If choosing an alcohol brew kit for day walks, Three Points of the Compass is usually carrying a Toaks burner. Their titanium Siphon has its faults, but these are mostly balanced out by simplicity, small size, light weight, robustness and performance.
An alcohol/meths brew kit lends itself admirably to a quick cuppa on a day walk. For some years now I have frequently used the Toaks Titanium Siphon Alcohol Stove, model STV-01, and Toaks FRM-02 windshield combined with my favoured wide base Evernew pan and GSI sipper mug. There are of course many alternative burners and stoves available, also quite a few alternative windshields and a multitude of pans, pots and mugs to choose from, but this brew kit is simple, familiar and works for me.
The Toaks stove is poorly named. It isn’t a stove. A stove should be able to support a pot or pan as well as act as a burner. The Siphon requires a separate pot support. Nor does it siphon fuel. Instead, liquid alcohol is drawn up between the two thin walls of the burner by capillary action. These walls are less than 1mm apart and culminate in a lip around the top rim that has eight holes in it. These act as jets for the flames, that have an inward pointing vortex, concentrating the burn in a narrower flame pattern than you might think likely. While this means that a narrow pot can be used with this burner, alcohol requires careful thought as to the complementary parts of a cook kit that must capture all those precious BTUs from what is a relatively inefficient fuel. This means a windshield, an optimum distance between jets and cooking vessel, a wider pan rather than narrower pot and a lid to the pan. This then moves me away from my little open-top titanium cup that I usually include in day walk brew kits and returns me to my favoured wide 900ml pan that I use on multi-day hikes.
The Evernew pan rests easily on top of the FRM-02, the smallest of the four piece pot supports and windshields that Toaks also make. I looked at those in a separate post. Because I am carrying my Evernew pan, I also include my favourite mug, that nests perfectly inside the pan. This is the wide and stable sipper mug from GSI, also looked at in another post.
Released by Toaks in 2015, their Titanium Siphon is a sturdy little burner due to its all titanium construction and double wall design. It is a great deal tougher than almost any home made affair. It weighs 20g, stands 40mm tall with a 53mm diameter. Up to 80ml of fuel can be poured into the centre and 30ml of fuel will burn for over ten minutes. If upset, the lit fuel will spill out, making this a dangerous stove to use inside a tent, and especially so on a tent footprint due to the heat generated beneath. Not that I use this on multi-day walks. I carry a little 60ml Nalgene bottle for the fuel which makes for two or three boils. This is plenty for a day-walk and the bottle will fit inside the stove in transit. I don’t time boil times as they are never consistent and if you are worried about such things, then alcohol is the wrong fuel for you. A match is the ideal way to light it, however if the fuel is warm enough it can be also be easily lit with a ferrocerium rod. Or use a lighter, though the deep design doesn’t lend itself to this source of ignition if only a little fuel is being used. Despite this, I usually use a lighter with this particular stove as it lights and blooms so easily. The two thin walls allow the liquid fuel between them to heat up quickly and vaporise and it takes just a few seconds to prime. Despite the fuel type, this is not a silent stove and you can hear the gas exiting the jets under pressure and it is the flame from these burning jets that mostly heat the contents of a pan or pot supported, ideally, around an inch above them. In addition to the blue flames, it also burns less efficiently from the centre of the burner and this part of the flame can creep up the side of a pot in a breeze, hence the advised use of a wider pot to capture and use as much of any drifting flame as possible.
I use this burner with either methylated spirit or bio-ethanol. It cannot be used with gel as that will gum up the works. Flip it over and a solid fuel tab could be used on the base but I am not a fan of that type of fuel. In common with most alcohol burners, there is little control of the flame from the Toaks Siphon Burner as it is but the simmer ring from a Trangia Spirit Burner can be combined with it quite well and it is then possible to reduce the flame quite a bit. The simmer ring can also be used to extinguish the burner, but that isn’t a difficult job to achieve anyway. Remove the windscreen and stand a pot on top of the burner and the flames are extinguished. Once cool (it is very important to make sure it is properly cooled), any unused fuel can be easily tipped out and poured back into the fuel bottle. If I use a cross stand trivet on the Siphon with pot resting on it, this lowers the pot from optimum height and chokes out the flame quite a bit, which while it lengthens boil time, also provides an ‘almost simmer’.
Every now and then I’ll be carrying a different pot, perhaps a narrower 750ml Ti Toaks, or 700ml Ti Vargo Bot. With these, the larger FRM-03 Toaks windshield and pot support works better. Invariably however, I find myself returning to the larger Evernew pan. 900ml is quite a large capacity and I find it sufficient for a brew and also rehydrating instant mash or soaking noodles. If you wanted something smaller, there is plenty of choice from other manufacturers though Evernew do also produce a smaller 600ml Ti pan (ECA532) that will nest inside the 900ml pan (ECA533). It is also sold as a paired set (ECA535). Toaks also sell a handily sized 700ml pot, that is more a pan, with a wide base.
I recently changed from the Ti Tri cone from Trail Designs to the lighter Vesuv windshield for the most efficient of wrap around windshields and had hoped that I could make an equally as compact brew-kit with this as it fits tightly around and supports my Evernew pan while also providing excellent protection from the wind. However, while the rolled windshield will fit inside the Evernew pan for transit, it is too large to fit inside the GSI sipper mug when that is included in my cook-kit. So while I wasn’t quite able to make that work for me it could be a viable option for those who don’t include anything similar to my GSI sipper mug.
There is little to go wrong with this burner though jets can get blocked on occasion and require poking out with a fine pin. This brew kit isn’t without its faults. It is substantially larger and bulkier than others I have used, a couple are linked below. Also, the component parts were all a bit pricey. Usually priced at around £37, the Toaks Siphon burner is an expensive option when compared to many other burners. While I like its size, simplicity and light weight, it is also a bit of a one-trick pony when compared to things like the Evernew Titanium stove which can act as either a burner or stove, burns hotter and faster, is only marginally larger and while a tad more expensive, also stows easily within just about any size of pot.
- Gear talk: Evernew Titanium Alcohol Stove
- Gear talk: Vesuv titanium windshield
- Gear talk: brew kit #1- the Ration de Combat Individuelle Rechauffable heating kit
- Gear talk: brew kit #2- smallest possible gas stove options
Three Points of the Compass 
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