User Review: Trangia Mini Trangia

I give the Mini-Trangia 28 4.5 stars, only because it needs a windscreen to truly be a complete stove. I made my windscreen out of an aluminum roasting pan that cost about a buck at W-Mart.

The neat thing about the 28 over the larger Trangias like the 25 or my 27-7, is that it really does have a pre-heat attachment included, and its easier to use than the optional winterizing kit that you have to buy extra for the bigger models. Just pour a little fuel in the aluminum potstand of the 28, place the spirit burner in the potstand as you normally do with the lid off, and light the fuel in the bottom by inserting a lit match through one of the air holes in the side. This will not only pre-warm the spirit burner, but also light it after a while. If you pre-warm, use a windscreen, and leave the lid on the pot, you will get a lot faster boil times than most people would have you believe.

About the lid/frypan: it snaps on for storage and transport. To use it when cooking, invert the lid on the pot. When inverted, it has a rebated rim that keeps it from sliding off in the same way the pot rests on the pot stand. Plus you can use the pot grab to remove it. It may seem silly for me to write this, but a few others on the internet claimed the lid was difficult to use when cooking because they couldn't get it unsnapped without burning their fingers!

I do love my Trangia 27-7, but since I got the Mini the Mini stays ready to go in my ruck. Even after a brief period of soda-can experimentation, I find I like this compact utterly bullet proof Trangia the best of any one person stove I've used.