Trangia Mini. What fuel to use ?

[John Sheridan]

I have been googleing on the topic, but have not seem to find an answer, I bought some Mentholated spirts today and from what i have read on the nets, this should work fine, but I was looking for the most efficient fuel, what ever that may be.


Any suggestions.

Cheers.

[sthughes]

Yep Metho is the stuff to use.http://www.trangia.se/core/files/Names_of_fuel_20110318.pdf

[tsangpo]

Metho is the most efficient/cheapest available fuel that works in an alcohol stove (better than rubbing alcohol, grain liquor etc). Gas/butane and petrol/shellite/kerosene have more energy per unit weight but can only be used in stoves designed to use them.

[Marwood]

This is a good place to start: http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/FAQ_Efficiency.htm

[Tony]

I have been googleing on the topic, but have not seem to find an answer, I bought some Mentholated spirts today and from what i have read on the nets, this should work fine, but I was looking for the most efficient fuel, what ever that may be.


Any suggestions.

Cheers.

Hi John,

Here are some links to two papers on Alcohol fuels for bushwalking stoves, you will need a subscription to BPL to read them in full, but to cut a long story short, Australian Methylated Spirits is as good as alochol stove fuel gets anywhere in the world.

Tony

The Performance of Alcohol Fuels for Backpacking Stoves
Part One: Three Straight Alcohols and Alcohol Blends,” by Tony Beasley and Roger Caffin. http://www.backpackinglight.com/ (ISSN 1537-0364).
http://backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/bac ... t_one.html, 2009-05-05 00:05:00-06.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin ... t_one.html

“The Performance of Alcohol Fuels for Backpacking Stoves
Part Two: Water/Alcohol Blends,” by Tony Beasley and Roger Caffin. http://www.backpackinglight.com/ (ISSN 1537-0364).
http://backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/bac ... t_two.html, 2009-05-12 00:10:00-06.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin ... t_two.html

[John Sheridan]

Thanks for the info, I guesss I got the fuel pretty much right, now I have to break in the Trangia, go to decide what to test cook first, maybe some Mash, or some 2 minute noodles, decisions decisions.

Thanks all.

Ahhh defiantly some custard and fish fillets

Cheers.

[John Sheridan]

I just did my first boil test on my Trangia and boiled 2 cups of water in about 7 minutes.


Do you have to break in your trangia, the more you use it the better it preforms, from what I have seen on Youtube that seems the case. Seven minutes seems a little too long when I am doing the boil test inside with no wind at all and not that cold water.

Thanks for any info.

Cheers.

[Stibb]

What is there to break in?
Nothing that I can think of

[Nuts]

I just did my first boil test on my Trangia and boiled 2 cups of water in about 7 minutes.


Do you have to break in your trangia, the more you use it the better it preforms, from what I have seen on Youtube that seems the case. Seven minutes seems a little too long when I am doing the boil test inside with no wind at all and not that cold water.

Thanks for any info.

Cheers.

'Blackening' the pot apparently does help, also ambient temperature will have a drastic effect on boil times. Metho is going to be 'slow', chill, massage yer feet?

[Nuts]

Addum: I havent used a trangia since they were just plain aluminium but have heard of people painting them (outside sides / pot belly spray paint?) to increase this 'blackening', do you have a painted non stick model?

Custard and Fish ???

[Maelgwn]

7-9 min boil times for like 500 ml would be usual for a mini trangia.

[etrangere]

Being a bit of a stove collector one day I was tinkering with my stoves in the kitchen and accidentaly filled and lit my mini trangia filled with shellite........lets just say there was great excitement and luckily placing the burner cap on it put it out!!!

Trangia sells a winter attachment that quickens the time it takes to get the trangia burner up to full throttle. The other option which i do is:

Trangia 27-1UL - remove the rubber o-ring from the screw cap, fill the screw cap with 1 tsp of metho, light it and place the trangia burner/base over it and then light the trangia burner

Mini Trangia - place 1 tsp of metho in the bottom of the windshield/pot stand, place the burner in place and light the metho in the bottom of the windsheild

Both methods really fire up the burner VERY quickly and improve boil times substantially

[etrangere]

I just searched for an older post I made on preheating the trangia and have cut and paste it below to give you and idea of time differences



Trangia offers a "winter attchment" that you place a small amount of metho in and it clips under the burner. You then light the "winter attachment" cup under the burner along with the burner to help get the burner up full speed in cold weather. It can be seen on this link.

http://www.trangia.se/english/2917.tran ... ories.html

I have used this idea with the Trangia 27, instead of a "winter attachment" I used the burner lid. I remove the rubber seal, place a teaspoon of metho in it, light it, then place the windshield with burner over it and light the burner. It certainly get the burner going quickly!!

