Product Review - Trail Designs Caldera Keg-H & Ti-Tri Keg-H

Rating: 4.5 out of 5: Highly Recommended

Pictured is my version of the Trail Designs Caldera Keg-H. The system comes complete with Heineken pot & lid, aluminum cone (which acts both as a wind screen and a very stable pot support), "Beer Bands" - one of which holds the can at the correct height in the cone while the other goes at the top of the can to make the surface cool enough to drink from and pick up, a 12-10 Alcohol "Pepsi Can" type stove, fuel bottle, plastic cup, and an insulating sleeve with lid, all of which nests perfectly and is kept together inside a silnylon stuff sack. The complete system weighs in at a very nice 6.2 ounces.


Since my backpacking motto is "bring everything you need, and nothing you don't", I decided there was more stuff than I needed in this kit. Therefore I only use the pot & lid, cone, Ti Gram Cracker Esbit stove (not included), and the beer bands, all of which I pack in a small cuben fiber stuff sack. My version of this stove weighs in at 2.85 ounces, less than half of what the fully loaded kit weighs, and yet it still has everything I need to boil water for my freezer bag cooking (FBC) meals, coffee, and tea.

This seems like the ideal ultralight cooking system, right? But what if you run out of fuel? Make a fire and cook over that? Not ideal, especially with a tall narrow pot that falls over easily. The aluminum cone would melt if you tried to use it over a wood fire. Hence my request for a cone made out of titanium, referred to at TD as a Ti-Tri (titanium tri fuel...alcohol, esbit, or wood). This is an "off the menu" request for the Heineken pot, but Rand and Russ over at Trail Designs are always open to special requests.

Other than the titanium cone's ability to handle the heat of a wood fire, it is also much more durable than the standard aluminum cone. My gear is intended to be durable enough for a multi-month thru-hike such as the 2663 mile Pacific Crest Trail, so this is an important consideration for me.

Besides, I don't care who you are...this ti-cone is sexy! (I may be addicted to titanium - a healthy habit I suppose).

The testing in this review is based on about 2,600' elevation (my house), at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. As mentioned above, I used a Trail Designs titanium  Gram Cracker Esbit stove. I have found this little 0.10 ounce stove to really help slow and concentrate the burn, making it much more efficient. More on that in another post some day.

As you compare the two cones side by side, they are quite different, even though they are intended for the same pot. The titanium cone on the right has a large cut-out at the top to enable you to feed the wood fire while you are cooking. My assumption is that this will make the unit much less efficient in Esbit or Alcohol mode because the hot air will be able to escape much quicker than with the aluminum model on the left.

With 2 cups of cold tap water in each pot, I lit both Esbit cubes, centered the cones over them, and set each pot on at the same time. My first test resulted in the aluminum cone bringing the water to a boil in about 9 minutes, and the titanium cone in about 12 minutes. This is a huge difference, and considering the fact that fuel is normally much less efficient at higher elevations, and the Esbit cubes only tend to burn for about 12 minutes or so, the "sexy" titanium unit might not boil my 2 cups of water up in the mountains.

This photo is very similar to the one above, but if you look closely, I moved the bands up quite a bit, which lowered the Heineken pots. Running the same test again, now the aluminum cone boiled water in about 12 1/2 minutes, and the titanium cone 13 minutes. Lowering the pots resulted in slowing both units down, and also slowing the Esbit burning down, as both fuel cubes burned for over 15 minutes. This tells me if I am patient, I can probably get a good rolling boil at higher elevations with the Ti-Tri cone.

Not yet satisfied with the results of my new Ti-Tri, I set out to increase the efficiency of the titanium cone. Since the large opening is only needed in wood burning mode, I decided to make a removable cover for it. I had some thin aluminum flashing material in the garage, so I fashioned a cover that would stay in place and also be easy to add or remove depending on the fuel I used. This resulted in a 10 minute boil time, much better than the 12 minutes without it! I'm still not quite sure why it took longer to boil water in this unit vs. the aluminum one, but there are still some differences between the two cones. I bet Rand or Russ could give us a scientific explanation for the difference.

To set the Ti-Tri Keg-H up for burning wood, insert your titanium tent stakes (not included in my stove weight above because I don't bring extras for the stove) through the holes in the cone. This provides a level platform to support the Heineken pot.

Start a small wood fire a little smaller than the bottom diameter of the cone, then place the cone over it and keep feeding the fire until the flame is burning strong. Next set the pot on top of the stakes, and continue to feed the fire with small sticks. This wood burning mode is intended as a backup for me. If you intend on using wood as your primary source of fuel, as I did on my PCT section A hike, I recommend adding the optional Inferno insert, which makes it burn much more easily and efficiently.

My first test in wood burning mode took about 12 minutes to boil water. This time would have been reduced significantly had I done a better job keeping the fire burning strong. Two times the flame went out and I had to add more sticks and blow on it to get it to relight, which was really no big deal. In my experience, a fire this small in diameter is much more difficult to keep going than one a bit wider. After my water boiled, I let the fire burn down and go out. The coals stayed hot for quite a while, and eventually burned down to a small pile of ashes.

I really like both units, but I lean towards the Ti-Tri Keg-H system because of its more durable titanium construction and because of the wood burning option. I neglected to mention earlier, but it weighed the same as the aluminum cone at 0.95 ounces, until I added the 0.10 ounce removable door. I gave a rating of 4.5 for both units for two reasons; 1) While the Heineken can is more durable than say a Fosters can, I'm still concerned that it won't last through a several month hike. This of course could be remedied by sending a few extra cans in advance with your mail drop packages. 2) The aluminum cone it is not all that durable, and with the titanium cone, I had to add the removable door to get the unit to be more efficient. (Russ did warn me that this narrow/tall system would be less efficient than a wide/short one). Yes I'm being picky, but a rating 4.5 out of 5 is almost perfect!  If your goal is to carry the lightest, and in the case of the Ti-Tri most flexible stove system possible, one of these just might be right for you! Happy Trails!