Trangia Multifuel stove

[DKW]

After a bit of debating back and forth upon the topic: Trangias and burners for the trangia, i made up my mind.

In a sense i decided to throw my opinions overboard and try out something else. The Trangia Multifuel burner, which is merely an adapted version of an optimus Nova. So i went out this friday, and grabbed me one, for the aggrevating sum of approx £80


As i was going out the entire weekend with my scouts on a hike, it was a perfect time to put the thing through its paces. (I did bring the methsburner aswell, just in case)

The fuel bottle supplied with it, holds almost half a litre. They recommend that you only fill 450mL in it tho, in order to pressurize it properly.

I tried it out with meths, kerosene (for lamps), gasoline, and Zibro-Premium kerosene (heating-kero).
it should run on diesel, aviation fuel, and basically any oil you could possibly burn.

Reccomendations are white gas or heating kerosene tho.

The weather was shifting between rather windy and wet, to deadwind, sun and very cold (down to -10 centigrade)
All of the above had no influence on the burners efficency nor ease of use.

I found out that the burner will fit inside the trangia, alongside wih the methsburner, the handle, a spicecanister with 5 spices and salt, aswell as my usual kit eg. small stirringspoon, spatula, can-opener, small bottle of dishsoap and a sponge. So basically the burner is, in all its awkwardness, relatively easy and small to pack.

Priming and starting is an issue tho. Both in method aswell as in fuel. Takes a bit of fiddling and experience with the burner to get it right, every time.

Meths works fast, but uses a lot of fuel, and smells a lot. No good, but if its all you have, then it will burn meths well enough.

Gasoline is not recommended, it'll burn, but priming and starting is bit of a scare to say the least. Very volatile. And smells a whole deal.

Kerosene for heaters is my favourite for the moment. Very stable results. Fast priming (15 seconds or so) and very good burning with no sooting what so ever, and no smell at all unless it burns badly. eg. pressure to low or waaaaay to high. Even comparatively cheap. Only some 25 pounds for 30 litres of it.

I followed the instructions to the letter, and my recommendations on them are: toss 'em. They recommend pumping pressure 20 odd times before priming, and after it fires up to add a few strokes more.
I found pumping 5-10 times is almost too much pressure (even on an almost empty fuel bottle!!!) for priming, and after it fires up, you only need the odd pump now and again when the burner starts to burn unevenly.

Keeping the nozzle clean is very easy. Inside the burner (yes, i took it apart ) there is a small cylinder, with a needle on the tip. Placed underneath the nozzle. Supplied with the burner is a multitool with a magnet on. Just stroke past the bottom screw on the burner a few times, and this will make the needle bounce up and down, thus cleaning the nozzle. Brilliant.


Usage test.
Not much of a test really, no boiltimes or anything like that, but we used it alongside a trangia fitted with the regular methsburner, so a comparison was possible.

It saw plenty of use, as it cooked for 3 very hungry and thirsty people all weekend, as did the methstrangia.
We managed to make a 3 meal dinner on this burner, including a homemade soup made from scratch, aswell as a canister full of coffee, in the time it took the other team to make a simple potmix and a brew. (potmix, because the nethsburner couldn't get it warm enough for frying the potatoes)

While waiting on the others, we simply stacked the pots and pans on the trangia, and turned the burner down to a very small maintenance flame, to keep things warm. Worked a treat.

I have read reviews saying that a decent fry up on a pan should not work very good with this burner, so obviously we had to try this out. We made a few pancakes from scratch, and did a good mushroomstew, even fried some eggs, a few slices of bread got toasted in musroom juice from before, and fried a couple onions, mushrooms and garlic on the pan.
My scouts called it "the devils jetblast" everytime i cranked it up full speed for the fry ups.
So Basically i challenge previous reviews, claiming they are bullsh**e. It works real well with pans. Much better than the gas-burner and absolutely better than the methsburner.
In fact my scoutleader-assistant (is working as a chef!) was surprised how well it worked, how managable the heatoutput was, and even made a remark that it could burn hotter and better than the gasstoves they use at work

For the entire weekend, burning almost fulltime, i used almost the entire bottle of fuel i had with me. Translated = 400 mL of fuel. So definately one of the most fuel economic pieces of equipment i am proud to claim i have.
Only drawback, i find its rather noisy, being used to the methsburner and all. But i got used to it, and if thats the only drawback apart from the pricetag, i can live with it.
Even the young scouts could easily use this burner, prime it and getting it to run properly, after a 1 minute instruction and show and tell. Very easy, and relatively bombproof.

Well worth the money, and i can only recommend this bit of kit.

[Spamel]

If it is like the Optimus Nova +, the advice to not overfill would also be because you turn the bottle over on it's other side to vacate the fuel line of fuel just as you come to the end of cooking. This means you can disconnect the fuel line and don't get fuel dripping every where. It really is a great stove, I run mine on parrafin too although I haven't installed it in my Trangia set.

[JonnyP]

Good review Dennis..

[DKW]

Thats true. Off is switching the bottle to the other side. I tried to fill it almost to top tho. Made no difference what so ever.

I must say i am pleasantly surprised about the burner. I didn't expect so much from it, but i am going to keep it. Thats for sure

[Spamel]

I also foiund that if you don't vacate the line and turn it off with the control, the next time you try to light it the control is seized and it takes some effort to undo it. I've never done it that way since.

[DKW]

I did that same thing

[rik_uk3]

Good review.

Don't use petrol, I use Naptha or Aspen 4T which is pure petrol, no smell etc. The Nova does favour paraffin a little, but there is not much in it. Meths is a waste of time as you said, you will burn meths very fast in it. I've mounted several different burners in Trangia's, Nova, Varifuel, MSR, 111T and Primus Omnifuel. The Omnifuel will burn gas as well as liquid fuel. As Spamel said, store the stove with the control valve open and keep the fuel to tank nipple greased with a little silicone paste.

[Twodogs]

I like Rick use an optimus 111T burner fitted into a trangia , Fantastic stove very fast ,
Twodogs

[Intertidal]

I'm reminded of a piece in John Barry's book 'Alpine Climbing' about a resourceful 'northern lad' who "married the MSR (hottest of all stoves) with the Trangia (most stable of all stoves) into a barely controlled explosion of a rocket, capable of boiling water in femto-seconds, the performance of which was described by its inventor as "Mustard".
Apart from the fact that I love JB's writing, I'm surprised its taken till now for the manufacturers to make such a marriage.

I've always preferred kero in my MSR dragonfly - more bangs per buck (or carbon bonds per unit vol for the chemists) tho' most often I seem to use white spirit

Intertidal

[DKW]

Originally Posted by Intertidal

I'm surprised its taken till now for the manufacturers to make such a marriage.

Till now?
The nova has been around for trangia's in ages
Just never fancied giving £80 fr something i honestly had a strong dislike for.

I still hate the noice from it, but apart from that i love it