So i decided to try and test with my Mini Trangia.

Place 1 large teaspoon (Light My Fire Spork) of metho in the bottom of windshield/pot stand.
Place the burner with 50 gms of metho in it in the windshield/potstand.
Light the metho in the bottom of the windshield/potstand. (Didnt light the burner just the metho it was "sitting" in)
Place Mini Trangia pot with 500 mls of water on stand

Wait 20 minutes for everything too cool

Repeat test but this time not using metho in the bottom of the windsheild/pot stand just lighting the burner as normal

Preheating burner time - 5:35
Regular use burning time - 10:30

Thats almost half the time to get 500 mls to a rolling boil!!!

[corvus]

Why not just get a Gas Burner Fire Maple 116T 48g cheap as and excellent ,no liquid to spill or measure and clean fast heat
I do own a Trangia and did the whatsit with heat up/ boil times so know what you are going through but in MHO gas is the way to go Sheesh you can get a gas burner on line for less than $15.00 delivered no danger of Metho spill or flare up.
From a Stove Tragic collector
corvus

[juju]

Since gas is reported to be a more economical fuel. Does anyone use the gas burner attachment in their Trangia? If so, how does it perform?
also wondering if anyone has used it with the Trangia Triangle thingy?

Just found part of the answer at -
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6770&p=84521&hilit=+trangia#p84521
Thanks...

[etrangere]

Hi juju,

I have the trangia triangle and have used it with the trangia gas burner, it works great. From what I can recall to bring 500 mls to the boil in a Snow Peak Trek 700 titanium cup i think it takes about 2 mins and 7 grms of gas fuel. When I have time I can redo a test for you using one of the trangia pots and a snow peak mug if you like.

[Son of a Beach]

The Trangia method burners do not need breaking in, but the do need warming up. After burning for a few minutes, you will quite often hear a "woosh" noise of flame as it hits the optimum temperature and starts burning properly (I think this is when the metho starts burning as vapour, not just as liquid).

I also found that they don't work as well when very full. I think that again this is to do with vapourising before reaching the rim holes, but not sure. In any case, do not fill it right up.

Having said all that, I converted mine to gas a few years ago, and it's MUCH better that way. A lot more controllable for simmering and for more real cooking other than just boiling water - and why would you bother with a heavy Trangia if just boiling water, anyhow?

[John Sheridan]

To boil One cup of water 15 mls, 2 cups 30 mls.

I also think if you use more fuel than you use wastes fuel, I just use the needed fuel for the job.

Something to do with the air fuel mixture, more air is better I think.

I want to build me a beer can stove to see if that is any more efficient or quicker.

Cheers.

[etrangere]

Since gas is reported to be a more economical fuel. Does anyone use the gas burner attachment in their Trangia? If so, how does it perform?
also wondering if anyone has used it with the Trangia Triangle thingy?

Just found part of the answer at -
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6770&p=84521&hilit=+trangia#p84521
Thanks...

Just did a 500 ml boil test using the trangia gas burner with trangia hard anodised pot without a lid

Trangia 27-2 HA - 2:45 mins
Trangia Triangle - 3:15 mins

Both used approx 6 gms of gas. The test was done indoors, the trangia 27-2 HA did slightly better possibly due to less heat escaping due to windsheild, no doubt outside on a windy day the difference would be greater. Both tests were done with the gas burner at full bore, a more moderate flame would probably see the gas usage be a bit more economical to get it to boiling point

[juju]

Thanks etrangere. It will cost a bit to change over but sounds like a good idea and seems a much more stable set up compared to other gas fittings without a hose stuck on top of canister type set ups - they just look so 'I'm waiting to get knocked overish'.