Reviews > Cook Gear > Cook Sets > Trangia Kettle > Owner Review by Roger Caffin

Owner Review - Trangia Kettle
Roger Caffin

Product Information

Product description

The Trangia web site says absolutely nothing about this kettle other than giving a picture, a part number and a capacity. In this era of extreme internet hype, this is a truly refreshing attitude towards life. I can add that it appears to be made from thin spun aluminium with a galvanised steel wire handle covered by a plastic sleeve, galvanised steel clips for the handle, and a hard black plastic knob (bakelite?) on the lid. Most other questions can best be answered by looking at the picture. I would add that I am quite impressed by the extent of the spinning operation.

A Discourse on the word Kettle

In preparing this Owner Review I did some web searches for 'kettle'. Most of the hits I found at outdoors gear shops bore no resemblance to what I would call a 'real' kettle: pots and pans and cups and all sorts of other things were offered. It would seem that the word 'kettle' is being used for all sorts of pots with a lid, although some of them do have a slight bulge at the lip on one side which they call a spout. Far be it from me to try to tell any of these vendors what they can call their products, but as far as I am concerned a kettle should look like ... an old-fashioned kettle. This Trangia kettle does; the others look like pots or cups or 'billies' to me. [Billy: an Australian word for a pot shaped like a jam tin, with a wire handle. Many were just that.]

Even more curious were the relative weights of the various 'kettles' I found. This Trangia kettle is old! I do not know when it was first made - back with the early Trangia stoves I expect. But the 190 g (6.7 oz) it weighs is still a very respectable low weight for its capacity. And as might be expected, the retail prices I found for it were generally less than for stainless steel or titanium as well.

Field Experience

I started out a long time ago with a couple of stainless steel pots of a very well-known brand in my walking kit, but after a while I realised two things. The pots were really excessive in weight, being made of steel thick enough to pound tent pegs, and I didn't need two of them anyhow. So I moved to a single thin-wall stainless steel pot with a weight but a fraction of those other ones (this was before titanium pots became readily available). This single pot does suffice to cook for my wife and myself on long trips. But after a while I found the single pot just a bit restrictive, and despite the fact that it would add weight to my pack, I bought this Trangia kettle. Well, it does add 190 g (6.7 oz) to my pack, but we would not be without it these days.

How do we use it? Well, it is our custom to stop for a cup of tea and coffee in the middle of the morning, and out comes the kettle. At dinner time we normally have soup and a main course: the main course is cooked in the stainless steel pot of course, but the water for the soup can be heated in the kettle in parallel, while the main course is 'stewing'. Extra weight, but the convenience is worth it.

Capacity

The kettle is quoted as having a 0.9 L (1.9 pt US) capacity. But what qualifies as a 'full kettle' is a moot point. The nominal amount of water puts the water level just a little way up the spout. Filling the kettle to the bottom of the spout requires about 0.8 L (1.7 pt US); filling it to the tip of the spout requires a bit over 1 L (2.1 pt US), but of course it spills as soon as it boils. I normally put just over 0.5 L (1 pt US) in it for tea and coffee, which puts the water level just below where the top starts to close in. This works fine. The water bubbles away near the spout when it is boiling, but does not spill.

The handle

The handle is a simple bit of galvanised steel wire covered with a black plastic sleeve. The two clips on the body into which it hooks are also light galvanised steel. In a neat and cunning trick, there is a faint dent in the edge of each clip, and this dent catches the wire handle when upright and stops it falling over. The picture here shows this at the tip of the arrow. Also visible is a scrape mark on the wire handle where it has rubbed on the dent in the clip. This feature is important: if the handle is left hanging over the side while the kettle is on the stove, it gets very hot. I believe many walkers will have burnt their fingers at least once this way. I find it gratifying that Trangia have looked after this fine detail in such an elegant manner. Of course, if the wire handle was left over hanging the side the plastic sleeve would probably also melt after a while, although I have carefully avoided ever letting this happen.

While we do not do 'product comparisons', I have noticed that some of the latest crop of titanium 'kettles' (or large cups as I would call them) do have wire handles sticking out at the sides. I have used other pots with handles sticking out the sides like this, and I have found that such handles can get extremely hot from the flames and hot air coming up the side of the pot. I have found, to my cost that if I grab such a handle after the container has been on the stove for a while I burn my fingers. This problem has been recorded in an Owner Review of such cups.

