Trangia Spirit Burner

[CharlesHarris]

The military surplus Trangia burner is made in Sweden and is still used by several NATO militaries. I have used mine for over 25 years since I was first introduced in the ski patrol when I lived in New Hampshire. It is inexpensive, reliable, compact, and suitable for year-round use as a backpacker stove. It is as small, rugged and simple as a stove can get.

While alcohol does not have the heat output of propane, butane or naptha, comparing fuel volume, and burner weight, cooking / boil times are very reasonable. I use my Trangia mostly for heating water to hydrate Mountain House freeze dried or US military LRP-CW cold weather rations.

The Trangia is favored by special operation troops because it produces little smoke or light, is absolutely silent in operation and weighs next to nothing. Alcohol spills evaporate without leaving any residual smell. I find that the lower heat output of alcohol is actually an advantage, because it results in less burned food.

In the US alcohol is more expensive (about $8 per gallon) than unleaded white gasoline or Coleman fuel, but suitable alcohol fuel is available just about everywhere. Boil times are longer in windy conditions use the burner without a wind screen. At first you may have difficulty predicting how much fuel to put into the stove, balancing between fuel waste and early flame-out. Use of the windscreen is highly recommended, because it saves fuel and also reduces cooking time. Military units come with an O-ring cap, which permits fuel to be transported in the stove. Using a simmer top also helps to extinguish or regulate the flame. Appropriate care is necessary, because burning alcohol may spill, if accidentally knocked over, but the Trangia is generally stable.

To improve winter ignition, carry the burner and its fuel bottle in your anorak pocket, so your stove will be kept above freezing and then will light instantly. In below freezing conditions the stove cooks more slowly, but a useful trick is to use the lid as an pre-heating burner by first removing its O-ring, then lighting an eye dropper full of fuel in the cap, placing it under the lit burner supported in the inverted wind screen, to preheat the fuel. This yields impressive results quickly, but for safety sake, do so only outside the tent!!

Some articles say to dilute methanol fuel with 10% water to reduce soot. I’ve never done this, because higher proof alcohol produces more heat. If you rub some liquid soap on the pan bottom, any soot cleans off easily. Another tip is to light the stove from a wooden splint dipped in the pool of alcohol, holding the flame over the pool of fuel, until it vaporizes enough to ignite. This is more effective than trying to light pooled fuel directly with a match so that preheating is unnecessary, even in subzero weather. On snow, use pot supports, resting the burner on a piece of plywood glued to a piece of insulating foam. Use another insulated support to rest set your pot on, so that it does not sink into the snow.

Never screw the cap onto a hot stove, but always wait until the burner cools, to avoid damage to the O-ring seal. A bit of silicone grease on the O-ring and threads helps sealing and eases assembly and disassembly. Best part of the Trangia is that you won’t ever need a wrench or spare parts kit. It is truly the “AK47 of backpacking stoves.”

In the Trangia alcohol I will describe my methodology so that others can follow similar procedures to compare their cookers. I started with 500ml or about 2/3 of a US canteen cup full of water, the amount required to heat and hydrate one LRP-CW ration. The canteen water was stored overnight, outdoors, at a temperature of 5 degs.C. Using undiluted denatured alcohol fuel, a full tank in the Trangia set up in its Swedish issue windscreen, lighting after pre-heating with the cap trick, burned for 15 minutes, outdoors in fresh breeze, bringing the water to a slow boil, using exactly the right amount of fuel with no waste.