Speed has never bothered me. I don't care if a stove is slow. Gives me more time chill out and admire the sunset. If I'm camping in the boonies, there's no TV programme about to start, no appointment I have to keep. I'm happy to stretch out and wait. Terry
It may be a British or northern European thing where 'below treeline' cooking is less commonly the norm & even in the relative shelter of a tent the wind can still get under the fly & bother a stove. I'm prone to brewing up & making lunch in exposed spots too. So easy with a Trangia. A Caldera Cone is good too but watch it doesn't get blown away! It may also be the Trangia's solid reliability in the worst of storms that means the owner will cut it plenty of slack speedwise on a calm windless, relaxed day.
Re the curry - I've cooked proper stuff in a Trangia when car-camping but far easier with a big pan on a No:1, Bund etc especially for a group. However my perspective with the trangia is that of a backpacker. While I'm sure there will be some backpacking Trangia gourmets (in fact I know there are) my regular non-gourmet menu suits the Trangia perfectly & is something I always look forward to with relish. A important factor. If I want to go gourmet there is always the dehydrator.
I have nought against Trangias. I did say earlier that a trip I was on was saved by one when a Whisperlight failed in its duty which if not for the Trangia would have reduced us to one stove between 7. This thread was meant to be about worst stoves and in my mind the Trangia shouldn't have got a mention in that topic. Definitely not the fastest or most controllable but it always works.
For me, the worst stoves I have are that crappy little orange Optimus thing - 323? and the Hurlock. This suffers especially in comparison to it's US equivalents being too big and heavy and having no cooking pots. That universal joint some of them have under the pump knob is a complete nightmare taking chunks of skin off when you're pumping it. I've generally not been that impressed with the various British Army stuff I've had - Nos. 2,3 and 12 which I've found to be too big and heavy, poorly engineered sometimes, not easy to maintain and indifferent performance. The No.6 - 'the amazing belching, gurgling and farting stove' - scary! I do have an Army No.7 somewhere but for some reason haven't got round to using it. Oh, and the Yank M2A 'Widowmaker' - 30 minutes to prime (if ever) and at least one flare-up guaranteed. In fact, the generator is so big you need to do what I call a 'strategic' i.e. controlled, flare-up to get it to prime at all. Also costs more to fill it up each time than the original purchase price...
Camping Gaz takes it for me. Will it ever boil? Is it empty? I don't know but I'm so bored I'm going to find out. Shake it - not much inside. Release canister - nice volcano of vapourising butane. Only one thing to do - light it - watch fireworks. Probably a good job I did that on an unpopulated beach. Took 3-4 mins to go out... Do not do this at home - etc. Oh and I forgot to add - attempts to bury it in sand were futile. That's obvious in retrospect but at the time (14yrs old maybe?) - seemed a good bet.
This POS has to be the worst stove that any British manufacturer made, especially for the military. I liken it to Colemans, grossly over engineered. But unlike Colemans, incredibly rare to find, in any condition. They were probably scrapped as soon as they were made, due to the valve failure.
Hi iani. One of those sold on Ebay UK the other day. It only made £16.00 so it looks like others share your views ( Link ). Terry
Completely impractical as a camping stove but good in a collection though - if that's what you're interested in, of course. Not many are, evidently, hence the low price. I've seen the day when I'd have happily had that away, especially at that price. Fortunately, my stove-pox is now completely cured - unless the stove's got Tilley on it and then I might suffer a temporary relapse...
Are there any 'good' British Military stoves or should they all be avoided as users? No offense to the British Military stove-industry intended. David - send a blood sample to the CDC so others may hope to find a cure. Or was it through intense therapy?
I could be tempted into one. Although my history with petrol burners isn't a happy one. With me though, it would be because of it's provenance as a military stove than for it's utility or lack of as a cooker.
They all do more or less exactly what they were intended to do. Which may well not be what a stove fetishist thinks they should do. The much maligned No.2 was, amongst other things, designed to sit strapped to the wing of a scout car along with it's dixie/frypan and heat up the contents of a compo box using the same fuel as the vehicle. It does that. It doesn't do it particularly well, but nor does it do it particularly badly. So it has an inefficient combustion coefficient, or whatever. It heats beans and baby's heads, job jobbed. The British Army, historically, used very little individual or sub-unit level cookers or cooking. Tending to travel either with ACC or organic "unit cooks" in the B echelon. Cold war warriors may remember something different, but that's the exception rather than the rule. The same applies to British tentage. Appears inferior in many respects to foreign equivalents. Largely because the BA seldom used tents...
Thanks frg. I don't own any British Military stoves nor have I seen any on this side of the Atlantic during my local rounds. I'm still hoping to get a British Army No. 7 stove case though - seems they have dried up even on your side (or maybe not looking in the right spots).
Trangia type stoves are TOO SLOW. Try making coffee for three in one. I have 'em but don't use 'em. I've numerous stoves including Dragonfly, XGK, Chinese ones etc., but the best one for my use is the old Jetboil. It's really fast, very economical and simple enough.
TOO SLOW for what? Is there a race? I suppose it depends on what's important to you. For me it's knowing that as long as I have fuel and my stove has not been run over by a large truck, I will have a hot meal as there really isn't much scope for failure otherwise. Every working part in a stove introduces another potential point of failure. As long as we have gravity... Trangias are gonna work.
Coffee for 3? No way! The other 2 can get there own stove! Can you do coffee for 3 in an old(?) Jetboil?
I have one of the early jetboils and they're decent enough. Not sure if there has been any progress with the design. Good for a brew or heating a boily in a hurry. Don't want to get one wet though.
