Stoves and Cookwear

[Super Commuter]

Long time Trangia user here. The old duossal 27 series (stainless lined aluminium). Great bit of kit I've used for years - heavier than the straight alloy ones so I just carry one of the pots instead of two to compensate, unless there are two of us. It doesn't get dinged up like the ally ones though. The soot doesn't bother me - it comes off pretty easily.

Never find the cooking time to be a problem. Set it up first thing you do when you arrive somewhere then you can leave it and by the time you've got everything else sorted it's boiling away. Mind you I don't drink tea or coffee at just a short stop - only for breakfast / lunch / dinner stops. Never tried anything else though - never felt the need.

[il padrone]

Long time Trangia user here. The old duossal 27 series (stainless lined aluminium). Great bit of kit I've used for years - heavier than the straight alloy ones so I just carry one of the pots instead of two to compensate, unless there are two of us. It doesn't get dinged up like the ally ones though.

If you ever feel the need for an upgrade, the new hard-anodised alloy model does not get dinged or marked and is a good bit lighter than the duossal (which is no longer made). It also doesn't seem to soot up as bad as my old alloy one used to .

[WestcoastPete]

Received my Bushbuddy wood burning stove a couple of days ago and a Zelph companion alcohol burner designed for Bushbuddy use a few days before that. They both seem like good quality units but I'm yet to try them out. I'm still not sure whether it's a good system or not yet...







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[iacl]

Long time Trangia user here. The old duossal 27 series (stainless lined aluminium). Great bit of kit I've used for years - heavier than the straight alloy ones so I just carry one of the pots instead of two to compensate, unless there are two of us. It doesn't get dinged up like the ally ones though.

If you ever feel the need for an upgrade, the new hard-anodised alloy model does not get dinged or marked and is a good bit lighter than the duossal (which is no longer made). It also doesn't seem to soot up as bad as my old alloy one used to .

I'm still using my original trangia 27 from the early 80's, originally upgraded the pots to duosol and then last year to the anodised ones. Definitely lighter, but I have notice the finish is chipping around the rim with use. I don't think you can beat the duosol lid when cooking, and I tend to pack one duosol and one anodised pot when travelling.

I like the way the older bases roll in, make packing easier, than the newer ones. Or maybe just part of my ocd.

As an aside if just doing an overnighter bike or hike, I tend to use a trangia mini. Totally bomb proof.

[PawPaw]

I've been doing a lot of wok cooking recently, but don't have gas burners in the kitchen now.
Decided some months ago to get out my old Coleman Peak One 400A Backpacker stove, bought around 1980.
It has always put out a lot of heat, and I thought it'd do a better job getting the wok nice and hot.
Friends I've had for dinner are amazed the little thing can cook such a good stir fry.
Don't know the BTU rating exactly, but presume it is around 20,000.
Contemporary commercial wok cooking happens on super burners of 150,000btu's.
However, the best high end home use burners are are 30,000-60,000 btu's.
Normal natural gas stove top burners are 10,000-15,000 afaik.
The hotter burners are better for caramelization and sauce reductions.
I presume true ancient traditional Asian cooking primarily relied on twigs and grass, with which only moderate heat was generated for a short time.

[rifraf]

I had an interesting moment during a storm that crept up on me when at the Nullabor roadhouse.
Whilst chasing belongings that were trying to fly away in the wind, I neglected to keep an eye on my trangia stove which proceeded to melt down like a nuclear reactor.
The wind must have decided to stick with one direction and not the one I had pointed the air opening
of the base of the stove when I'd started to cook my porridge.
I noticed too late and now I've had to order a new base as my original one is toast.
I cant go back to my Optimus 111 as it was confiscated at Sydney airport after my return to NSW to pick up my belongings that didnt come with me on my Mudgee to Perth trip.
The Qantus staff have gotten a little zelous in my opinion, especially since it's fuel tank
was full of water.
The staff member believed they could smell fumes.......(?)
With minutes to board it wasnt worth the stress of arguing .

[baghwan]

Looking for some advise on some cookware to be used on a MSR Dragonfly, want to make things like rice and pasta dishes and also something to fry an egg/bacon or make an omelet etc. Should I be after aluminium or titanium? What brands to avoid? How big do I want?

