Three different measuring techniques were used to study the fluid distribution inside a trickle-bed reactor: the wire mesh tomography, the liquid collector and a set of thermistors. The liquid collector and specially the wire mesh tomography, whose first application in trickle bed reactors is described here, yielded interesting results concerning the influence of variables such as the initial liquid distribution, the loading method and the fluid flow rates on liquid maldistribution. Among the main observations, the study illustrates the importance of well defining liquid maldistribution in terms of the measured quantity and prompts to some caution when referring to some normally accepted facts like the advantages in terms of liquid distribution obtained when increasing the gas flow rate (which depends, according to this study, on the quality of initial liquid distribution) or when using a dense loading of the catalyst (the hypothesis according to which, compared with a sock loading, dense loading favors radial dispersion was not verified by the study). Also, a study performed under high interaction conditions showed the intimate relationship between the inlet distribution and the flow regime observed inside the reactor