Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Camping It Up => Topic started by: alexb on 11 July, 2013, 02:16:31 pm
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Some time back I passed up the opportunity to buy a pretty tiny alloy camping kettle for about £8 on the grounds that "I didn't really need it".
Since then of course I've come across about 5 or 6 times when I could have done with one!
With the DunRun coming up I feel a need for a little kettle to make a brew somewhere out in the "wilds".
Any suggestions or recommendations (size: about big enough for a cup of tea, so 0.5-0.7l).
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Why use a kettle? If it's just you, use a big mug - like an Alpkit MyTiMug or similar.
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I have a one cup Trangia kettle :thumbsup:
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+1 for the small Trangia.
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Well done you for wanting a kettle and I would also recommend a Trangia kettle for they are both small and cute. Yes, of course you could just use a Ti mug and this is the sensible option. But a kettle is so much more civilised. And they are very cute. And that matters - a lot ;D
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MSR do a nice little kettle that also doubles as a teapot.
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Trangia kettles are small and cute, but come in two sizes, and the big one won't fit in the small Trangia (DAHIKT).
Not being a coffee/tea drinker, I'm happy to use a pan (or titanium mug) on the odd occasion I want a hot drink.
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I have a one litre GSI Halulite (http://www.gsioutdoors.com/products/pdp/tea_kettle_hae-_1_qt) Camping Kettle that I bought in REI in Seattle before our West cost trip.
(http://www.gsioutdoors.com/resources/images/cache/pdp/resources/images/product_images/50162_h1_f-486x376.jpg)
Turns out that it's one of Ray Mears' bits of recommended kit (http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Product/973-GSI-Halulite-Camping-Kettle/) and I can understand why. It's as light as Ti (165g), but built stronger and it's just as good over a Trangia as it is over an open flame. It's done shedloads of camping with me - as well a Dun Run or two - and it's still in brilliant condition, considering the grief I've given it.
Highly recommended :thumbsup:
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Does it fit the smaller Trangia?
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Marketroid speak for aluminium?
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Camp kettle?
♪ I'm a little teapot short and stout...♫
(http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq116/19misha94/bowie9.jpg)
I'm really surprised Roger's post wasn't on the same lines
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Tesco circa £4
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Thanks all,
Found this http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001ANF75Y?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=idealocouk-21&childASIN=B001ANF75Y
Which is quite close to Charlotte's recommendation. Irritatingly, Amazon seem like the cheapest place to buy it from.
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Has anyone tried any of the folding kettles with a stainless steel base and silicon upper?
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Has anyone tried any of the folding kettles with a stainless steel base and silicon upper?
Someone was using one at our meet this weekend. She was really happy with it.
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Although I like the look of a good camping kettle (and we have a couple), I really can't see a reason to take one on a trip. I use the smaller pan of the two we carry to boil up water, then put the teabags in just as it boils. Mashes a grand brew - kettle and teapot in one, yet available for other cooking duties if necessary.
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I'm inclined to agree, though I think it's just my non-tea-drinker bias showing.
If you've got a pan that you can pour liquids out of in a reasonably controlled manner, a kettle seems redundant.
Unless it's a big one with a whistle, of course. That makes some sense.
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Used it on the DunRun and glad to have had it. We used a decent sized mess tin for the food, which was then a complete mess, so could not be used for boiling water without a good clean. The kettle was used three times overall.
I agree, small pans with a lid are fine, but if you have no facilities to wash stuff, then you need one pan set aside for boiling water. In which case it might as well be a kettle.
Too bad it's too wide to nest in anything, but my bag had plenty of room.
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The advantage of using a second pan is that it can nest in the bigger pan and can have the cups inside it.
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Advantages of a kettle:
1. Boils quicker due to less heat loss
2. No risk of greasy spots in your drinks (ugh) from improperly cleaned pans - and you have to SERIOUSLY clean a pan with lots of detergent to avoid this
My 1 litre kettle has a removable handle which makes it somewhat easier to pack. I agree that it is a bit of a space hog.
Aluminium contamination, if it exists, is a non-issue with hard water as the thing soon gets coated with limescale internally.
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Advantages of a kettle:
1. Boils quicker due to less heat loss
2. No risk of greasy spots in your drinks (ugh) from improperly cleaned pans - and you have to SERIOUSLY clean a pan with lots of detergent to avoid this
Number 2 is less of an issue for vegetarians who don't fry stuff when camping. We mostly eat pasta or spelt which aren't greasy.
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Pasta sauces usually have a lot of oil in them, though (the lazy camper's tea being a bushel of pasta and a jar of Dolmio).
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Cotswold Outdoor have camping kettles on sale at moment. Had to remind myself that a pan with lid is all I need, er, I think....
