Pinky said:My ancient cooking pots have just about had it, so I have bought a new set
which include a methylated spirit burner and a very effective wind shield
cooker stand.
Sooooo, did you get a Trangia or did you get the Lidl cheap 'n
cheerful version that was about lately? If the latter, I don't
know how good it is so anything following may not quite apply.
Quoted message said:I rather fancy using this spirit burner on my next years tour in Italy. I
think that buying a bottle of methylated spirit ( or the Italian equivalent)
might be a tad easier than buying the small camping gaz cylinders.
IME it's very easy to get cheap spirit in the supermarkets
(admittedly based on a single sample of the first one we tried in
Livigno), so I imagine you'll do okay. What may be worth it is
getting a small Sigg fuel bottle, they do a 300 ml, which will
*not* leak and has pouring holes in the cap so you can deliver
small quantities accurately. You don't have to have one of these
to make them viable, but I do prefer it. Also other sizes if you
want more between resupplies, and note that spirit burners get
through more fuel than other stoves so if you're awau from resupply
for several days at a time the next size up would probably make sense.
Quoted message said:It is a long time ago that I used a spirit burner but I am experimenting at
home at the moment to see how effective it is in cooking a typical stewpot
that I tend to have most evenings on my travels.
Have any camping tourers out there got experience of these at all! Or any
words of advice!
Trangias are pretty good with no moving parts to go wrong. Because
they're so stable you can leave them burbling to themselves while
you get on with something else, and you can use this to make up for
the slow cooking speed (having once been mocked by an MSR owner for
my slow Trangia I challenged him to a "first to dinner"
competition, which he accepted and lost 30 seconds later because my
dinner had already been cooking while I was putting up the tent and
otherwise making camp!)
What they don't give you is outright speed (not generally an issue
for a leisurely brew up after a day on the road) and easily
controlled output. The simmer ring sort of works, up to a point,
but it's a PITA to use compared to a gas valve. For a stew or hot
water, so what, but like David M. I usually use a gas adaptor which
leaves you with the most stable windproof camping stove there is
but faster and more control, but I do sometimes use spirit and it
does work. If you have the Lidl version there's no guarantee the
gas adapters ("official" from Primus or non-official from Markill
at half the price) will fit, so do be wary.
You don't have to use meths. Mine was run on old duplicator fluid
for years, sadly impossible to find in these days of photocopiers,
but lab alcohol works very well too, and is cleaner and less smelly
than meths if you happen to know someone working in a lab. The
stuff you'll buy in continental supermarkets isn't as smelly as
meths either, and is considerably cheaper. For meths, add a little
water and there's less soot produced.
HTH, Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
