Making a hot drink on the trail
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My cook pot, stove, and food (ready-made dehydrated meals) have been working well for both backpacking and camping. But the wind screen and pot stand are a little bulky and weighty – between a quarter and half a pound. So, in an idle moment, I thought I’d check and see what other options there might be.
While I was looking at alternate wind screens some tiny pot stands designed for the Trangia alcohol stove also came up in my searches. I realized that for around $25 could replace my stove wind screen and the pot stand. Not only was the wind screen and pot stand I found a lot smaller, but they were much lighter too.
After a lot of checking around, I bought an Evernew Titanium Alcohol Stove Cross Stand 2, and a Toaks Titanium Wind Screen. The two items weigh just 1 oz – compared to the 6.7 oz of the originals.
In Use
The pot stand is a huge improvement over the original as it holds the pot higher above the stove’s flame, at a point where the stove becomes more efficient. That was a key reason why I selected this particular stand over others that cost less. The stand comes in two small pieces that easily lock together.
I love the colors of heated titanium.
Trangia alcohol stove with a titanium pot stand.
The foil windscreen is quite astounding. It arrived rolled up into the size of a pencil, but there is enough foil to surround a large pot. I was tempted to cut the foil to shorten it, but I’m glad I didn’t, as the extra length curls up to make a handle. The foil wraps closely around the pot and also helps with the stove’s efficiency. If I use it with my MSR Pocket Rocket stove, a couple of paper clips will hold the screen open enough to stop the gas canister overheating. With the alcohol stove that’s not a concern.
In use both the pot stand and the foil glow red-hot in places. Which brings me to the only minor inconvenience with this setup. To snuff out the stove you need to remove the windscreen and the pot stand. I use the marline spike on my knife to lift off the wind screen and then the pot stand. I’ve seen some pictures where people have attached a short metal lanyard to their pot stand. Presumably the lanyard is long enough for heat conduction from the burner not to be an issue. A similar trick could be tried with the wind screen. The wind screen is so thin — about the same gauge as a foil baking tin — that it cools down very quickly. Not so the pot stand, as I soon learned.
Other things to be aware of with the windscreen, are that the edges may be sharp. However, I’ve not had any problems with them. Also it is so light that you’ll need to keep an eye on it in a high wind. That being said, I recently used it in gusty conditions on the top of a ridge, and it rattled around a bit, but worked perfectly.
Besides working well in windy conditions, I’ve used the stove, pot stand, and wind screen on cold mornings (20° – 29°F), and everything was fine. I just had to remember to warm up my butane lighter in my pocket to be able to light the stove!
Stowage
The titanium windscreen unwinds to hold the stove in place
I keep the two pot stand pieces laid flat in the bottom of my Toaks 850 ml cook pot. The Trangia alcohol stove sits on top. I roll the wind screen up tight and put it between the stove and the pot, where it unwinds and helps keep the stove in place. On top of the stove I keep 2 oz bottles of alcohol. So my entire cook set fits in my pot.
Conclusion
While there’s nothing wrong with the stand and windscreen I originally bought, I wish I’d got these smaller lighter ones in the first place.
Original Pot Stand and Wind Screen
For the moment I’ll be keeping my old wind screen to use with my MSR Pocket Rocket stove, and white gas stove. We’ll see how that goes once I’ve had a chance to test the foil wind screen with them. Provided I can keep the foil screen large enough to prevent the fuel from overheating it may be all I need.
Do I recommend them? Yes.
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