How to clean Trangia ruined by a dishwasher
Few weeks ago I was feeling lazy and instead of hand-washing my Trangia, I threw it in the dishwasher. Stupid me. If I’d only read the manual I would have know you’re not supposed to wash Trangia — or any other aluminium cookware — in the dishwasher as the detergents cause the aluminium to blacken and discolour.
Well my Trangia came out looking totally ruined.
After some frantic Googling I found there was a way to rescue the situation and bring back the bright aluminium colour without damaging the metal. Here's how:
- Find a large enough pot that fits the Trangia and fill it with enough water to submerge all the parts. Add 3 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar per every litre of water and stir. I used freshly squeezed lemon juice.
- Bring the solution to boil and add the Trangia in separate pieces. Let it boil for at least 10 minutes. I found that for the harder stains it took closer to 15 minutes.
- Once you see most of the stains disappear, remove the Trangia from boiling water and use steel wool or similar to scrub and remove any remaining stains.
- Rinse and wash the Trangia thoroughly with clean water and dry with a towel.
This was kind of laborious but I was able to rescue my Trangia and remove most if not all of the discolouring and dark spots.
Lessons learned: do not wash aluminium cookware in the dishwasher and always read the manual.