It will be cooking for 1 at this point.

[RonK]

Titanium pots are better suited to reheating freeze-dried meals and boiling water. They are very thin and prone to hot spots.
If you are going to attempt real cooking, get a heavier aluminum pot of 1L capacity. Since you have an MSR stove why not get an MSR pot.
I have a collection of MSR stoves, but the only one I still use is a Pocket Rocket. Otherwise I use a metho stove.

[il padrone]

For a good quality aluminium cookset I can recommend the GSI Oudoors Bugaboo cookset. Mine looks like this - a great pot set with concentric-patterned base (doesn't slip off pot supports) and durable teflon non-stick coating.




Just doing a Google search there are a range of newer versions of this one on the market now

[WestcoastPete]

I've been using my GSI Soloist ally pot and a stainless steel MSR bowl, used as a pan, costing $6 on my Bushbuddy. I cook rice/pasta in the pot and curry/sauce in the bowl. I guess you'd call it "real" cooking, so aluminium preferred. If I could have gotten a single little Trangia pot I would have, but this little MSR one is fine.

First attempt here.

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[rifraf]

I had an interesting moment during a storm that crept up on me when at the Nullabor roadhouse.
Whilst chasing belongings that were trying to fly away in the wind, I neglected to keep an eye on my trangia stove which proceeded to melt down like a nuclear reactor.
The wind must have decided to stick with one direction and not the one I had pointed the air opening
of the base of the stove when I'd started to cook my porridge.
I noticed too late and now I've had to order a new base as my original one is toast.

I found the guys at Wellington Surplus Stores in Perth very helpful and $30 got me a new base.
Heres a couple of pics that show the results of not having the stoves perforated vent
aimed into the wind.


Anyway it was good to know there was no problems getting hold of parts for Trangia's
The contact at the shop was Les and the email is Les@wellingtonsurplus.com.au
Hope this helps anyone in a similar predicament.

[Aushiker]

That looks pretty scary ... I cannot quite get how it could get so hot from a metho burner to do that. I wonder if the material was faulty in the first place?

Andrew

[il padrone]

Heres a couple of pics that show the results of not having the stoves perforated vent
aimed into the wind.

You been cooking with a blow-torch, rif raf ??




I do not believe this sort of damage is going to result from simple metho use.

[rifraf]

You been cooking with a blow-torch, rif raf ??




I do not believe this sort of damage is going to result from simple metho use.

Hi IP
Well believe it or at your peril dont
Ruined my breakfast, badly burnt a finger, made cooking a challenge for the rest of my trip
(due to having to find suitable platform to sit burner as the top of the base was no longer able
to hold it in place).
On top of some other issues at the Nullabor Roadhouse, it was nearly the straw that broke the
camels back.
I came closer to giving up on that day than any other.
I finally found a fish tin that I could place under the burner to give a stable and approx
right height platform to sit on.

[rifraf]

That looks pretty scary ... I cannot quite get how it could get so hot from a metho burner to do that. I wonder if the material was faulty in the first place?

Andrew

The wind went from swirlingly breezy to howling in mere minutes.
I didnt believe my eyes when it started to distort and made the stupid mistake of
trying to prod it into the correct position with my finger.
I can confirm it was rather warm and my finger later took ages to heal properly.
At that point the burner fell through the top of the base (which had melted away) spilling its metho and creating even more excitement.
Needless to say my porridge could be considered toast at that point.
Dont try this at home is my suggestion

[rifraf]

Trangia talks about the issue here:

http://www.trangia.se/english/2937.faq.html

"2. My pots or windshield has melted, how could this happen?
If you "dry cook", ie put a pot over the flame without food, liquid or fat, it soon becomes too hot and can cause the pot to melt. The vents in the lower windshield should be turned into the wind. If it is wrong or if the wind suddenly turns you can get a back flow that causes the melting of the air holes. Spilt fuel on the ground and the windshield can also cause damage. If you have spilt fuel you need to remove the stove and wipe it dry."

