Trangia stoves

[profpoopsnagle]

I'm trying to get together a much more basic kit- suitable for weekend camps with just DS and me and backpacking etc. We do have a small folding gas stove (use with coleman tins) but have hankered after a trangia for 27 years! DH was always a bit meh about them, but has changed his mind a bit since seeing one on a campsite.

We'd probably get the gas part as well as the meths to have the choice of fuel.

Are they as good as they say? Do they last, are they easy to clean? Any tips on buying, or is there something that's better?

Friends have one and it seemed to take a long time to do anything. We just got a grill 2 go which might be bigger than you're looking for?

We rarely use anything else. Not slow at all, fuel v safe as long as you have a decent bottle for it. It isn't pressurised, evaporates if you spill it, available in many places.

Love them, cook things like two curries and rice with naan on them.

We have just replaced our old set which was 16 years old. Replaced because the non stick coating was a bit tired and it was cheaper to replace the lot than buy new pans. We went back to the adonised version.

I have a v sophisticated tin, probably from a tin of fruit salad, small, that I use to extinguish the flame so I don't burn the rubber seal on the lid of the burner.

Oh, and the billy can is fab, the whole thing fits inside the billy can.

I know the meths can be slower than gas, which worries me slightly as I do like copious amounts of tea. I think that's why I'd also get the gas attachment. Just for my tea addiction! We do have far too many other means of cooking when camping, this was more for 1 nighters/backpacks.

Good tip Barchester for extinguishing. I was hoping to get away with just the aluminium set- would like non-stick but not sure I'd look after it that well when camping. I've not seen the hardanodized set with a gas available anywhere, if we bought the gas separately would that be ok with the hardanodized set?

It takes about three mins to boil half a kettle of water, six for a full one,

It is a bit slower than gas to bring something like a pan of water to the boil, I am not a big pasta eater so don't cook that often, you might notice it if you cooked pasta a lot I suppose.

You do have to use the heat reduced a fair bit, bacon in the frying pan for instance, or toasting naan bread. The flame is much much too hot to do that nicely without reducing the heat.

I use a tent peg to sort of flick the heat reducer onto the burner/take it off.

You only fill the burner to ⅔ full which gives 30 mins use and only refill when the burner has cooled down.

The HA stuff is just aluminium with a surface treatment to make it harder and scratch resistant so i imagine it would be fine with gas.