Starting out?

Hi,

I'm interested in either the 1.0L or the 1.2L trangia UL aluminium pans.They can be bought on their own, not part of a pot set, for about £6/7 each.

Can you buy a lid for either of these pots or, if not, have you made a lightweight lid for yours?

How are they for cooking ?

Do they clean well and so keep their apperance ? 

Do they dent or get squashed easily ?

Are they stable on a small gas burner  ?

Thanks

We use standard Trangia pots which are fairly light anyway.  For a lid we just use the frying pan, which is a useful thing in any case as far as our cooking goes.

Do they clean well and keep their appearance or dent?  Well, mine look petty battered, dented and not what they were, but they've seen a lot of use in the 24+ years I've had them. I would imagine the ULs would follow a similar profile though might not go for quite so long.

We use them on non-trangia stoves too, and they're just as good as anything else I've seen on those.

Pete.

Thank you Pete!

I did some homework as I'm interested in the 1.0L pan for the 27 stove model. 

The pans come in 3 versions : aluminium (A), no-stick(N) and hard anodised (HA).

See needle sportsfor weights and costs of the 3 versions of this saucepan and frying pan lid. Lightest is HA and weighs 170g complete with frying pan lid which I suppose is quite light. It would cost £30 and still require a handle. The pot grabber Paddy Dillon as offered me should do  as a handle provided I don't fill the pan with liquid as only suitable for 0.8l pan. This would bring total weight for pot and lid and 'handle' to about 190g. About 70g heavier than the Evernew titanium 0.9l pan I like, though is slightly smaller. Then add on weight of F1 lite stove (70g) is about 260-70g

If you do ever go down the meths route (maybe when your F1 lite breaks - it will)

then, worth noting that a Trangia pan will take a rolled caldera clone inside.

Also worth noting is that a cheap £2 ali pan grab when drilled out to a similar pattern to the trangia pangrab, weighs about 22g. (compared to 34g for my old Trangia one)

The lid (under banana in the piccy below) is a thin aluminium plate - from Tescos years ago - 99p - about 50g

Mole wrote (see)

A while back, a mate brought me back some US aluminium flashing. 

Cones/windshields made from it are robust, but still relatively light.  There is a plastic coating which needs burning/rubbingoff, as it gets a bit smelly as it burns - after a while it goes away.

As a thank you, I made him a clone and redbull open burner to use with a small trangia pan and suitable light ali lid/plate which I had spare. Due to the pan width, a cone fits across inside rolled up plus the burner/fuel measure and pan grab(the latter  fits inside cone).  Plenty room for a J cloth and teabags/cup a soup etc.

The stove performs rather well in the real world - we had an overnighter with a  windy Tor pitch a week or so ago  where he used it for supper and breakfast .

Thanks as usual go to Capt P for providing the script.

Alistair, take a look at your kitchen saucepan lids and mimic one of the handles on the top by carving a piece of wood. Not very big maybe a centimetre and a half, square will do but if you are adventurous you can round the top off. Pre bore or push a small start hole in the wood to accept the screw and push the screw through the foil and tighten.

You might have to experiment with wood and the screw size so you don't split the wood. I have used an oak twig for the wood, but use what is to hand. You will soon see what looks okay to do the job and it only takes a few minutes.

SD I'll give that a go, thanks. Mole, that's new that my f1 will break some time. It still looks in great condition and hasn't been used much so hopefully there will be life in it yet. If it did break one day, that could be the end of my camping trip.

The Caldera Cone - is it okay in the wind ? How about in the tent, could there be a danger of a flare buring my tent ? I think I'm unlikely to go down this route as I don't want to make anything myself that takes times and is really not that satifactory in the end - just a guess , having no experience of these types of stove. Should be lightweight though I guess. How efficient is it with methylated spirit ? If it's cheap and easy to make and lightweight and reliable and burns well and is stable when cooking and no risk to tent and is reasonably efficient,I would consider it.