[Aushiker]

Trangia talks about the issue here:

http://www.trangia.se/english/2937.faq.html

"2. My pots or windshield has melted, how could this happen?
If you "dry cook", ie put a pot over the flame without food, liquid or fat, it soon becomes too hot and can cause the pot to melt. The vents in the lower windshield should be turned into the wind. If it is wrong or if the wind suddenly turns you can get a back flow that causes the melting of the air holes. Spilt fuel on the ground and the windshield can also cause damage. If you have spilt fuel you need to remove the stove and wipe it dry."

Well I am glad that I have sold my Trangia .... not something that I consider to be a good design. Glad you got sorted okay anyway.

Andrew

[polishbiker]

I am not into fancy gadgets etc but for cooking i bought an MSR Internationale stove and their Alpine 2 pot set i think, currently using on my Oz tour and it works, cant say anything bad about it.

[RonK]

Trangia talks about the issue here:

http://www.trangia.se/english/2937.faq.html

"2. My pots or windshield has melted, how could this happen?
If you "dry cook", ie put a pot over the flame without food, liquid or fat, it soon becomes too hot and can cause the pot to melt. The vents in the lower windshield should be turned into the wind. If it is wrong or if the wind suddenly turns you can get a back flow that causes the melting of the air holes. Spilt fuel on the ground and the windshield can also cause damage. If you have spilt fuel you need to remove the stove and wipe it dry."

I've never liked Trangia stoves, and this is another reason not to own one. My Clickstand titanium stove would never melt down like this, weighs less and is half as bulky.

[il padrone]

I have toured and camped using a Trangia on and off for about 25 years. It's been used in all sorts of settings, often times with the vent holes pointing away from the wind (in the early days it took me a while to figure this out), occasionally with some spilt fuel, and once accidentally incorrectly fuelling it with mineral turps I have never found it get so hot it would scorch a finger and surely never seen one melt before. The stove base is not even subject to any direct flame heat so it doesn't make sense to me. Not doubting you rif, just wondering if there wasn't some other factor at play ??

[rifraf]

Hi IP,
I think what happens if the wind is strong enough is that it creates a vacuum and
makes the flames get sucked out the inlet vent (if that makes sense).
Instead of the heat rising and coming up and out around the pot, it gets swirled around
in the lower base and the flames get sucked out the perforated vent.
Whilst the Trangia is normally silent, whilst this is going on, the unit was sounding like
an optimus 8r.
Loud enough to not be drowned out by the wind which was literally howling.

Not doubting you rif, just wondering if there wasn't some other factor at play ??

I wouldnt have believed it myself if I hadnt seen it with my own eyes and been stupid enough
to try to prod it in the desired direction with my finger.

I'm not sure I'm explaining just how wild the wind was when it came up.
If you had a tent up and got out of the tent you would have seen your tent fly away, that is if you didnt blink.
It was blowey but not really gusting when I started cooking.
I started after I'd been forced earlier to pack up my camp due to rain and squalls.
Then it really started blowing.
I was forced to rent a cabin for the next few days much to the horror of my wallet and
dwindling food supply which was already stretched due to my not realising the last roadhouse had been closed for a number of years.

[Joeblake]

Biolite Camping Stove

http://biolitestove.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A couple of years ago in the Gizmag website was an article about the Biolite stove being built for third world countries.

http://www.gizmag.com/biolite-low-em...g-stove/14952/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There were two versions, the home stove and the camping stove. The home stove was not (and currently is not) available for sale to the public as it was going straight to the target market.

However, the camping stove was for general sale and after much haunting of the website, waiting for the release, I finally received my stove yesterday.

The principle is simple, but the solution is fairly high-tech. The stove has a sophisticated electronics package which uses the heat from the fuel to generate electricity, which runs a two-speed fan, and also generates power to charge cell phones, lights and other devices via a built in USB port. The on-board battery can also be charged from the USB port of a computer to "condition" the battery initially, or if it's been unused for some time.

As I know, owning a fairly well treed piece of ground, honky nuts tend to be fairly fire resistant, and therefore a bit of a pain, especially when it comes to mowing the grass, as they can be flung at fairly high speed and cause injury and damage. I figured if this stove could burn honky nuts, it was really going to be good, because in terms of biofuel, honky nuts are plentiful but difficult to burn.

