Swiss Brass Alcohol Stove

It's a Trangia .
(Your stove provably has Svea stamped on the bottom)
Franco

It's a Trangia

True, but $10.96 (including shipping to my location) would be a decent price if this old stove junkie didn't already have a Trangia burner.

Just don't use their advice to "fill the burner with rubbing alcohol" as this will result in a worldfull of smoke and soot. Use HEET or denatured alcohol instead.

I love Trangias, and while I no longer take one backpacking, my wife and I continue to use our old model 25 for car camping trips and have enjoyed so many great meals from it. Ah, Swedish design…

Michael

"rubbing alcohol" is a generic term used to refer to either denatured ethanol or isopropyl alcohol. Because rubbing alcohol is designed to be applied to the skin, denatured ethanol sold as rubbing alcohol will be denatured with ingredients safe for skin contact, but not ingestion. Isopropyl rubbing alcohol is often sold at 91% percent alcohol, while ethyl rubbing alcohol is sold at 70%.

Thanks for the info, Cameron! I assumed that "rubbing alcohol" referred to isopropyl, but your info and a quick Google confirmed otherwise.

Since I try to learn at least one thing new a day, I can go to bed happy now. :)

Michael

First off thanks for the replies I didn't get to finish my post and can't figure out how to edit my post since I'm using my blackberry to type this. Ok I got this to use in my sterno folding stove well I've used %70 rubbing alcohol before reading the label well it wouldn't light so I dried it out good and tried the %91 percent and it would still barely light I could only get the center little pool catch on fire but barely I thought only the holes were supposed to catch on fire I've even used a dropper to drop the %91 in the holes and still nothing I have 2 of these and they both do it. Should I try and open up the holes and make them bigger, since I have to I'm willing to experiment on one or maybe I should try a different fuel? Please give me some suggestions on what to do cause so far it seems like i wasted money and just a little more info it does this inside and outside of the little orange folding sterno stove. Please help me figure this out, thanks in advance.

Any alcohol should light easily enough if you are not too cold, so what you are describing is kinda puzzling.

But what do you mean by 'dried it out good'? If you sat it out in the open to 'dry' it is likely that all the alcohol evaporated away leaving just water. That's not so good!

No, don't open the holes. They work just fine for everyone else. Something else is the matter.

No, don't try 'other fuels' because most of them either won't work or will be dangerous.

If you could include a photo of what you are doing it might help a lot.

Cheers

Hi,

It 'sounds' like you have added water to make your '70%' alcohol – in which case I'm not too surprised it won't light. Apologies if my understanding is incorrect. In my experience, adding more than about 10% water can make UK meths difficult to light.

I wouldn't mess with the 'pure' alcohol at all until you've figured out how to light the burner, and you might want to practice that in windy conditions and also with ice cold alcohol (it will be harder) before deciding you want to add water to vary the burn quality. I find I need a sustained flame when conditions are cold – I've had no success at all with a firesteel in such conditions, though they work Ok at 'normal' temperatures.

You say you had the central well alight with your 91% mix, but that you were expecting the flames to come out of the smaller holes. They will …. it just takes a minute or two for the heat generated by the burning alcohol in the well to spread throughout the burner and start forcing vaporised alcohol through the smaller holes, where it will be lit by the flames from the centre well. My guess would be you just didn't wait long enough.

Hope this helps. Oh, and if this is a trangia copy, use the simmer ring in closed position to quench the flame, not the screw on lid. The lid contains a rubber o-ring/gasket which will be damaged by heat.

Cheers, Simon

I got it figured out I just had to let it burn longer then I started to hear a sizzling sound then the little holes caught up so thanks everyone

I didn't add the water I didn't read the label and accidentally bought the 70% kind then went back and bought the 91% cause it was the highest % I could find

So, as an aside, having already confessed that I can't seem to get cold alcohol to light with a firesteel – can anyone else?

As an experiment I stuck the 12-10 stove that came with my Caldera and my bottle of UK meths (alcohol with nasty stuff added so people don't drink it) with only about 30ml of meths in it into the freezer, left it for 20 minutes to simulate cold conditions, then took both outside and quickly tried to light the stove. I tried it sparking right into the main body of the stove, and also into the priming dish with a couple of ml of the same cold meths in there. I couldn't get it to light, and the conditions were pretty calm. Obviously, once things warm up to 'not in the freezer' temperatures I can do it, but that never seems to happen up on the hill when it's cold and windy, and I'd guess even alcohol in a bottle warmed against the body will chill pretty quickly once dispensed in a small volume into a soda-can stove.

I've seen comments from people saying they ALWAYS use a firesteel to light alcohol. So …. what's the trick I'm missing?

I'm using a Light My Fire mini and a Light My Fire scout. I've tried the trick of keeping the striker still and pulling the steel towards you, but no joy.

Master Sparkers: please reveal all!!

