Originally Posted by
rollotheclown
ok so it seems like everyone is big on the trangia type stoves. maybe I missed something because when I used a little trangia before I was not impressed. it had really poor heat output and it blackened the pots really bad and I had to be really careful to not get it allover everything. my wife thought that it had to do with the % of denatured alcohol we were using. like the stuff we had might have been 70/30 and to burn cleaner and hotter it needs the 90/10 blend (which we never found in the drugstores here in the US)
discuss...
Re: sooting. As per Trangia instructions, add a little water into fuel before lighting it, that reduces sooting somewhat. It'll never be as clean as gas burner though. The fuels I use have at least 80-90% ethanol.
I have a Trangia with both alcohol and gas burner. Both have pros and cons. Gas burner is fast, efficient and clean and has nice simmering. It's also loud and very erratic in cold conditions. Partially frozen canister doesn't work too well. Alcohol burner on the other hand is silent, works as intended even in cold temperatures, is usually lighter (as you only carry whatever amount of fuel you need). But it does soot the pots, it's slower / requires more fuel to achieve same heating, and simmering is so-so. Accumulated soot on pots further degrades its performance noticeably.
In Trangia gas burner, the gas line screws onto the canister. When it's unscrewed, the canister is sealed again. There's an adaptor available for punch type canisters. If I've understood correctly, the adaptor stays put on the canister, but gas line can be attached and removed as needed. I haven't used the adaptor though, so I could be mistaken on this.
--J