Just tried it out yesterday, and I'm thrilled! Of course, it's not as fast a start-up as a gas stove, but it lit up pretty quickly with pine shavings for tinder. I had to start off with pretty small pieces of pine in the combustion chamber, but in a matter of a minute I could throw just about anything in.

Something a buyer should consider is getting their pot or pan dirty. It puts a pretty good coating of soot on the bottom surface, although the stove itself keeps pretty clean if the wood burns efficiently enough. However, a bit of soot on the bottom of the pan doesn't bother me, and not having to carry fuel will be great.

Customer Service

The stove arrived a little over a week after I ordered it (I'm in Ontario, Canada). This included Thanksgiving weekend, so all in all, it came reasonably quickly.

I've used this stove for a while now and love it. couple of tips (1) I use a tin can just smaller than the neck to boil water in. it stows inside and with a small piece of hardware mesh it makes a compact kit. additionally if you pack a couple of tampons with a small bottle of fire gel in a plastic bag you won't need to hunt for tinder.

I found this stove easy to light and maintain. It met my needs-no noise, light, "fuel" is light, heats up nicely. There is a learning curve. I found that the little brass alcohol "stove" that I purchased alone with it where there is no wood works very fine. I only carry enough alcohol for one or two meals. This aspect I only use for when there is no wood, wood is too wet, or I enter a fire ban. So I have the alcohol to get by. All in all it is lighter then my MSR was. If you like new, advance, fancy, complicated, expensive stoves you won't like this. Oh, i also felt it was real nice in it helps keep bugs at bay. Thanks. -Dave S.

This is an incredible stove. It's the most rugged backpacking stove I've ever seen, and it's the lightest too when you include the weight of fuel for a long backpacking trip. It's made of very high quality materials that won't deteriorate over time. What I love most about it is the simplicity, it just couldn't get any simpler than this. I was a bit worried before I bought it that it would be hard to start or not be powerful enough but it turned out to be very easy to start, and the power output is quite sufficient as well. The power output is not as high as a gas stove's, someone made a comparison with an electric kitchen stove, and I think that's a very good comparison. It's as fast to boil water as an electric stove, but not as fast as a gas stove. I recommend this stove highly to anyone.

Customer Service

Very good, prompt and detailed replies by email even if you have lots of questions.

Similar Products Used:

zip stove

This is a very good stove. It is everything it promises to be, it's very light and incredibly reliable. It's not the fastest stove in the world but it's not very slow either. Since it runs on wood it's not the best stove if you want to go above the tree line unless you get the optional alcohol burner that is sold with the stove. I also have some other wood stoves but this is the only one that's really any good.

Similar Products Used:

zip stove, gas stoves, home made stoves

The Stratus trailstove is truly a great stove. So simple, so perfect. It always works, never any problems. No fuel to carry. Any backpacker who doesn't own a Trailstove is missing out. I don't understand why some people use other stoves than the trailstove. Why carry fuel when you don't need to?

Customer Service

Prompt replies to any questions by email.

One word for the Trailstove ...... WOW. I stumbled across the trailstove while surfing the web. The idea seemed like a no-brainer, and at $20 for a stove that effectively eliminates the need for messy, dangerous fuels, I pounced on it. The first thing I realized when using the trailstove is how quiet it is. I had been using a MSR XGK for years, and for those that do not know, the XGK sounds like a F-14 Tomcat departing an aircraft carrier. This stove is near silent. The trailstove gets up to temp in about 10 minutes when filled half full with wood and cooks like a dream. I have used the trailstove on a number of winter mountain trips and have become very fond of using it as a source of heat when sitting around in the evenings and cold mornings, something that you cannot do with a white-gas stove. Pros - light, no need to carry fuel, well made. Perfect simplicity. Cons - Haven't found any.

Customer Service

Excellent - I emailed them a question and received a reply in a few minutes. What more could you ask for?

I've been using a Trailstove for quite a while now. I liked it when I first tried it and now I absolutely love it. I bought it for overnight snowshoeing trips but now I use it in the summer too. If you've gone snowcamping with a trailstove once you can never go back to whatever you were using before. I recommend this stove to any serious backpacker or snowcamper. I had some trouble getting it going when I first bought it but I soon figured out that the trick is not to put too much wood in it, ever since that it's been working like a dream. Conclusion: Great stove.

Customer Service

Very good, they reply to emails pretty fast.

I would like to say that while the product could use some improvements at this time, the customer service of this company is absolutely outstanding. The trailstove is a good product, it just needs a different material on the blowtube and some sort of way to lock the legs in place when the stove is in use. If these two improvements could be made, this product will be a 5 star product!

Customer Service

Outstanding! They contacted me concerning my prior review and offered me a full refund. This shows that they stand behind their product. I am very impressed by that. If they treat every customer as well as they treated me, this company will be around for a long time!

Where do I begin? This is the worst purchase I have made so far. So far I have experienced the stove falling over because of no locking feature associated with the legs. Consequently, I have been burned by it. The tube that you blow into has a metal tip that really burns if it comes out of the hole and touches you. Also, you cannot get a consistent amount of heat to come out of the stove, and you must constently fiddle with adding more sticks to keep the fire going. Basically, you spend more time keeping the fire hot than cooking. My friend and I ended up giving up and just putting our pan on the campfire. STAY AWAY FROM THIS STOVE!

Customer Service

N/A- I would call them about this product but I'm sure they are well aware of how poorly made it is. It's a wonder they haven't been sued yet.