Non FJ Trangia Mini alcohol stove

I usually try to keep some form of cooking aparatus in my bugout kit/bag.  I have tested and owned many including:

Esbit emergency stove.  Better than nothing, but propietary cubes make it not realistic for any length of time.

MSR back packing stove:  Works well, but requires white gas, or more perferably MSR clean burning fuel.  Also requires rebuiding (especially if you use white gas and not their fuel). The international version does better with alternate fuels.

Home made Super Cat alcohol stove from tuna can:  Works but can be fidgety, lots of soot generation, need to create some form of stand and windbreak.

Enter the Trangia Mini.  I knew I liked the idea of the alcohol stove as it was very simple, no rebuilding and can be run on multiple fuels including grain alcohol if you happen to have a still at home :-).  Denaturated alcohol does well and can be found at any hardware or paint store.

The pros: very small, has a lid that you can use to seal in left over alochol so less waste, comes with its own dowser/simmer lid, comes with a stand/wind shield, pot and teflon coated pan, boils 2 cups of water with only about 3/4 an ounce of alcohol.  Pretty good at not sooting.

The cons: Windscreen is better than nothing, but would not do much if it were actually windy. not very fast (boils 2 cups of water in about 13 minutes at 65 degrees/sea level 1 liter takes about 14.5 minutes).  Stand is a bit too short and causes flare ups as the alcohol heats up

Although it is not perfect it fits what I wanted it for more than the others I have tried.  I wanted a small, full proof stove that I could use to boil water or cook small amounts of food in an emergency. I would recommend this for a light weight stove as long as where you are going is not too cold or too windy.

Bought mine at REI for 39+tax but amazon has it for a bit less

http://www.amazon.com/Trangia-MINITRANGIA-28-T/dp/B000LN7HUC/ref=sr...