Meths Burner Stove Set Up.

[neverready]

I realise there is nothing groundbreaking in this post but I thought I would just share the latest incarnation of my lightweight stove set up for my 72 hour bag.

I have been trialing a few different options in the difficult, tasking, harsh environment of...my back garden Actually, don't laugh...my garden could possibly qualify for one of the windiest places on the planet!

I do have one excellent solution which is an Eastern European, Swedish style mess kit with meths burner and windshield. It works a treat and it's something I have used successfully in the field. However it's a bit bulky and a touch heavy for what I want so I have been on the search for a lighter, smaller solution.

I did buy a Bushcraft Essentials Pocket micro stove and managed to heat some water to an acceptable temperature for tea using wood for fuel. Unfortunately the effort it required far out weighed the benefit of a cuppa! A couple of hexamine blocks in it did work really well however I'm not a huge fan of the smell and they can be pretty tricky to light!

Today I decided to try a different system using the trangia from the mess kit, the trivets from the top of the micro stove, and a baked bean tin wind shield! And by Jove, I think I've cracked it

To qualify my "success"...all I want is a lightweight, portable, easy to light system to make a hot drink. If I ever find myself needing to boil a lot of water or to keep warm to survive, then of course I would just light a fire.

Anyhoo, here it is...trangia, trivets, wind shield, £1 aluminium bottle and a cup for a lid! I managed to bring about 500ml of water to a rolling boil in around 10 minutes in very windy conditions. In practise I would probably only boil around 250ml for a cuppa. At a guess, the trangia holds enough meths for probably 5 or 6 cuppas...enough to feel a bit more "normal" while bugging out in the woods! And it all fits in the bottle pouch on the side of my bag.

[cpslashm]

Nice setup.

If I may suggest?

1. Keep as much wind off it as possible - cold air blowing around the bottle will suck heat from it, taking more fuel and time.

2. Find space for a stainless steel vacuum flask - reduces the number of times you need to heat water. Also, you can have a cuppa while waiting for the water to boil!

[nickdutch]

nice work

[neverready]

@cpslashm...I do like the idea of a flask...I will see how I feel about pack weight next time I go out

@nickdutch...Thanks...I do like it when the simple...and cheap solutions work

[neverready]

Made a modification already

I decided to try it out in optimum conditions...i.e. my kitchen! A half full ally bottle took surprisingly long to boil! In fact it took almost 15 minutes...which is odd...because it only took 10 minutes to boil a full bottle in my windy garden! The only thing I can think of is that although it was a windy day, it was quite warm and sunny, so maybe the ambient temperature made a big difference?

One thing that did concern me was the height of the trivets. I felt as though they could be higher to utilise the hottest part of the flame. I had a bit of a dig round inn the cupboard under the stairs and found an old aluminium vent. Half an hour with a junior hacksaw, pliers and sandpaper later...I had new, much taller trivets.

I set it up again, stuck on the ally bottle, half full, and it reached a very vigorous rolling boil in under 5 minutes! I used the tin can windshield just to make sure I wasn't restricting the airflow too much, obviously there was no wind!

So pretty pleased with the results but of course you never really know until you use these things in anger as it were!

[Mally]

The trangia burner holds 20 minutes worth of fuel.
The reason it took longer to heat water inside is because meths burns at a very low heat but out in windy conditions, the trangia actually performs better and hotter due to the increased oxygen supply. It's what they're designed to do! It's the only stove I know of where you turn it into the wind rather than shield it.

[neverready]

Really? That's good to know...thanks! I was just going by the actual Trangia kit and cook sets that always have a wind shield with them!

In fact, to quote the Trangia site...

The ventilation holes in the lower windshield are turned to face into the wind to increase the oxygen supply to the burner. If the wind becomes too strong, the stove is turned to maintain the required flame

...so I guess my home made windshield is still of some use when it comes to regulating the flame.

Great tip though...much appreciated

[nickdutch]

If you use the tin can windshield, that could be increasing the updraft in a controlled manner like the outer wall of the top lit updraft wood gasifier, or like a pot skirt, thus increasing the power of the burn. There are many things that can affect the resultant heat and efficiency. It takes playing to get your system right.

[neverready]

More experimentation!

Firstly I discovered that the double wall, stainless mug as a lid is more important than I had anticipated I tried using the simmer ring from the meths burner as a lid and it took ages to boil!

Then I tried the mug lid set up without the windshield...300ml to a good rolling boil in 6 minutes...very windy.

Same set up but with the windshield..........................300ml to a good rolling boil in 8 minutes...still very windy!

I didn't really notice how much fuel was used...although if I do it again I will measure it out and I expect I might see a difference.

So I'm not particularly happy with the fuel efficiency side of it. Although the fact that I can store enough fuel inside the burner for a few cuppas, keeping it all compact and light weight might just save the day.

Alternatively I might just sod it all and light a bloody fire

[neverready]

And another thing....

Just tried another little experiment with the windshield. Got the burner blooming nicely with a nice cone of flame and then added the windshield. The shape of the flame changes completely and becomes quite erratic. I think for a windshield of any kind to be of a benefit then it will need to be of a much bigger circumference. Nixing my baked bean tin idea