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I purchased a Trangia Storm Cooker in 1994, around the time I started motorcycle camping. The Trangia burner is a small brass pot that incorporates a capillary action / wick section. It comes with a simmer ring (to reduce the heat output) and a lid to keeps the fuel in the burner when it is being transported. In 1996 I bought a SIGG Firejet. In 1998 I purchased a Coleman Peak 1 model 550 Advertisements for most of the stoves can be found in Australian outdoor magazines such as "Wild".
Mass of the stove, fuel and fuel bottle becomes more important if overnight hikes are on the itinerary either now or in the future.
Ease
of Setup and PackingThe Trangia Storm Cooker two windshield parts must be assembled, the burner lid removed and the burner set into position. The base of windshield part is circular and it seems more difficult to find a flat surface for the Storm Cooker than for the FireJet.
The Coleman Peak 1 stove has a cam ring to raise one of the 3 fold out legs more than the others. Leveling this stove is easy.
After lighting the Trangia, the burner takes a couple of minutes to heat effectively (as the fuel warms up and evaporates more readily). The warmer the air temperature the more effective the burner. In cold weather, warming the Trangia burner and fuel using body heat from an inside pocket improves the initial performance. On a warm day, the Trangia boiled half a litre of water slightly faster than the FireJet. 10% water is mixed with the Methylated Spirits to reduce soot deposits on the pots. I suspect that the FireJet puts out more heat per litre of fuel because Shellite / Premium Unleaded contains more joules per litre than Methylated Spirits. Cooking with the Trangia consumes about 300 ml of fuel per day for 2 persons. We usually found that we could not cook the soup and the pasta without refilling the burner. The burner must be cool before refilling. For temperature control, a Simmer Ring can be dropped in place on the burner unit to reduce the heat output to a low level. A skilled operator can obtain better temperature control from the FireJet - with some extra matches for when it goes out unexpectedly.
The Peak 1 has a much better flame control and the simmer setting works
well for cooking rice, pasta, etc. After lighting the stove it has a warm
up period of less than a minute before it settles into efficient
combustion.
The Storm Cooker burns alcohol. Methylated Spirits cost about $4.00 per one litre bottle and is available in most hardware and grocery stores (in Australia). On camping trips of more than 2 days methylated spirits was purchased locally by the one litre bottle.
The Storm Cooker almost always deposited soot on the outside of the cooking pot and the inside of the upper portion of the of the cooker's windshield part. A plastic bag allowed these parts to be packed or stored in the sooty condition.
The Peak 1 stove has a built in self cleaning wire that is pushed through the orifice when the stove is turned off. Using unleaded fuel results in soot on the pots. Some are small enough to pack inside the cooking pots.
The Sigg stove required constant attention to maintain heat in the simmer range.
The Trangia has a simmer ring, but often required refilling with fuel before the end of the simmer time.
The Peak 1 has an excellent simmer capability.
Coleman / Peak have other lightweight back packing hiking stoves where the pressure tank and the burner form a single unit - no separate pump and fuel bottle to pack. My Peak 1 model 550 B is one of these. The fuel reservoir about 290 ml. I use about 170 ml of fuel per day. A small filling funnel is handy for refilling. Peak 1 heat output seems slightly higher than the SIGG. Heat output can be varied with ease. Another Coleman model is the Peak 1 model 452. This stove is similar to the model 550 B and has a smaller windshield / pot support. The fold out legs are metal, without the level-adjusting cam ring. It has a brass flame control lever. The plastic flame control lever on my Peak 1 overheated and melted when I improperly used the aluminum wind shield in Alaska.
Trangia type burner units can be used in a variety of supports /
holders. This can provide a light weight solution for a single hiker
/ camper / bicycle tourer. However, if cooking for more than one person, the weight of
fuel, will eventually make the Shellite stove + fuel lighter than the
Trangia + fuel. I fabricated a pot support for the Trangia burner by cutting a
105mm diameter straight sided aluminum pot / pail to a height of about 72 mm (so
that my polycarbonate cup (by GSE) would pack neatly inside). I drilled 1/2 inch
/ 13 mm vent holes around the sides of the base, 3/8 inch / 10 mm holes around
the top of the sides. I found that I needed to file triangular notches around
the top edge of the pot support so that the flames would stay close to the sides
of the pot being heated. 
I cut a 72mm diameter hole in the bottom of the pot support - the Trangia burner can hang through the base of the pot support - however I simply set the pot support and the Trangia burner on a non flammable surface in operation. I can also pour an amount of water on the non flammable surface to cool the Trangia burner when it starts to produce more heat and flames than the cooking pot requires.
The Trangia burner stores inside the polycarbonate cup, which stores inside the pot support which stores inside the stacked 1 and 1.2 litre Trangia pots. I wash the pots and cup before using them because of possible contamination from the Trangia burner and fuel. When cooking, the 1.2 litre pot can be placed on top of the 1 litre pots in double boiler fashion. This preserves fuel and can reduce the overall cooking time for multi stage meals.
The mass of the Sigg Firejet burner, storage bag, pump, hose, fuel bottle and lid is about 450 grams. The mass of the empty Trangia burner, lid, simmer ring, pot / burner stand (shown lower left in the photo) and empty 600 ml plastic bottle for fuel is about 180 grams. To get the same heat value as 500 ml of Shellite would require about 600 ml of methyl alcohol.
For cooking at home we prefer stainless steel pots. We purchases a set of 2 stainless steel pots, lid / fry pan and pot holder, made for MSR. The pots can be used in a double boiler configuration (with the larger pot on top). When one food item is cooking in the lower pot, a second batch of water can be warmed in the upper pot.
For a while, we used stainless steel bowls. These are available in various sizes from camping stores. Stainless steel is much easier to clean although it is weighs more than melamine or polycarbonate and is noisier to eat from.
We now use high-sided bowls made of melamine (stocked by K Mart). They have a volume of slightly more than 3 cups (about 800 ml) and store inside the cooking pots.
We also have 2 small polycarbonate plates that can also be stored inside the cooking pots. They are handy when preparing food, etc.
Stackable cups help to reduce the volume of equipment. I have found stackable polycarbonate cups, about 375ml capacity, with half, one and 1 1/2 cup graduations marked on one side. They are too large to stack inside the pots, but food items can be packed inside to help reduce the overall volume.
The stainless steel camping knife fork and spoon (KFS) sets (gut wrenches in army-talk) are noisy when used with the stainless steel eating bowls. I also found that the material reacted with my dental fillings giving an unpleasant sensation when the two came in contact.
The polycarbonate knife fork and spoon sets are are about half the mass of the stainless steel utensils. The points of the polycarbonate forks are subject to melting in hot oil. The tines have broken on several forks even though they are warranted against manufacturer's defects.
A general purpose pocket knife is used when slicing and chopping is
required. Find a sandstone when the blade requires sharpening.
Last modified 27/07/2009
Grant McEwing mcewingg@optusnet.com.au