A while back I was commenting about the individual packaging of Ultimate Survival Technologies' "WetFire" tinder, specifically from my batches purchased in 2008 and early 2009. Upon contacting the company directly they replaced my faulty tinder and sent me some replacements (great customer service, BTW). However, the replacements closely mirrored the original versions, so I was a little hesitant to abuse them.

It appears that UST is now packaging the WetFire tinder in a more robust way. The edges are sealed more strongly and the tinder provided has grown in size (6g for new, 3g for old).

Below are some pictures of the front and back showing the new packaging (top) and the old packaging (bottom):

I had some wetfire in clear popout packaged from when I was 10 or 12 (I'm 27) I found last year - totally worthless. The cellophane on top of the packages clearly let some air in. Boo. These new packages look better than the oldies.

I have never used the WetFire for tinder, but I recently purchased a WetFire Stove (ultralight Ti three leg with a platform for the WetFire). Interesting little stove, but it would not even heat a pint of water in 72 degree weather and no wind. I was very disappointed. Maybe the new tablets are going to make the grade, especially if they have less smoke. (The pot was worse than a smokey wood fire.)

The best,

Jerry

Jerry:

I've heard that the thing to burn in those Wetfire* stoves is Esbit* (available at REI* and a bunch of other places). Wetfire works great as a tinder but burns too fast and too inefficiently for cooking.

HJ

*No affiliation of any kind with any of the firms or products mentioned in this post. However, if any of said companies would like to shower me with free products, how could I say no? I'm sure that'll be happening any minute now.

HJ,

I tried the Esbit tabs and they work about as well as they do in an Esbit stove. The only problem is that there is no windbreak like the Esbit. I added a bit of aluminum foil for a windbreak and it works well at a LOT less weight (1.1 oz with the pouch and foil). Great for an emergency stove but not my taste for an everyday mugup. 8 to 10 min. for a pint of water to heat and plenty of crud on the pot (the stuff sack gets real dirty and it is easy to spread around). I'll keep the Pocket Rocket for every day, but we keep trying.

The best,

Jerry

Jerry,

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Esbit. Esbit is the lightest fuel out there (based on the studies that I've read) -- you can get a titanium wing stove (sort of like the Wetfire stove), and you're in business for a few grams -- but I've never liked the smell, the difficulty in lighting, the residue, or the slowness.

The one really big advantage of Esbit is it's the only fuel that you can carry on a plane. Gas canisters? Coleman fuel? Kerosene? Forget about it. But Esbit is just fine. It also stores well. I can see that it has some uses, but it's never been my favorite fuel. Sometimes I've carried it in my emergency kit, but never as my primary cooking means.

HJ

Once upon a time, a friend and I decided to go on a controlled trip to the mountains in the wet summer season and try out all the "survival" products we had accumulated, some since the Boy Scouting days. We learned a lot.

When it came to fire, we did not consider it a problem because we had so many "firestarters" along. We intended to cook on the fire and had no other means of cooking with us. So, we set up a tarp shelter, played around with various products and finally got to dinner time and time to start a fire. It had rained a slow steady rain all day and most wood was damp or real wet but we gathered and prepared enough wood for a nice fire and proceded to test our firestarting goodies. What a surprise, all the different products and not a single one worked, including the WetFire. Not sure how old they were, but for sure they were old and my friend had been carrying them in his PSK.

In fact some products would not even burn once a fire was started and the "firestarter" was thrown into the fire! What ended up working was a surprise as well. After much frustration we were about to walk a few miles back to the vehicle and pick up a backpacking stove to cook dinner on and I decided to try one last thing. I took pocket lint from some pocket and inside the pocket I had a bunch of Starburst candy wrappers which I had been eating all day, put that in the fire pit, sparked the lint with a Metalmatch and applied the Starburst wrappers. The waxed paper of the wrappers burned hot and burned a fairly long time. Our fire took off and we finally had dinner while discussing the useless items we had been depending on for decades and the possible outcome if needed in a real emergency.

Bottom line, always test things to be sure they really work, never trust just one method and always check items that have aged before taking them along and depending on them!

I now carry a variety of firemaking tools, all tested and checked. The Fire Fixin's kit is very good, the Vasoline/cotton balls works great (be sure they haven't dried out on you), waxpaper when wadded up is excellent as well. Simple is good!
Cheers

Excellent points. Did you have Tinder Qwik on that trip, and if so did you experience any failures?

The problem with Wetfire in my mind has always been that I'm not sure I can depend on it. If the package is compromised in any way, it's no good.

HJ

I don't think Tinder Qwik was available back then. We had things that were available back then and previously. Seems any product with wax or better yet, Bee's wax impegnated is pretty reliable for lighting and burning for a reasonable time. I carry a Spark-Lite with the Tinder Qwik in my packs as one of my firemaking options and consider them reliable. Check that the flint hasn't oxidized into dust in the Spark-Lite though. I have the aluminum model that I can remove and check/replace the flint. Well worth the extra few dollars!

Hmm. It has been a few years on the Spark-Lite. Thanks for the tip.

Just the nature of the Tinder Qwik seems to make it less susceptible to "expiration" which has made it one of my selections. Rubber from old bike tires works pretty well too.

HJ