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Neat though things like the GSI Halulite are, I have to agree with others, that they're not the most compact item for minimalist camping. I've got a similar small aluminium kettle, and unlike a small pan, it's hard to pack stuff inside it, because the opening isn't as large (compared to the body size) as with a pan. I've got small pans with lids, so they'll boil as fast as a kettle, they just don't pour quite as easily.
The folding kettles looks interesting, and would match my folding cup, bowl, and plate, but I would be worried about using them on wood burning stoves, with the risk of the flames being outside the metal base, and damaging the plastic/silicone.
An interesting argument I've seen in favour of the ones in which the upper body is entirely silicone, is that since silicone is a good insulator, they'll loose less heat when exposed to the wind, so the water will boil faster, and use less fuel.
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I understand that a pan can boil water BUT a kettle can't do anything else. It's always there, for that brew.
My point is that you may have pans cacked-up with egg and Cassoulet first thing in the morning, when you really need a brew, before facing the washing up.
I have a Trangia kettle, it fits inside the Trangia pans (and the burner fits inside the kettle) so it's minimal hassle.
No matter what state my pans are in it's always available...just for a brew.
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Most of them also whistle, which gets everyone else out of their tents at 7am if the hiss of a Coleman stove generator (surprisingly loud on a still dewy morning) doesn't quite do the job.
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I understand that a pan can boil water BUT a kettle can't do anything else. It's always there, for that brew.
My point is that you may have pans cacked-up with egg and Cassoulet first thing in the morning, when you really need a brew, before facing the washing up.
I have a Trangia kettle, it fits inside the Trangia pans (and the burner fits inside the kettle) so it's minimal hassle.
No matter what state my pans are in it's always available...just for a brew.
Damn. That's a perfect justification for buying one.
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Most of them also whistle, which gets everyone else out of their tents at 7am if the hiss of a Coleman stove generator (surprisingly loud on a still dewy morning) doesn't quite do the job.
I think the roar of my Primus Multifuel is louder than many kettle whistles :-[
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I wish my home kettle had a whistle!
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When Jane and I went to Pembs a couple of weeks ago she offered to do the cooking on her Trangia because my paraffin stove gives her the heebie-jeebies. I therefore put my 1-litre John Lewis stainless flask in the Bike Buddy (where the paraffin bottle would normally go) and we made tea in that. It enabled us to take tea to the beach without the kettle, which lasted most of the day.
I'm inclined to take a vacuum flask camping every time now, as long as I have the space.
Having seen a Trangia in action, it's good, but blimey isn't the meths expensive? The cost of the meths we burned in a week would have paid for more than 2 years' worth of paraffin. In fact, >£6 worth of meths only lasted 5 days - and we ate in the pub on 3 nights - and on the last night/morning I boiled the water on a tiny gas stove I'd taken.
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Kettle for cycle camping? How quaint.
Get with the programme..
(http://shop.jetboil.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/p/c/pcs_black_setup_1_1.jpg)
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Having seen a Trangia in action, it's good, but blimey isn't the meths expensive?
Depends how you buy it. 500ml bottles from hardware shops tend to be ludicrously overpriced, better deals can be had online for larger quantities.
(Laboratory grade methanol can be competitive price wise, and doesn't taste of bittrex, but doesn't burn as hot as ethanol[1].)
Although, tbh, cost of stove fuel is something that I don't really get hung up about, given how even expensive little gas cartridges last for ages, and are dwarfed by the cost of things like train tickets and camp site fees. The advantage of the trangia is that it Just Works, even when cold and/or windy, is stirring friendly and is relatively unlikely to set fire to your tent. Other stoves have other merits, and you can buy an awful lot of meths for the price of the multifuel burner.
[1] 'meths' being mostly ethanol, with a little methanol added to make it undrinktaxable.
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An admittedly very quick google shows 5 litres for £16. That's about 3 times the price of paraffin but not a lot more than white spirit, which my stove can burn as well.
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I'm with Kim, I love our Trangia and I really enjoyed using it over the weekend. Meths is expensive but other aspects of cycling cost much more so its fairly inconsequential to my mind.
I really enjoyed using our Trangia kettle too. It is a thing of much cuteness!
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I do like my little trangia kettle, but prefer my (very) old MSR multifuel stove. (When there's no campfire, that is).
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I buy meths for £15 for 5 litres from my local truly independent hardware store. What I like about meths or similar flamable liquids that a trangia burner can use is that they tend to be more available than bespoke gas cannisters when you're bimblimg around more remote areas on tour
I am impressed by my gas burner gizmo for my trangia but the cannisters are bulky and not reuseable. I can buy meths and refill my bottles as and when required, something that gas doesn't facilitate. Also, given how many filling stations that there are, isn't it a pain that you can't actually buy a litre or less of the stuff.
Your average b@q/wilko half litre price of around £3.50 for meths is frankly high street robbery imo, but, if you purvey, you say as they wibble in retail. :-\