ride brews though, as it's faster and never runs out of fuel.
Love my Trangia. Use it with the optional burner that uses a threaded gas canister, then have same canisters in camper van and use the Trangia as a cookset when we’re in the van. As a complete kit with everything it’s hardly any heavier than taking loads of separate super light stuff, plus much more stable on dodgy ground than those silly super lightweight things.
Jetboils etc are awful things
Mibbe on multi day, dunno you may be right, but the convenience on a day munro bashing is hard to beat. I've plenty room in a 25L pack for one, and as I'm 14 odd stone, it hardly registers as heavy.
I've the cheaper alpkit version, and it's brilliant. One pot macaroni cheese on a summit? Rejoice! 🙂
I'd say definitely not obsolete. We have both sizes of Trangia and they are essential items on family holidays. I recently upgraded the smaller (newer) one to a gas burner, which has been great. Replacement parts are readily available at popular online stores (i.e. Amazon).
Mibbe on multi day, dunno you may be right, but the convenience on a day munro bashing is hard to beat. I’ve plenty room in a 25L pack for one, and as I’m 14 odd stone, it hardly registers as heavy.
Different tool for a different job.
Jetboil is my go to stove simply for its speed and efficiency. I have the big / wide pan so I can cook properly as well as boil water. Its main use is multiday trekking.
I have used trangias and their main advantage is the way they just work.
All stoves are a set of compromises - pick the ones that suit you
Different tool for a different job.
That's what I said, but they're certainly not awful.
Thanks all. You haven't actually been that helpful. You were supposed to be confirming my decision to bin it. Instead you've rekindled my enthusiasm for it.
As it happens I do very occasional kayak camping trips, always to a pebble beach. I hadn't really considered the advantages of the Trangia in that case (especially stability - I lost a hot chocolate last week) - so I'll be using it for that from now on.
Also kids will be doing DoE in a few years (I hope) and shared between several kids it will make a lot of sense. (I hadn't considered that, so thanks.)
I knew I wasn't quite comparing lige for like, but this thread has really reinforced that. The trangia has two pots and a frying pan. That's not really comparable with a single mytimug.
So partial thanks to STW, you've failed to help me clear out my garage, but you've provided some pretty good reasons to hang on to a much loved item.
Mine is still the go to for canoe trips, as long as you have meths and a safety pin there is no way it will let you down
With the canoe reference I skim read this as "there is no way it will let you drown" and spent longer than I should wondering how you'd fashion a floatation device out of a trangia, a bottle of meths and a safety pin...
Incidentally, I never leave meths in the burner - always let it burn right out of meths because I don't trust the big rubber seal. Am I being over cautious? Can I leave meths in the burner or will it leak?
With the canoe reference I skim read this as “there is no way it will let you drown” and spent longer than I should wondering how you’d fashion a floatation device out of a trangia, a bottle of meths and a safety pin…
😀
I came to this thread considering binning/selling my Trangia 27.
It'd had a different effect. I've bought a Trangia 25, Kettle and Gas burner for family camping. I've used it on a long weekend and a couple of overnighters and it's brilliant.
25 + Gas burner + Kettle is stable/safe enough to keep the younger ones safe, and for the older ones to make their own hot drinks without fear of spilling hot water and burning meths everywhere.
New lease of life.
Perhaps I still need to ditch the 27, though.
Oooh! An old stove thread 😋
Trangias were one of the few stoves I never had - the whole system was a bit bulky and not very efficient for Alpine climbing though some did use them. Paradoxically my main stove these days is a home made beer can meths stove.
A few weeks ago I dug out my old MSR XGK stove, this is the great grandaddy of the Whisperlite that you get today. A quick check over and the plastic breather tube on the pump has perished. It's at this point that I realise that the last time I used it was probably on a trip to Mt Kenya in 1989 when it was put to good use deep frying chips!
I contacted MSR about possible spares and their response was: "You've got a what! No we don't have any spares but the new pumps will work with it".
Also kids will be doing DoE in a few years (I hope) and shared between several kids it will make a lot of sense. (I hadn’t considered that, so thanks.)
Aye there's always that one kid who's parent knows best and sends them off with a jet boil.... Invariably said child forgets how it works or it runs out of gas etc.
Blanket trangia policy means that you have plenty of redundancy , it's clear to see how much fuel you have , the leaders don't need to be experts on every stove that might turn up.
Plus with no moving parts they just don't get broken.
I use a honey stove with a trangia burner. not particularly light but remove the bulky aspect of the trangia and keeps the steadyiness and windbreaker qualities.
Then I toast some marshmallows over the fire i light in it.
I've had a faulty gas cannister spoil a trip and i've had a cannister give up in the cold.
Its all about the unleaded for out of the car camping though.
Its all about the unleaded for out of the car camping though.
Aye, last Easter was early and bloody cold at night down in the Garrotxa.. a dual burner Coleman and two lanterns (and a 5l Jerry of unleaded) coped with ease, endless cups of tea and hot water bottle duty between six of us.
The frying pan/lid to my trangia still has the dent in it from 37 years ago, when I thought it would be a good idea to use it under my motorbike sidestand to stop it fallling over on the grass 🙂
I still use the burner occasionally with a trangia triangle I've acquired, but will probably retire the pans.
I still use the burner occasionally with a trangia triangle I’ve acquired, but will probably retire the pans.
The 27 outer pan I still use a lot, albeit never with the Trangia. Just big enough for a tinned Jalfreizy and a microwave pack of rice. It's been used on open fire embers the lot.
We need a 1 pan/camp cooking recipe thread
We need a 1 pan/camp cooking recipe thread
Seems needless to me, I can't see any reason why a camper would want to eat anything other than a Tesco own brand Can of Chicken Jalfreizy mixed with Tesco own brand Microwave Rice. 😀
I have a trangia 27. Have used it with meths lots, it's great.
But I converted it recently by putting my primus omnilite in it. Have used it on gas and it chucks out way more power now. It's very stable, very windproof and the way it all nests is excellent
Terrible at high altitude. A mate tried to use one guiding in Bolivia - it was not a success. Stoves for me boil down to: JetBoil or similar - MSR Reactor - for one-pot kettle functionality. Primus for remote canister stuff, both using gas in the UK. MSR XGK for burning dodgy liquid fuel at high altitude. Back in the day the Trangia was sort of a bulky alternative to the JetBoil, which hadn't been invented, but slow boiling and inclined to burn people as you can't always see the meths flame in daylight.
If you like windproof stoves, the MSR WindBurner and Reactor stuff is astonishing, but probably best kept for snow melting.
I use mine for family camping but recently found the small burner is ideal for bike packing.
Had 2 mess tins that I "forgot" to hand in when i left the army (along with many other dubious bits of kit). The smaller one I drilled with holes around the side. Use that as a base, put the burner in it and the larger tin on top as the cooking vessel.
As anyone that's used mess tins will know, you can fit a lot of kit in them like food and kitcheny stuff.
I'm too tight to buy role specific stuff!