Originally Posted By: CANOEDOGS




kerosene..which is nasty and greasy but burns hot and go's a long way..


That is MY STOVE! I love it because it has no moving part in the hot section... which equates to hardly nothing that can go wrong. You use pressure (pump/de-pressurize) to regulate the power. The only things that can give you trouble is the pump (typical a very easy fix with a gasket or something!) or the nozzle is clogged because of dirty fuel (easily cleaned with a pin that you pack along with the stove).

Most other stoves will regulate the power with some sort mechanism in the "hot" part of the stove. Heating and cooling fragile mechanical part is not my idea of robustness....

Originally Posted By: CANOEDOGS
carts of canned Gaz of some sort which are very easy to light,burn and store but like in this photo loose power in cold weather..i had to spoon warm water into the stove base to get enough heat to get water to a rolling boil..


When you're fed up with that alcohol burner, Trangia makes an excellent gaz burner that will replace the trangia alcohol stove. You can see it here:
http://trangia.se/english/2925.original_accessories.html, on the right side of the page (part nr. 742527). No moving parts in the head... smile


Oh - have a second look at that trangia gaz burner. Notice that little "loop" that the fuel line makes over the flame section of the head? That loop means you can feed the stove with LIQUID gaz, it will evaporate in that loop. In other words, when the stove is burning you flip the gaz canister upside-down. The fuel line will now be filled with liquid gaz (which is heavier than "gazzified" gaz).

Typically, the performance of stoves is limited by the evaporation in the gaz canister, which a) requires energy (i.e. heat - which is why the gaz canister cools off during use), and b) is highly affected by low temperatures. By flipping the gaz canister upside down you take a) and b) out of the equation - but you can ONLY do that on stoves that has that little "loop" through the flames. Blast can probably confirm that spitting drops of liquid gaz out through the nozzle will create a GIANT fireball...

Of course, gaz canister has inevitable limitations in the winter, but I find that I can push the boundaries quite a bit using a trangia burner and the "flip the canister" tricks. As always, use at your own risk...