Efficiency

The kettle has quite a wide base, unlike many of the tall thin titanium cup/pots currently on offer, and the extra base area means it can absorb the heat from the gas stove we use that much better. This means it heats faster and uses less gas. I can't quote actual figures for this, but I have read reports from several trials (eg on BackPackingLight.com) where this effect has been carefully measured, and I have also noted the difference in the amount of hot air passing up the side of wide and narrow containers. I would add that I never run the stove flat out as this is very inefficient anyhow, but our kettle usually boils our morning tea water by the time I have got the rest of morning tea spread out.

A second feature which greatly boosts efficiency is the lid. A simple thing, but I always put the lid on as it keeps the steam in, significantly boosting the heating efficiency and also keeping any water left over in the kettle hot for quite a long while. Again, there have been tests done on the rate of cooling which illustrate this clearly. The graph to the right (my data) shows that a closed pot of boiling water will cool by about 10 C (18 F) over 10 minutes while the same pot under the same conditions but without a lid will cool over 30 C (54 F) in 10 minutes.

Stability

There seem to be two main styles to kettles at present. There are the tall narrow (titanium) ones of cup style and this low wide one. Doubtless there are many others. I have found that the low wide Trangia design is extremely stable, both on my stove and on the ground. While I have not used one of the very narrow tall titanium cups, I have used other tall narrow containers, and I must say they seem a lot less stable. While this may not matter to many, I have found it of value in some 'less than perfectly horizontal' stove sites I have had to use over the years.

A valuable feature which is not at all obvious is the aluminium base to the kettle. Why is this important? Well, aluminium is a relatively soft metal, while both stainless steel and (more so) titanium are much harder metals. I have noticed that my stainless steel cooking pot can slide around a little on the supports on my gas stove, and this problem has been noticed as quite significant for a titanium 'kettle' in another Owner Review. I have also seen other pots slide off their owners' stoves when they come to a boil and vibrate a bit - to the owners' dismay. But this kettle does not seem to slide much at all. I believe this is due to the ability of the steel and titanium pot supports on my stoves to dig into the aluminium ever so slightly. I can't say that this has resulted in any great wear on the base of the kettle, but I can feel this 'grip' when I try to slide the kettle across my stove. The end result is a decided plus: the kettle has never slid off any of my stoves, or even threatened to do so.

Safety

The stability of the kettle is an obvious safety feature. The lid is another: it keeps the steam in to be sure, but it also means my hand is protected from the steam when I go to pick up the boiling kettle. However, a word of caution is needed here. I have to remember that the kettle is full of boiling water when I take the lid off. I angle the lid so that the steam goes away from my hand rather than up my sleeve. It is sometimes surprising (but shouldn't be!) just how hot the steam is if I am not careful.

The photo below shows me pouring boiling water into my coffee cup. However, a closer inspection will show that I have one finger pressing on the plastic knob on the lid. It makes my grip on the thin wire handle just that little bit more stable and stops the kettle from swinging around. This is particularly useful when the kettle is nearly empty and I have to tilt it right up. I doubt it would make a lot of difference if I didn't bother, but I do this automatically these days.

Endurance

How well does a thin-wall aluminium kettle last in the field? Well, to a large extent that depends very much on how it is treated, especially inside a pack. I pack it away with a small amount of care, but I haven't babied it. The one in the pictures must be almost 15 years old. The tip of the spout has been slightly flattened (visible in the first picture), and there may be a couple of very faint dents in it, but all these are probably due to how I have packed it and flung the pack around later. The inside has shown no signs of corrosion at all. The wire handle with its plastic sleeve is like new, the clips on which it hooks and the little retention dents are all just fine. To be sure, the handle might weigh a little less if it had been made of aluminium, but I cannot believe that an aluminium handle or clips would have lasted anywhere near this length of time and use. And as I mentioned above, the base shows very little wear too.

Summary

Would I buy another one?

This kettle has been with my wife and me for many years. It would really pain us to lose it. In that sad case we would I am sure rush out and buy a new one of the exact same model. Call it a love affair.

Biographical information

Backpacking Background

I started bushwalking (the Australian term) at 14, then took up rock climbing at University with the girl who became my wife and is my walking partner. Later on we took up ski touring and canyoning. Winter and summer, we prefer long hard trips by ourselves: about a week in Australia, up to two months in Europe/UK. We prefer fast and light in unfrequented trackless country. We would be out for at least three months a year. Over the last four years we have reduced our pack weights from 18 - 20 kg (40 - 45 lb) each to about 12 kg (26 lb), including food, for week-long trips. I designed and made much of our lightweight gear myself.

I am also the maintainer of the Australian aus.bushwalking FAQ web site www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/.

Reviews > Cook Gear > Cook Sets > Trangia Kettle > Owner Review by Roger Caffin