This morning, after having charged the battery overnight, I set the stove up on my back patio, which is pretty open to fresh air, but with a concrete floor. I had a bucket of water standing by, as well as a fire extinguisher, and I collected some twigs as suggested in the manual, and a small handful of honky nuts. The stove came with a packet of fire starters, but I didn't want to use them, so a couple of strips of newspaper were (eventually) enough to start the twigs going. I switched on the fan and as the breeze came out of the holes in the side of the cylinder holding the fuel, the fire started to build up. I placed a couple of well seasoned honky nuts in and then switched on the fan to high speed. The design is such that the fan won't go to high speed until there's sufficient heat being generated, and it didn't take long for the second stage to kick in. I'd placed a tin billy can on the stove with about half a litre of water. The website suggests four and a half minutes to boil a litre, I'm not sure when they turned the stopwatch on, but it took more than 4 minutes to make the water uncomfortably warm, but warm it was. After about 3-4 minutes the fire had a real hold and I could see that the honky nuts were starting to burn.

Initially there was the usual grey wood smoke, but once the system kicked in the smoke was considerably reduced and had a blackish tinge. (Tar?) I didn't breathe it for too long, but there were flame jets coming out from under the billy. (This was one reason for creating the stove, to reduce the inhalation of wood smoke by people cooking on wood/ dung fires.)

I'd added too much fuel, it seemed, as little as there was. I had to wait quite a while for the flames to die away. As a safety feature, the fan stays on (at low speed) as long as there is fire, otherwise the heat could damage the electronic pack. There is a mesh guard around the body of the stove so it can be picked up with reasonable comfort. Eventually I sprinkled a few small drops of water into the fire (not recommended) and then turned the ash and fuel into the bucket of water.

To complement this stove I bought a free standing barbeque grill and plate on four legs, which was exactly the right height to have the stove sit underneath to heat a billy, a camp oven or even grill meat. The plate has built in gutters to drain the oil and other liquids away through a hole, but this would seem to be a not so good idea with some sources of heat, as the fat etc could catch fire. However, if I was cooking over an open fire, this would be an excellent idea. Obviously this wouldn't be something one would carry on a bicycle, but in a car, perhaps yes.

The latest news on the website tells about delivering some of these stoves to people affected by Superstorm Sandy, which would be very useful, given the capacity to generate 5 volts of power. The spec sheet says it will generate 2 watts (AT) 5 volt continuously, and 4 watt peak.

I don't intend to use it very often, especially given that we are about to enter our peak bush fire season, but it's certainly looking like a very useful piece of emergency gear for the 21st century citizen, giving fire and electricity, for cooking, lighting and communication, using almost any biofuel likely to be found. (The book recommends NOT using liquids, gels, plastics or other accelerant.)

On the down side, the good book suggests that the Biolite should not be used during heavy rain, which I would rather have thought would be one time it was needed most.

Joe

[WestcoastPete]

I remember looking at these stoves a while ago, and they look great. They certainly look like they'll burn well. The weight of them was the main thing that put me off and onto the Bushbuddy instead. Bushbuddy weighs about 160g compared to over 900g for the Biolite. I also think that there are better ways of keeping things charged than a device like this.

One thing's for sure though; a well designed wood burning stove is a great thing! I grew up in Mt Helena and can imagine you in Lesmurdie burning your honky nuts (and getting struck in the shins by them when you're mowing the lawn. Being able to use them for fuel would be cool...

[Aushiker]

Thanks Joe. Great to get a review on the stove.

Andrew

[Joeblake]

Really caught myself out yesterday. After going all goo-goo over the Biolite and how it would burn honky nuts, a huge storm came galloping through Perth and the south-west yesterday, taking down the power for about 50,000 houses. Great, I thought, I get to use the new stove. Trouble was, 13 mm of rain came bucketing down as well, and I couldn't find any dry fuel in the back yard. So I had to use my gas barbeque and camp oven to cook dinner. And I managed to keep watching TV by pedalling on my 'bent 12 volt generator. It's things like this that make me reconsider the quality of TV. It's almost not worth raising a sweat over.

Joe