Bonfire, the Tripod Burner: all the fun of a cookout with none of the work

Perhaps the best part about being a camp counselor was making our wards risk mosquito bites and poison ivy in order to collect dirty, rotting wood for their campfires -- while we sat around laughing and planning the evening's snipe hunt. Well one of those poor souls must have grown up to become a product designer bent on saving future generations from such cruel torture, and the result is a portable "bonfire" that you can fold up and slip into a knapsack or strap onto your pack mule. Designer Yu-ri Lee's "Tripod Burner" is little more than a three-legged gas stove that supports the cooking surface of your choice, but because of its unique shape, makes the perfect companion for a small tailgating party or romantic picnic in the woods. Unfortunately the 2007 iF Award-winning stove is only a concept for now -- meaning you won't see it on sale at Target anytime soon -- so if you want a real bonfire whose flames kiss the forest's leafy canopy, a crew of indentured campers is still your best bet.

[SnowB @ Jan 21st 2007 5:29PM]

Why would having a crew of gay men with false teeth help you build a "bonfire whose flames kiss the forest's leafy canopy"? I'm confused!

[Kevlar @ Jan 21st 2007 6:03PM]

I don't know... with such a small built-in tank of gas, you'd have to fill it up often, or carry around a larger tank to support it. Kinda defeats the purpose of being so small and portable to begin with.

[Aaron @ Jan 21st 2007 6:34PM]

At least you won't get kicked out of a country club's parking lot because of their "open flame" policy and forced to ride in the back of a van with the rear doors open as the driver, who is sticking his head out the window because of the insane amount of fumes, drives franticly to the next parking lot over and then after a few more burgers dumping hot coals in the Kroger parking lot and putting them out with a 2 liter of Diet Dr. Pepper and two more 2 liters of Mountain Dew then taking off as fast as you can choking, due to the still smoking grill in the back of the van, and hoping that you can get away undetected before the cops make it across the parking lot to the huge rolling cloud of steam, a slush of hot coals, various wrappers and three empty two liters.

[Christiaan @ Jan 21st 2007 7:05PM]

It is a cool design, but, as Kevlar alludes to, it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. The current problem isn't the bulk of the stove (in fact this design makes it bigger), but the bulk of fuel storage. When I go tramping I use the Titanium Stove KB0101, which is about as small as you get, but I still have the problem of carrying a large fuel canister.

[SuperQ @ Jan 21st 2007 10:41PM]

I use two stoves these days. A Jetboil Personal for water/soup/etc because it's very efficient.. and I keep a Snow Peak Giga Power for doing things in the fry pan eggs/pancakes/etc. I used to use a white-gas Peak 1 for everything, but after trying out Isobutane, I'm never going back to white-gas.

[kaztm @ Jan 22nd 2007 1:42AM]

It would be nice if this tripod is a cold-fusion reactor.

The black heating elements would be electric, and this tripod will provide power to all of the gadgets you'd be carrying. It could even power your vehicle!

[ThisAintNoComment @ Jan 21st 2007 7:27PM]

If they try and copyright the name Bonfire, they might have some trouble, as the name Bonfire is already trademarked by a company that makes snowboarding clothes

[sdix @ Jan 21st 2007 9:32PM]

how about iFire?

[cuby @ Jan 21st 2007 10:10PM]

triPod nano?

[mack @ Jan 21st 2007 11:24PM]

what is this???

[embassy @ Jan 22nd 2007 2:10AM]

wasnt that tripod a final boss in starfox?

[tom_squick @ Jan 22nd 2007 10:46AM]

Why do we need this?

[Jay @ Jan 22nd 2007 9:18PM]

TriPOD? White?

I sense an Apple lawsuit.....