You have the depressed ring around the outside of chimney part, right?

Pour a little fuel in there, that will burn openly and heat it enough get fuel running up through to the jets, and then it lights from there. Sometimes I have warm the entire thing though, as I pointed out with the tuna can stand- just drop in a cotton ball, light it, and when it abot half burned, drop the bottom of the trangia in there. Give it a minute before fueling and priming.

And if won't light, and you need it right now, just toss a match into the main cavity. Won't be as efficient, but you'll be able to at least water.

Hey Climberslacker,

For a good comparison of alcohol stoves and a good review comparing them to other stoves I recommend you check out Colin Flectcher's "the complete walker book IV" from the library and read this alcohol stove review from Art Simon.

I switched to an alcohol stove after one bad experience where a bottle of white gas leaked down one side of my pack. The stench ruined a meal, stuck to my clothes and I hate the smell of gasoline to this day . I always had an irrational fear of the white gas stoves exploding on me anyway. Currently I use a clikstand setup with a Trangia burner as recommended by Art in his review above. And also apparently by Dweste.

As Ironraven mentioned there are limitations. The top 3 benefits that stand out to me are:

1. Quiet burning (no jet engine in the forest)
2. Safe operation (no worries about explosions)
3. Ease of use (just uncap and ignite)

One of the biggest benefits Trangia stoves offer is storage of fuel. Once you are done using the stove you just blow it out, let it cool and then cap it. The vargo titanium stove on the other hand is a bit unstable with larger pots and I always end up wasting fuel without the option to store fuel in the burner. You have to aliquot out your fuel each time which can be tricky. If you are going for a long trip of a week or more the others are right about the weight of the alcohol fuel, and I would recommend the white gas. I use the alcohol stove because most of my trips are about 3 days and I'm not usually in a hurry to get my water to boil 1 or 2 minutes faster.

Cheers,
L

P.s. Hey Ironraven, if you use enough cooking oil you can make a decent pancake on an alcohol stove . In fact with the extra oil you don't even miss the butter .

I prefer hexamine solid fuel tabs, partly because with any liquid fuel I am scared I'll knock it over and set my tent alight.

In my climate the Trangia are easier to light, though; it's warm enough that the alcohol vaporises on its own and will ignite with a spark.

well if there is a risk of burning your tent down, your to close to to the tent. If your cooking inside the tent, well you shouldn't.

i personally have one of most types of stoves, so i can take the best for the job with me. Small butaan/propaan burner in the summer, multifuel when it's cold and the solid fuel and alcohol for short trips.

Let's not be too literal. I don't cook inside my tent, but spilt burning liquid fuel is bad news where-ever it is.

what kind of stove are you using? i personally have never spilt burning fuel and i have use a lot of diffrent models and type of stoves (MSR XGK, Coleman 503, Booster +1, Svea 123R, optimus Explorer, optimus nova, Primus Multifuel, MSR pocketrocket, trangia, folding woodburner, loads of home made alcohol stove's, etc.)

It's ussually a matter of using the stove properly, not letting the top become to heavy, etc.

As with any stove, you need to make sure you have it stable, not top heavy, and make sure that whatever it is resting on won't burn.

Tipping over a lit alcohol stove would be very bad. Just need to be a little extra careful with them.

I've pondered getting one for quick hikes. Typically I carry a Coleman Xtreme stove.

I use mine inside the cooker part of my Crusader canteen set. The stove has been modified (legs removed). I just set it in the integral cup at the bottom of the cooker (which is for Hexamine fuel I imagine), fill the stove, then pour some fuel in the cup around the stove.

I've never had it not light but the flame is pretty poor at first. Eventually the jets fire and I'm in business.

Legs?

Are you using a Vargo or Trangia? My Trangia has no legs, just a nice, flat, cold conduction copper bottom. :P

Vargo. I peeled off the legs and pot stand feet/legs so it would work better in my Crusader.

I have a Trangia too but I put it in storage because it won't fit in the Crusader.