Trangia stove- Mad or Sad??

soma1972

Hi all,

Should i take my small trangia stove when my girlfriend and myself go to india in December or is it madness and not worth the hassle? - I've got shitloads of space left in my rucksack coz i bought one with a 65litre capacity but have only filled a quarter of it with all my gear that i'm taking.

I thought it would be handy to boil water for drinking, make a decent cup o' tea - how very british!, and for the occasional snack/meal.

We will be traveling for a week on trains/3 weeks in goa/Kerala and undecided on what to do with our last week, i want to bring home the usual objects/tat/souveniers/trinkets for friends & family so am i better using the extra space in my rucksack for stuff i've bought/been fleeced into buying?.

On my last trip abroad (africa) i took my stove and minature sony shortwave radio and there was a pervese satisfaction gleaned from brewing my own tea when the sun came up over the plains whilst listening to the local news from home or the archers on the BBC world service, Why go abroad you may ask if i listen to news from home?, Hmm... honest answer - every one gets a little homesick at times, but sit down and brew up a cup o' tea and it soon passes.

I know tea/coffee etc is only a few rupees but i've met and exchanged addresses/ built friendships all because i had the ability to make a brew/soup etc. If i do decide to take it, what is the availibility of methylated spirits in india (for fuel) easy or a pain in the arse to get hold of?.

Cheers

Kenny

Travelmore

It sounds like a good idea to me, its got me thinking maybe I'll take mine??

vistet

I carry one myself. Some practical tips : spirits/alcohol/meths may be a bit hard to find , last time I found it in a pharmacy.
If you are concerned about the weight, there is a mini set (one pan, frying pan and small windshield) that weighs in at at around 300 gram. There are also titanium pans available but dont use the titanium frying pan - bad heat distribution and hard to clean.
Fot trekking above 3000 m you really need the kerosene version (which should be interesting to get past airport security , the tank basically looks like bomb with a cable on the X-ray)

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Midnite Toker

The Trangia is a very nice stove, with the slight problem already mentioned by vistet of fuel availability.
I use meths. (known as "denatured spirits" in India) for starting my Primus kerosene stove, and found the hardware shops were often a good source to find it. Look for those shops that have a range of all kinds of DIY stuff on offer, including little mystery potions in bottles. But I don't know if you'll find meths. in smaller towns, so go with some big bottles to carry you over shortages, as the Trangia is quite thirsty in fuel as I remember.

It's funny you should mention the cooking of soup and brewing of tea as a focal point for socialising in foreign countries. Some of my happiest memories are of an Australian couple and their German friend in a tiny hotel room in Kathmandu, sitting around their alcohol stove, sipping tea and passing the bong. They had stripped down the stove to merely the burner unit in order to save weight, propping the pans on wire supports. I would have introduced my little Primus to the chai party as well - except when it is pumped up and roaring it makes a sound like the booster stage of a Space Shuttle launch - one reason why I love my little electric element so much. When there's a chance the hotel staff may be listening it's much easier on the nerves. But the Primus comes into its own when I'm tenting out!

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indiawise

Midnite toker , me thinks that the primus scores over the rest cause its easily available in india for a couple of hunred rupees, the fuel, kerosene, is easily available, burns at all altitudes, needs little gear(like a cleanining pin and cloth), u can buy it in india and then chuck/give it away when leaving. The lousy part is that its too big, maybe they have a smaller version or u can strip it down. Buy a good and small one from a decent shop so it doesn't explode. And the sound ..its lends ambience to the situation!!! The little electric rods are a good substitute, but have a heart for the poor hotel owner and his electric wiring...

Midnite Toker

Yes, indiawise, those stoves are the general workhorses in Indian kitchens all over the subcontinent.

But they are, in fact, copies of the original Swedish model, which was a little bit more refined and slim.

The version I carry, the 96L, is so compact when collapsed (the top tube and pan supports detach, and its legs fold) that it will fit into its own pint-and-a-half billy. It holds 1/3rd of a pint of kerosene in its dinky brass tank - enough for nearly two hours of full burning. But it follows the same basic design as the Indian ones, and no doubt if it were needed I could adapt spares from a bazaar to suit it.

I love my little stove - it's been with me nearly thirty years and has had countless replacement parts (like washers) but works as good as new. Like you say, it has the same power at altitude as at sea level - a little rocket. Its only drawback is the sometimes fiddly priming routine needed to get it hot enough to "catch" in very cold conditions. But I've seen people with fancy X-GX Whisperlite multifuel stoves cursing at the impure kerosene typical in India, while the Primus merely splutters a bit on it.

The cup-sized electrical elements you speak of are rated all of 200 Watts (2 light bulbs). One feels that a hotel owner fearing for his wiring with THAT sort of load on it should maybe be running another business...

soma1972

Cheers folks-looks like i'll be taking the mini trangia on holiday with us, i'd better get a new set of pots & pans for it as the aluminium ones that it came with are getting a bit thin and they are a pain in the arse to clean, what do you recommend - Doussal stainless set or Non-stick teflon set ?.

Whats your most memorable meal that you have cooked and where were you at the time?.

Kenny

IainC

Good idea for the stove, but as previously said, meths is bloody hard to get. I take an MSR, a modern type of primus. It burns most fuels but goes great on kerosene (paraffin to us Brits) which is about Rs5-10 per litre. However, I only really use the stove whilst trekking. And as also said, it gets lots of attention at airport security (as well as my camera bag).