In spite of - and I mean this literally - hundreds of iterations of alcohol stove designs available commercially and in the public domain, the Trangia still remains one of my favorites. It's durable, has plenty of fuel volume for large boils, the design is aesthetic pleasing and elegant, and is just about as idiot-proof as you can get.
Its primary disadvantages are its weight (a whopping! 100 grams), which means that there's a lot of mass to heat up (prime), resulting in boil times for mountain cold streamwater creep beyond 12 minutes from the time to light. Another advantage of the Trangia is that it's ill-suited for use without a pot support. Placing a pot directly on top of the stove quenches the flame.
One thing I really like about the Trangia is that it contains a screw-on lid that keeps unused fuel inside the stove, eliminating the need to proactively meter in some precise quantity of fuel required to boil some certain quantity of water. But this isn't a deal breaker for me (I appreciate this most on overnight trips when I only need to boil water for two meals and don't want to take an extra fuel bottle).
In August, yet another company will enter the commercial alcohol stove market with a Trangia look-alike - made out of titanium.
Upon testing it this week, its performance blows away the Trangia - starting with a 20 second prime time (the stove itself weighs only 33 grams, so it heats up fast). This means that combined with its large fuel capacity (about 85 mls), it remains burning at full tilt (by using a pot support that doesn't partially squelch the flame) for twenty five minutes (plenty of time to boil, say, two LITERS of water). If you place a pot directly on it, the burn time exceeds 35 minutes.
The neat things about this stove are that (1) you don't need a pot support, (2) it only weighs 35 g but has 85 mls of fuel capacity, (3) you can boil large volumes with it, (4) its performance doesn't degrade at small volumes because of the fast prime time, (5) its manufacturing quality is impeccable, and (6) you can stand on it (in fact, I can jump on it!). By themselves, these statistics aren't remarkable. Combined, however, it makes for an impressive product.
What this stove doesn't do that the Trangia does is store fuel (it doesn't have a threaded cap), and may not be packaged with a simmer ring, like the Trangia.
Stay tuned at BPL for more about this stove, to be released on ... August 19 or so.
I am a very big fan of the Trangia. I was wondering why they hadn't made it out of other metals, it seems like a no-brainer to me. The screw-top lid is a huge feature in my mind because I don't have to worry about trying to recover unused fuel. Will it be possible to recover unused fuel in this stove?
Posted by: Damien Tougas | June 20, 2009 at 09:01 PM
I am also a big fan of the trangia and I think the new 35 gram Ti style burner/pot stand is heading in the right direction but there are some similar and lighter MYOG aluminum versions around. What makes the trangia burner special is the simmer ring/snuff cap and the screw cap that allows the retention of unused fuel, while there have been a few attempts to copy these ideas I have yet to see a stove that does it as well.
Posted by: Tony Beasley | June 20, 2009 at 09:52 PM
Could prompt trangia to make a titanium version of their own burner? Mind you that burn time is pretty mighty!
Posted by: Baz | June 24, 2009 at 09:55 AM
Any update on possible release date?
Posted by: xraydoc1 | September 08, 2009 at 11:09 AM
@xraydoc1 - I'm testing the pre-release version of the stove with its integrated wind screen and pot support this weekend - more photos and information soon.
Posted by: Ryan | September 19, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Any updates on this stove?
Posted by: Matt T | October 18, 2009 at 09:12 PM
Ditto - I'm waiting to hear how this stove performed also.
Posted by: Deaners | October 19, 2009 at 02:53 PM
I use a Traniga Mini. Excellent piece. But I heard the army version is bigger, but does not have the screw on cap.
Does anybody know of a decent Trangia copy, but slightly bigger, and with a screw on cap?
Thanks.
Posted by: Peter | November 16, 2009 at 02:58 AM
The socalled "Army Trangia" is not made by trangia, but has a slightly larger burner with a screw on cap.
See: http://www.soldf.com/enmanskok.html It's in swedish but has some pictures. There is also a couple of videos on youtube,
Posted by: Johan | November 16, 2009 at 01:09 PM
hi, is this trangia like titanium burner available? i´m thinking for this for a very long time.
best regards
ulesti
Posted by: ulesti | December 10, 2009 at 10:54 PM
Well August 19th is lonnnnnnnggg gone ... or was it Aug 19th 2010?
Posted by: Michael | December 15, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Q: will the trangia fit in the evernew eby254 titanium pot stand?and if so does it over heat?
Posted by: Brian | January 16, 2010 at 10:35 AM