Gear Talk: Trail Designs Ti-Tri + Inferno stove Initial Review

Beginning of the week the postman rang the doorbell - he had a package which didn't fit through the post box. A sticker on the side said Trail Designs. Wow, that went fast, I thought! I opened the package to find the Ti-Tri and Inferno stove in it, together with the Caddy, two Titanium stakes, the Gram Cracker and a few Esbit tablets, the 12-10 Alcohol Stove, and a little bottle + measurement cup. I immediately started playing around with it, figuring out how it should be put together and reading the instruction leaflets.

However, I can't make a fire in the house - I would need to hack up the parquet flooring which I'm sure my rent lord wouldn't approve of. So I went on a mightly long trek of 500 m to the nearby lake, collected wood on the way, cleared a space and started my experiment. And because I wanted to try something new, I decided to make a video of it.



Because new gear always is put up on the weight scale (much to the amusement of my girl friend), here are some cold, hard numbers for the Mathematicians out there. UL backpackers also seem obsessed with numbers, so they might as well enjoy them ;)

Caldera Cone 51 g
Gramm Cracker + underplate 6 g
12 - 10 Alcohol Stove 16 g
Inferno stove 65 g
Caddy 75 g
Fireplate 24 g
Titanium Stakes 17 g
Alcohol bottle (full) 146 g
Esbit Tablets 43 g

Makes for a Grand total of 443 g. That allows you to cook with either esbit, alcohol or wood. However, I reckon no one would carry a double back-up around, so taking only the Gram Cracker and esbit tablets as back-up with the Ti-Tri, Inferno, stakes, fireplate and caddy you would have 281 g for your stove and back-up. And while I throw around numbers, I should say this: I have a TT 1100 pot, and the Ti-Tri and Inferno are made to fit that one. If you got a smaller pot, say a 750 ml pot, the Ti-Tri and Inferno will weigh less. Then there is the Caddy, a might 75 g, though it protects its contents well and can be used as two cups. As the Titanium edges are a bit sharp, I am hesitant to put the cones like that in the backpack, too big the probability that the backpack or something else takes damage. So for the moment it comes along.

What else is there to say? Don't make the mistake and put the Inferno cone down the right way. It belongs upside down (wide end up), which makes feeding it a lot easier and it burns hotter. The fireplate has holes in it, so you can stake it to the ground. I used two nails for that, as I don't have titanium stakes. It gets easier to use with every time, and also folding and getting it out of the caddy is easier with every use. The Inferno is hungry, and uses quite some wood. But damn, it is fast! 7,5 minutes is a record time for boiling a liter of water for me, my BushBuddy Ultra takes longer. Finally, the Inferno isn't yet on the Trail designs website. If you want one, you need to contact them and they will hook you up. Contact is fast and friendly, excellent customer service to be precise.

Well, so much for my Initial review. When Joe is here in two weeks, the two of us will be able to make some comparisons of BushBuddy Ultra versus Ti-Tri + Inferno, and the Ti-Tri + Inferno will get its first trail test.

/edit: Roger from nielsenbrownoutdoors.com wrote an excellent comparison article of the Ti-Tri versus BushBuddy. If you're on the fence about either of these stoves, head over and have a read, it should help you decide =)

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17 Questions, comments, observations:

  1. Excellent video Hendrik, and your experiences reflect mine, a hot stove, boil times are fast, and very little ash remains.

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  2. he hendrik

    great video and a fantastic stove.
    i think that's gonna be my next one

    ReplyDelete
  3. Roger, I'm looking forward to your review, as you had it already out on the trail - though what you said here makes me feel very positive!

    Hei Benjamin, thank you - first try at video, so I can only improve :D The triple system is excellent, and I am sure you're going to love it! Playing with fire and watching it has something to it...

