Anyone used a Meths cooker ?

[bigjim]

I've used this setup a lot. Stove is very light and fits with adapter in the pot, no lighter or matches required. Quick boil time. Fits easily in barbag for a quick brew. The cylinders weigh 250g, costs 2 euros, lasts a long time and are easily available. I like the controllabilty of gas. I find the Triangia very sooty and to me the meths seems to taste the food.

 

[andrew_s]

At the end of the day, there is no such thing as a "best" cooking system. It will depend on how long you are out, what sort of cooking you do, what the availability of extra fuel is, and doubtless other things as well.
Meths has a relatively low heat content, so you will need approximately double the weight of fuel compared to gas or petrol (everything else being equivalent).
It also has a relatively cool flame, which means that heating takes longer, and also that you can't overpower heat loss to the wind by turning the flame up. You therefore need an effective wind shield, with the full Trangia or the Caldera Cone being very good. Using a mini-Trangia or a pepsi can stove with no additional windshield may see you being forced to cook inside the tent.
The fuel container is light, and it's relatively easy to take only the fuel you need for a short trip. For longer trips you can generally only buy meths in 500ml/400g units, which leaves you in a similar position to buying 200g gas canisters.

For a short trip (weekend or a bit over) a DIY pepsi can stove, just enough fuel and a foil windshield will be the lightest option by some margin, but a full trangia system will have no weight advantage over gas even for a weekend.

 

[Blue Hills]

I am a pretty recent convert to the trangia. as for the argument that it is slow, I well remember on a car camping trip waiting forever for some water to boil with a gas stove. Things got better once I got a windshield but of course that was more weight. The sheer reliability of the Trangia reminds me of my dear departed Vespa,

 

[JohnClimber]

I've used my Ultralight 8gram meths stove under a titanium mug with a simple wind shield successfully this year for boiling water for instant foods and tea

£21.50 including postage from here http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/pages/contact.html

 

[Profpointy]

Until recently i was very much a petrol stove man. The benefit of being able to top up your petrol bottles at any garage (especially if you're filling your car at same time) and the sheer oomph of a petrol stove, and it must be admitted, there's a certain manly appeal of petrol for cooking. The hassle of gas cartridge compatibility and vendor lock in of the various gas systems never appealed, and the trianga just seemed so expensive for what it was. However having had various failures of petrol stoves over the years, and eventually bought a trianga, and have to say the ultra reliablily, and to be fair, amount of heat it gives out means I've almost given up on the petrol stoves. The trianga just works, and continues to work - short of running it over with a steam roller, it's hard to imagine an unfixable failure really. I think trianga is the all round best buy for general use even if other stoves are better in limited ways. You can use houshold pans on a trianga, which is what I do car camping - though you need rather a lot meths if doing roast beef in a le creuset pot on top of a trangia*

* this is not a joke by the way, I have genuinly done this more than once

 

[Ticktockmy]

Frankly, I find the whole subject about the best stove rather boring, the subject is dependant on where and what type of cooking you want to use the stove for, what food you intend to cook, and your ability to COOK..
Some peeps can produce a wonderful menu from hardly anything, some like me use in the main boil in the bag meals, so only require a simple stove to boil water, You really need to sort out your preferred form cooking, are you going to use it for other sports, cycling, backpacking, Mountaineering etc. work out how easy it will be to get fuel resupply in the area you are going to Play in.

 

[Amanda P]

It's horses for courses. We have meths stoves, and for trips in the UK and for short periods, that's fine. We also got a petrol/multifuel stove because we found that we tended to spend the first few days of a foreign trip frantically searching for meths to buy (you can't fly with it). Petrol or diesel you can buy easily anywhere.

Even in the UK, one does get through quite a lot of meths, and you don't always want to spend your holiday time tracking down DIY sheds or hardware stores that sell it, so there again, petrol wins out.

I have to admit that petrol stoves do seem to be full of fiddly little parts that clog up and rubber o-rings that perish or break, so they do need regular maintenance in a way that meths stoves don't. But something like the MSR Dragonfly (what we have) burns anything liquid, including meths, heating oil, paraffin, petrol, Coleman fuel, diesel....

 

[andrew_s]

I well remember on a car camping trip waiting forever for some water to boil with a gas stove.

Canister top gas stoves do get very slow towards the end of the canister, and a bit of a breeze and no windshield can stop you getting a boil at all. The way round the problem is to use a remote canister stove with a hose, with the canister inverted.

 

[David Eves]

I use a meths Trangia and find it easy, light and when travelling easy to purchase fuel. The main issue for me to avoid getting the meths anywhere near clothes, food, utensils, hands etc. You will know when you have contaminated or not washed your hands well! Trangia sell a lightweight bottle for refilling and I have this on the back of the Bob trailer so well away from anything else.

 

[SWSteve]

Used a Trangia when doing Ten Tors several times, very good piece of kit. Does everything you want and more. Can only recommend...as lots of others have

 

[Aushiker]

Just throwing another option into the mix. I am very happy with my Trail Designs Sidewinder Ti-Tri Cooking System which has seen a fair bit of use now. Works a treat, packs up small and has been very robust.

Regards
Andrew