Hacks for lighting fires in adverse conditions
Original post
One time I tried to get a campfire going in a stiff wind. The wind kept putting out my cigarette lighter so I couldn't light the candle stub or strip of bike inner tube. Luckily I remembered I had an alcohol wipe sachet so was able to light that and then light the inner tube from it.
18 comments
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I would worry about the same thing. The propellant is butane which burns almost as fast as petrol and the valve on the can is plastic. Ive never heard of a can exploding but all the requirements for it to happen are there.
Not quite the same but I've had the rubber seal round the pump on a coleman pressurised petrol stove catch fire. That didn't explode though it produced a nice jet of flame out of the resulting hole left by the burnt plastic/rubber until the pressure dropped off.
With the hairspray/deoderant trick i'd say the plastic nozzle could easily catch and burn out to a bigger hole giving a spectacular jet of fuel / flame, but the flow of esaping gas / vapour would be enough to avoid a true explosion.
Hopefully.
More on topic I bought a windproof lighter for my last trip. In a strong breeze it did indeed remain lit where a normal lighter blew out. However it proved incapable of actually setting fire to anything in these conditions, including firestarters. Guess the heat just got dispersed too quickly.
Yeah - you could light a gas stove with it in wind (but you'd need a wind shade to cook anything, so big deal. And the pizo lights it just as well).
Given you have to press the cap with your thumb, would you not let go of it ? .... cutting off the flow, long before the top catches alight ?
I don't think there is much risk of explosion unless you drop the can in the fire (always a risk, of course, if you do dumb things like light an aerosol spray).
Instead of cotton balls, you can just take BBQ fire-starter. Works very well.
You can - and I've used them previously. I used to have wood heating so had a ready supply of fire-starters (now, new house, no wood heating, gas bbq).
However, I don't like the smell. As well, airlines dont like to carry them 🤔
Vaseline pads work equally well but don't have the (strong) smell and hasn't been an issue travelling across the ditch.
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| Forum | Gear talk |
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| Started by | Honora |
| On | 10 September 2017 |
| Replies | 17 |
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