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  4. Hendrik,

    stove testing + inside the house = a visit from the emergency services! ;)
    I did some meths stove testing last year and was surprised by the height of the flames and even managed to spill a bit meths in the process....wife not happy :(

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  5. Dave, that's right - besides the rent lord and girl friend not approving, the emergency services might visit! I hope you had no visit of the emergency services during your tests ;)

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  6. hi again man!

    have u tried "pieni ihme" cooker?
    its basically just a minimaö alcohol burner bit like trangias have,small( tiny) pan and a tiny cup,all pack in the cup.

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  7. Moro Perkunas,

    no, haven't tried that. Is it the Mini Trangia? Do you have a photo (link)?

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  8. i can try to get a link to it,there used to be a shop selling those,its made in finland in pretty small quantities,at first and later they have been made far eas ti think,i might be wrong too,but its origins lay her ein Finish continent.Its more compact than mini trangia but a bit similar basically.very tiny in my eyes,the whole package is about 5 inches tall and 4 in diameter,and even the fule bottle packs inside the cooking cup.I have two of those and i like em,and near my school one sport shop sells those,theyre been ther ein the lower shelf:) for some 10 to 15 years atleast.

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  9. Check out my blog,ill post a few shots of it there.

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  10. Hei taas,

    looks good (Why can I not comment on your blog?), very small indeed. How much does it weight, do you know? And in that sport shop (which one), how much does it cost?

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  11. its bit under 40 euros,it weight something like 430 grams with full fuel bottle.Ive seen those only in one shop anymore,in many many yrs,as theyre like forgotten under shelfs there,in :

    http://www.haijaa.fi/yhteystiedot/index.tmpl

    http://maps.google.fi/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=tupurlantie+4&daddr=&hl=fi&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=61.501253,23.103583&sspn=0.004454,0.013604&ie=UTF8&z=15

    i drive by that shop every week,and visit there to find all kinds of discount stuff :).


    u cant comment on my blog?
    hold on ill have to check out,i dont understand much about this blog stuff yet so there might be something i can adjust to allow comments.

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  12. Hendrik.

    Just wanted to thank you for posting this video. Also for the excellent interviews with people from various small businesses in the space. I particularly liked the interview from Fritz Handel at Bush Buddy. Great blog in general!

    I was just conversing with Randy from Trail Designs about the Inferno on one of the backpacking light forums and I noticed you don't have an interview with him on here.

    I would love to see where one of your interviews with him might go. If it's even remotely as good as your interview with Fritz it'd be a great read.

    It looks like you to may already know each other but if there is anyway I can hook you two up for an interview or otherwise encourage it let me know.

    Thanks again!

    -Mike
    flickr.com/photos/mmeiser2
    mmeiser.com/blog

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  13. Michael, thank you for the kind words! I really enjoyed messing around with the video, and plan to make some more in the future. An interview with Rand and Russ is planned, but I need to see when I find the time to send my questions to them =) There is an interview with Rand on the hrXXL blog, see the link in my blog roll.

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  14. Hei taas,

    looks good (Why can I not comment on your blog?), very small indeed. How much does it weight, do you know? And in that sport shop (which one), how much does it cost?

    ReplyDelete
  15. i can try to get a link to it,there used to be a shop selling those,its made in finland in pretty small quantities,at first and later they have been made far eas ti think,i might be wrong too,but its origins lay her ein Finish continent.Its more compact than mini trangia but a bit similar basically.very tiny in my eyes,the whole package is about 5 inches tall and 4 in diameter,and even the fule bottle packs inside the cooking cup.I have two of those and i like em,and near my school one sport shop sells those,theyre been ther ein the lower shelf:) for some 10 to 15 years atleast.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Roger, I'm looking forward to your review, as you had it already out on the trail - though what you said here makes me feel very positive!

    Hei Benjamin, thank you - first try at video, so I can only improve :D The triple system is excellent, and I am sure you're going to love it! Playing with fire and watching it has something to it...

    ReplyDelete
  17. he hendrik

    great video and a fantastic stove.
    i think that's gonna be my next one

    ReplyDelete