Review of Siphon Alcohol stove

[TooOld2Hike_EP]

If TL;DR, a siphon alcohol stove. But not a Toaks brand. Buy a knockoff that has foldable legs and foldable arms. $25.

I’ve been chided here in the past for using a can of Sterno for a stove. (With a Dinty Moore Beef Stew can as a pot stand and wind screen.) But for my style of clumsy camping, Sterno has been very safe. (Can’t spill, so harder to set the inside of your tent on fire when you're shivering. Has a nice low flame if you have to use the stove in your tent to heat water to survive freezing.)

But Sterno is slow and after my trip to Rock Creek Falls in the fall, when it took 40 minutes to boil water, I decided to try alcohol.

At first I had a lot of fun researching and making various variations of make it yourself (free) soda can/beer stoves. (Probably reliving my childhood. Although never being a Scout, missed out on this.)

I’m particularly fond of my 10th iteration, which is a three piece stove, with wicking material in the walls (but only 3/4 of the way up) and a built-in (but very fragile) wind screen. (I suppose that I could roll the top of the wind screen to double it up - if I knew how.) I think I optimized every aspect of its design. (Except it needs more than 3 holes.) A half ounce for the gram weenies.



But it’s hardish to start (because alcohol at the bottom quickly wicks up into the sides), needs at least 10 ml to start (for the previous reason) and doesn’t burn as hot as it could. (6 holes would be hotter.) Can't recover unused alcohol. (Although, in practice, there's never any left over alcohol.)

So I bought a no name knock off siphon alcohol stove. Kinda like the Toaks brand but 1) mine has foldable legs and arms and 2) mine is not made from Titanium. (Even tho the Chinese advertise it as so.) And 3) The Toaks has LASER drilled holes. The holes in mine are drilled conventionally. (Which is fine.)



Wow! Using it with my Dinty Moore wind screen and my heat exchanger cup, it boils a cup and a half of water in four minutes. Almost as fast as a canister stove. Starts every time. Can start with as little fuel as you want. (So can reheat water using only a few ounces if you want.) Can recover unused fuel if you need to.

[azbackpackr]

I have seen various alcohol stoves in use. While I am cleaning up after having eaten my meal, the alcohol stove person is still waiting for his water to boil. But my main question is: What the heck is TL;DR ? Yes, I know I can Google it.

Other than being slow, alcohol stoves can be workable, but you have to make sure you have a leakproof bottle. And that there are no fire restrictions in the area.

I will actually be interested to know if your Chinese version holds up as well as the name brand. Also, have you ever tried making one at home from cat food cans? There's a video with Andrew Skurka, shows how to do that.

[TooOld2Hike_EP]

@azbackpackr
Answering your questions in reverse order, I didn't try the side burner cat food stove. The iteration that I built is said to perform better. (But, yes, I did see his article.)

For now am using the OEM bottle that Heet came in. It's been leakproof so far. (I put it in a Ziploc anyway. And away from my food.)

TL;DR = Too Long; Didn't Read

So far, time to boil is very fast. Dawin on the Trail switched over to the Toaks version for his trip to Alaska. I read that temperature and alitutde affect heat output for alcohol stoves. But AFAIK, that's also true for cannister stoves.

[azbackpackr]

@TooOld2Hike_EP
I've been known to sleep with my canister. One morning struggling to make coffee is one morning too many. I use the MSR Pocketrocket.

Good to know about the boil time.

[TooOld2Hike_EP]

The type alcohol affects time to boil. I'm using Heet. AFAIK, Heet is among the highest heat capacity per ounce.