Originally Posted by
zeppinger
Your problems with the Westwind may have to do with how far away the burner is from the pot you are using. I don't remember the website but I saw some tests done where the guy changed the distances between the burner and the pots and it had a pretty big effect on boil time. Closer was not always better. Maybe you should measure this distance with your Trangia 27 and compare it to the Westwind? Also, dont forget that when using the fry pan, the pan is much FURTHER away than when using a pot because of how the wind screen works.
Yes, I saw a couple of references where they talked about inverting the Westwind stand, which puts the burner further away from the bottom of the pot, and this apparently decreased the boil time by some substantial amount (maybe even 50%).
So I just tried an experiment - first I boiled 2 cups of cold tap water with the burner in the "standard" position (i.e. resting on the Westwind the way it's pictured in their literature). It took 9 minutes to come to a boil. Then I turned the burner off, emptied the water, and let everything cool down for 15 minutes, and tried again, same amount of water - this time with the Westwind inverted, and the burner resting on the ground, so it's further away from the pot. This time the (new, cold) water boiled in just over 5 minutes. Big difference, more than 50% in fact. Wow. So now I am kind of mystified as to why Trangia would market something that clearly works better upside down... in any case, the distance between the burner and the pot clearly makes a HUGE difference to the boil time. Good to know.
Neil