The Cones or Clones are very stable, they are meant for alcohol/meths burners. The cone is a good wind screen as well as pot stand.

In a tent safer than most but it is very rarely worth the risk. Option of burnt tent /no shelter miles fron anywhere against a bit of discomfort cooking outside.

Place you shelter door on the leeward side of the wind so you can use that side or a vestibule for stove shelter. 

If you cannot cope with the elements and the stove eat your snacks instead of cooking even less risk.

Alastair Soutar wrote (see)

Are we saying that the Clones using alcohol as fuel may flare and it is recommeded not to use them  inside your tent porch ?

 No and No

 Just be sensible, learn your stoves foibles - whatever the fuel

Meths is not a volatile fuel, and the stoves I've used haven't flared as much as gas stoves I've had (as for petrol stoves)

Cones are more windworthy than gas and way more stable. 

I always cook in my tent porch (when pitched!) if there  is any sort of wind or weather. Always. Gas or Meths.  (no accidents yet  - 28years regular unsupervised camp cooking) 

I've only owned and used a Trangia stove. Alcohol once lit if toppled over will simply follow gravity, the burning liquid will flow til its either absorbed by the ground  in a porch, or go over your tent floor if you were cooking inside your inner tent. For that reason cook in the porch. You've only got a small amount of alcohol in the stove.

The stove (the bit with meths in which actually has the flame) is not attached to the cone which is your pot stand and windbreak combined so if the pot were knocked you get the pot's contents potentially on the floor but the lit meths would be not touched.

A canister cooker system, wherever the canister gets pointed so does the flame.

All canister systems have a mechanical aspect, thread between stove and canister, lighters and other carefully crafted aspects. A Caldera Cone and Alcohol type system is so much simpler if anything bends you can un-bend it whilst camping and very difficult to break.

Back to the original question, don't Trangia pans , the newer ones, have a small step in their bases now? I saw one of them did? That would just a produce a little wobble on a stove? They are meant to not rest on the stove directly but be resting on a ring inside the full Trangia 27kit.

So using a Cone in a tent porch responsibly should be no more likely to cause tent damage due to burning than a gas canister type stove. That's good! I'm still interested. Do you buy a branded Cone or make your own ? Weight ? Will it take e.g. a Trangia 1.0L pan ? and will it also take a titanium mug?

Perhaps deference was too soft. A Cone in a porch is the safest option.

The Alu pans you're interested, a cone will handle as it has a wide lip on the pan. Trail Designs Caldera Cone vs a Clone... well I think probably best in UK to go with a clone because you'll learn lots which is ultimately in the long-term the most valuable. Understanging materials will help with self-repair and understanding the cone concept help with fuel efficiency.

CP will be along shortly I'm sure with the prog.

b a wrote (see)

" Alcohol once lit if toppled over will simply follow gravity, the burning liquid will flow".... Wouldn't it be a good idea pour water on it to extinguish it (as alcohol is miscible with water). How come meths bottles/stoves don't mention this. Meths still seems a little bit safer than gas to me.

so I've only spilt meths once so limited experience but I'd say the issue not the flame going out, it will spread out over cold ground so thinly and heat rises and you can mop up quickly I don't think material damage is your concern, its the smell of it. Adding water to extinguish it would simply spread the smell out over longer.

Mop it up and then clean it with water after.

The smell will get into all your gear so quickly, so containment, mopping up and then water for cleaning is less smell than throwing water everywhere worrying about a flame

Sure if it pools somewhere deep enough long enough it can be melting something but that's unlikely I think. Interesting to know in that fraction of a second what you'd use to soak it up quick..... hopefully nothing expensive

All my tents have been selected with porch for cooking in mind.

Trangia kits themselves have a wide heavy base and a robust windshield, so they will tend to not fall over and you don't need to be bringing too near to your gear if they were to accidentally spill meths. The suggestion of Trangia pans on a canister stove is not nearly as safe.