FireDragon is a waterproof and environmentally friendly fire-lighting fuel.

What's the matter with little chips of Esbit? Probably a whole lot cheaper.

Cheers

They need to use "storm" matches to light it as seen in their video.

Hi Dan

> They need to use "storm" matches to light it as seen in their video.
For those who don't want to download a marketing video, I assume 'they' are the promoters, but what is 'it'? Their Fire Dragon stuff, or Esbit?

Me, I have no trouble lighting Esbit with a Bic in a couple of seconds.

Cheers

"Me, I have no trouble lighting Esbit with a Bic in a couple of seconds."

I find that it takes a lot longer if the Esbit tablet is very cold, which is how my Esbit tablets are in the morning. However, scraping up an edge with a knife blade makes it possible.

–B.G.–

Dan,

You must be BLIND …

In nearly every vid they use a ferro rod with no problem at all. It lights a hell of a lot easier than any Esbit tablet ( which is impossible to light with just sparks as it comes from the package)..

OK I'm intrigued…

I would really like to like esbit, but I really and truly can't stand the smell of it. If there's a solid fuel that doesn't stink like rotting fish, I'd LOVE to give it a go!

The stuff looks promising,but if you do an online search and look at some of user reviews from early production samples ,two problems show up. The fuel does not seem to be as energy dense as Esbit. It requires like 35g to boil two cups of water…

Granted, those tests were done with pretty poor setups (no windscreens, etc) but it does not look to be any more energy efficient per gram than liquid alcohol.

Then ,there are other issues like cost and any residue it leaves behind.

If a new product sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

–B.G.–

The devil is always in the details..

Many of these Kickstarter campaigns remind me of Popular Science magazine covers.

For almost all of their claims, I was thinking, "I melted a $0.75 thrift-store candle, poured it in several egg cartons and had 54 solid-fuel integral with their burner for a penny and a half each." Admittedly a little sooty when burned, but otherwise. . . .

I think that I would like to see the MSDS before funding this project.

Ethanol based, check – non-toxic, probably ok. At least it is not methanol.
So they perfected a way to suspend the ethanol. Nice trick. Hopefully the ethanol percentage remains high like in the 70% range.
My guess is that you can't fly with it for the same reasons you can't fly with Esbit.

The key advantage is that it is spill-proof.
Disadvantage would be you probably couldn't fly with it.

I wouldn't be worried about burning the ethanol, it's the other stuff that I would worry about.

Overall – Meh.

My 2 cents.

Jennifer, I recently opened 5 boxes of 4 gram esbit tablets and repackaged them one per little Ziploc bags. To my surprise, no fishy smell. My guess they have a lot of time to off gas while in the box. I've read the same thing on a forum here, no smell with the 4 grammers. I was impressed :-))))

I have had bad luck easily lighting the large esbit so I made it a point to aquire a Jet type lighter. I recently used it to light esbit in my videos for the Mini Esbitmizer shown in this forum. Bob says it's easy to light the leftover esbits that have crystals formed on them. Those little crystals are kept at bay inside the mini esbitmizer ;-) Esbit is really difficult to light in a small breeze, so a jet lighter or storm matches are a must. Storm matches are nice for esbit. If you watch Trail designs video on the Gram Cracker he uses a large jet type lighter, by design no doubt, wants to make sure they light easily.

Thank you for the compliment.

Folks don't really want to carry a ferro rod and striker to light their solid fuel.

Roger can light his with a mini bic, Bob also.

I'll do a little video to show you how easy it is to light esbit right out of the box with sparks. Jimmer, you were just a glimmer in your parents eyes when I was starting little fires with sparks :-)))) Jimmer, you should have known better but the more you burn, the more you learn….right Jon????

Dan,

Your condescending gibberish still does not explain why you misrepresented that the Dragonfire cubes had to be lit with a "safety match". Its BS . Anyone who has eyes can see that in their vids.

And. Esbit is nearly impossible to light with a ferro rod or sparks straight from the package. Basically, it sucks, If you go to the trouble to scrape dust off the cube in s pile or douse the thing in Alcohol ,it may light easily with sparks.

"Dan,

Your condescending gibberish still does not explain why you misrepresented that the Dragonfire cubes had to be lit with a "safety match". Its BS . Anyone who has eyes can see that in their vids.

And. Esbit is nearly impossible to light with a ferro rod or sparks straight from the package. Basically, it sucks, If you go to the trouble to scrape dust off the cube in s pile or douse the thing in Alcohol ,it may light easily with sparks."

In the beginning of the video at min. 1:27 you will see the Storm Match used to re-light the product that was dowsed with water. That's no BS Zimmer Zimmer and why do you now say "Nearly Impossible" You'll be back saying "oops, my bad"

Pyro Dan :-(

Im sure you'll douse the Esbut cube with Alcohol or something..more Zelph hoo -hah..
Whoopee.

As to the Dragonfire vids, they light the stuff with sparks about a dozen times.

You stand corrected.

Here is Hiram Cook proving me right..

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V4KFwQ1HsQE

And an entire BPL thread about what a pain Esbit is to light..
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=36205

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/firedragon/firedragon-fuel

In the kickstarter video they use the storm match (2) times not just once.

The ferro rod was used only once.

(Quote)

Eric Blumensaadt
(Danepacker) – MLife

01/20/2015 23:51:16 MST

My backup used to be a 2nd lighter – until it failed too and, like you, I had to borrow fire.

Now I carry a good lighter and a Firesteel setup, Especially if I'm using my TD Sidewinder ESBIT stove