How airtight do you need to keep unwrapped solid fuel?

[Bryce]

If you were out for a week or less, how airtight would you need to keep your fuel tablets? Specifically the Coghlans or Weber cubes?

I am thinking about carrying coghlans or weber cubes for long weekend to week long trips due to price and weight.

But….I am worried about two things:

1) The soot (webers has more than coghlans), and keeping things clean inside my food bag.

2) Having the fuel tablets dry out after unpackaging them.

I have a 4g rice cakes bag that is big enough to hold my Heiny keg can pot and all my stove kit inside, plus a long handled plastic soda spoon outside keg can. I am thinking of throwing the unwrapped Webers or Coghlans cubes in the bag (outside the Heiny) as well to keep them from drying out too quickly. I'd tie the rice cakes bag off in a simple knot. Then I put all of them inside my food bag, where the soot from my pot can't get to the rest of my food bag.

So the fuel tablets/cubes are not air tight, but air certainly won't be circulating in there very much. Will they last?

(Companion post where I'm going lighter with my cookset: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=49519)

[Theron Rohr]

I don't think it makes any kind of difference over a few days. My guess is it would take months (if not years) for fuel cubes to "dry out" to the point where they don't work properly.

I think this is the kind of problem people have when they buy army surplus fuel stamped "1983" on it :)

[Bryce]

Prob won't make a difference over a long weekend or week, but over time, all the fuel tablets I am aware of, dry out over time if unwrapped:

[Bob Gross]

Have you noticed that some solid fuel tablets have more smell than others?

Many such solid chemicals will sublimate or vaporize into the air, either by a little bit, or by a lot. The more smell you perceive, the faster it is sublimating. When you put the tablet into a plastic bag, you are limiting that sublimation into the tiny space of the bag. So, if you start with a fuel tablet that has little smell, and then if you keep it fairly well bagged, it should "keep" for a long time.

Some plastic bag material has large pores, so the smell can get out over time (so your fuel tablet will go stale faster). Good plastic bags have tiny pores and are called gas-tight. I have some.

–B.G.–

[Bryce]

I'm going with the cheap (free) plastic bag first and see if it keeps the tablets over a long wknd trip.

I have to say, that while the weber cubes soot like a mofo, they don't smell.

[Bob Gross]

They may not smell to your nose or my nose, but wild animals probably smell them. If they eat your fuel tabs or just steal them, you will be in trouble. Of course, if they eat them, they will be in trouble also.

–B.G.–

[Bryce]

Well the stove and tablets go inside the rice cakes bag, which go inside my food bag that contains my toiletries at night as well. All of that gets hoisted up to keep the beasties away. :)

I just throw mine in the smallest size ziplock bag I can find.

[Bryce]

How long have you been out with your tablets/cubes outside their original packing and in the zip lock bag? Do you notice any performance difference towards the end of your trip?

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