Cheers, Simon

91% isoproyl alcohol tends to flare-up badly…I stuff 100% cotton balls into the fuel reservoir, then the fuel, and light. Reduces flare-ups fairly well. The cottons balls are reusable just don't burn until charred and black. Another fuel option is a 50/50 mix of 91% alcohol and HEET…barely if any sooting.

b.gin

Same experience here this past winter in temps somewhere in the 20's. My GF was not impressed with my lack of skills. I ended up removing the stove and using an esbit tab I had as a backup. I was using everclear as my fuel. I'm not convinced alcohol is the way to go in sub-freezing conditions.

> I'm not convinced alcohol is the way to go in sub-freezing conditions.

You are not the only one to think that way!

It can be done of course, but it is a lot harder. If travelling with GF there are other factors to consider…

Cheers

Good news. That is pretty much what happened with me when I first tried the Trangia (or a copy, I have had a few…) it did not help that in daylight it's hard to see the flame. But in the end they all work. For sub freezing temps I have used a cotton ball impregnated with petroleum jelly (Vaseline) . You light that and put it inside the Trangia. Unlike what Bailey does, mine just burns away but I use very little.
Another way is to carry a 9h (whatever) tea light and just use that to warm up the Trangia. (use the pot grabbers to hold the Trangia over the tea light.
But as pointed out , alcohol is not ideal in winter particularly for an extended trip.
Franco

It occurs to me that a drawback of these firesteels is that not everything will light with a spark. I haven't done these myself but I know of two theoretical methods to light alcohol in winter:

1. Spill a little fuel into that little depression that surrounds the burner part of the Trangia stove. The very small volume should vaporize after holding a match to it for a few seconds. The main burner should catch after it's warmed up a little.

2. If you only have a firesteel you can make a featherstick and dip it into the alcohol to create a spark lightable match. Then use method 1 above or try to light the pool directly with this match. This video shows this done around minute 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpzHLic1A0Y&feature=related

In cold weather I keep a 2oz bottle of alcohol in my shirt pocket. Then just warm the stove with my hands for a minute before filling and away it goes. A windproof lighter helps too.

If it's warm enough and has a wick, alcohol will light from a piezo spark too.

I think this just highlights the necessity of performing your own tests with your stoves of choice in the worst situations you can reasonably simulate. And using the results of your own practical tests to inform your decision making and equipment choices, rather than relying on what you read online.

It seems that all too often, people publish the weights/fuel consumption of their rig of choice when it's been used in conditions which are not realistic for adverse mountain conditions.

It would be good to see, alongside the results in optimal conditions, a formal system adopted by BPL of independent testing in known cold ambient conditions, using cold gear/fuel/water, and in known windy conditions at known high elevation, specifying the method and weight of lighting and wind protection in order to provide a true comparison of the weights of stoves and the equipment that is necessary to allow them to work efficiently and reliably.

Strong wind, for instance, makes an enormous difference to lighting pretty much anything. It snuffs out BIC lighters and matches, snuffs out Esbit tablets, cools down alcohol rapidly, tries to steal your windshield etc. And the lighter in weight the constituent parts, the harder it is to keep it all together in bad conditions. If the accent is on reducing weight, then fine, but it should also be on the overall weight incurred in ensuring near total reliability in bad conditions.

As an example, it seems that canister stoves get a rough press sometimes because of weight over short trips. But I think I can probably guarantee that I can light my remote canister stove with a 12g Light My Fire firesteel at 0C in windy conditions. I'm pretty sure I (personally) can't make that guarantee with an alcohol stove and the same firesteel and nothing else.

In the UK, there are people using Esbit tablets, who carry a Turboflame storm-resistant butane lighter in order to be 'mostly' sure they can light the tablets. They carry windproof matches as backup. The weight of the storm-resistant lighter and the matches is not far off the weight of a light canister-top stove with piezo ignition and a light firesteel as backup.

The point, basically, is that reliability has a weight, and it seems to be missing from calaculations,

I don't really see the difference between using the ,ignored by you , cotton balls to light an alcohol stove and you using a fire steel to light your gas stove. Neither seem to me to be "standard issue", but they are the sort of solutions people use in difficult/harsh situations.
BTW, there is a mountaineering and a separate winter forum here that deal more specifically with "out of the norm" situations.

Franco

Hi Franco,

Actually, thanks for the suggestion. As it happens, I didn't ignore it and did try it out. I found it did work, but I had to be pretty quick otherwise the ball quickly soaked up lots of cold alcohol and then itself became hard to light from a spark. Are you lighting it before dropping it into the stove?

Cheers, Simon

Be careful with holding a vaseline soaked cotton ball as you light it. It tends to stick to your fingers at the critical moment! Maybe a tent stake could be useful…

Hi Simon
Yes I do light it before I drop it into the stove (details,details) . What I do is pull one strand out to hold it (so that it looks like a tadpole…) light that and drop it, gravity takes care of that, but Roger's advice is to be taken into consideration. BTW I have burnt my fingers several times lighting alcohol stoves (without the cotton balls) so I am used to it.
Just the other day when I was experimenting with the Caldera Cone using the JetBoil pot I "had" to put my fingers over the stove to see if it was alight or not, it was . Did that later on , same result .
Franco

Ah ok, I'll give that a try.

Cheers, Simon

Simon,
If you put you fingers over the stove you Will burn them!

Trust Franco! He's tried it. He Knows…