I did a forum search and didn't find any discussion of Sure2Burn fire starters. I found them at Home Depot--$3.95 for a package of 12 (33 cents each). Each one is small plastic bag about 2x2 inches square, filled with a solid listed as "Aliphatic hydrocarbons, Urea based resins, and Parrafin."

The box states:

Convenient, easy to use
Replaces lighter fluid
Non-petroleum based--prevents unwanted odor and taste
Lights even when wet
Safe, non-toxic
Ideal for lighting charcoal grills, fireplaces, campfires, and more.

I tried one a couple of days ago to light a charcoal fire using a metal chimney. I had to do a little improvising as the chimney is designed to use a wad of newspaper directly set on the grill. I couldn't put the Sure2Burn pkg on the grill since I feared it would fall through. So I put one layer of charcoal in the chimney and then I lit Sure2Burn and placed it on top of the layer. Finally, I filled the rest of the chimney with charcoal. The starter worked great. It is much better than newspaper which smokes a lot and generates ashes.

There is a youtube video review here.

As he states in the video, they can be burned when wet, and they last for 7 minutes at full burn, then 2 minutes more at a reduced burn. With a little prep (again shown in the video) they can be started with a sparking device.

They company that sells them is Char Broil although I couldn't find the Sure2Burn listed on their website (charbroil.com). I note that at one time Coleman used to sell a product by the same name (I saw this on Amazon but it is no longer available). I think I saw somewhere that Walmart carries them too.

I am going to put several of these in my BOB.

I have carried these before and they worked pretty well. You need a flame to start them in the plastic wrapping, but I was able to open them up and get them started with a spark.

Thanks! I'll take a look at these!

It looks like the same stuff as Wetfire tinder and Weber lighter cubes.

Wetfire is the most expensive.

Weber lighter cubes are MUCH cheaper than both Wetfire and Sure2Burn but is packed in a single tray of 24 which is not that convenient to carry since once they are exposed to air, the stuff deteriorates. I have tried coating it in wax to preserve its function but have figured out no good way to prevent the wax coated cube from shattering when carrying it around.

Each Sure2Burn is about half to a third the size of the Weber cubes but has the convenience of being individually packed. Even if the stuff shatters inside the package it is still no big deal.

I can use a Weber cube to make a cup of tea in a canteen cup but Sure2Burn is useful only as tinder.

My perfect solid fuel tab would be sold as individual tablets that is large enough to boil one water for one canteen cup and is doesn't soot up my cup. I have yet to find it.

Conway Yee

This looks like good stuff. If you only have a ferro rod and this stuff, you can still get a fire going if you open the bag.

One thing that concerns me is a bag leaking without my knowledge. If it's like the Wetfire stuff, then it will deteriorate. Even if you don't have a leaky bag, there's a shelf life. Plus, I don't know how long it has been sitting on the store shelf. I wouldn't put these in a BOB. In contrast, PJ cotton balls do not have these issues.

The best way I've found to keep the weber cubes from disintegrating is to tightly wrap them in aluminum foil. As to keeping them from being crushed... It's never come up for me. Perhaps both problems could be served by storing them in a largish pill bottle.

The contents are one solid mass, so they won't leak unless they deteriorate with exposure to air.

Granted it would be nice to know the working shelf-life. I plan to store a few for later testing.

PJ cotton balls are messy so I would prefer a better solution. However, it might be prudent to have both cotton balls and Sure2Burn in a BOB until we know the shelf life. One could also rotate the Sure2Burn out of a BOB and replace with new ones, every six months or so.

I'll have to see if I can find them to try them out. The same guy you linked there has a video on wax coating the Webers, and they look pretty durable when coated. I've got a pretty hardcore commercial chamber vacuum sealer that I use for packing Weber cubes and I've yet to have one fail (even the ones I did almost a year a half ago, before I got my uber-sealer). Now I use mylar baggies.

Although it does have some residue when burned, the smaller 4 gram Esbit tablets are great fire starters, too.

Petroleum Jelly/cotton ball is VERY tolerant to abuse. I am keeping some underneath my canteen where it is bounced around and otherwise abused.

I kept a two weber cubes in the pocket to the side of the insulated canteen carrier where they are bashed around constantly. The Weber cube fell apart from abuse.

Conway Yee

I have never had a Sure2Burn open up, and I have abused them a bit. In fact, they are not the easiest to open without a knife or scissors. The individual packaging is pretty durable.

I keep Sure2Burn fire starters packets and a bic lighter in my hunting gear as my "sure fire" emergency option. I have a ferro rod on my knife and cary jute twine for a second option.

I love the Sure2Burn packets they pack small, work everytime, dont dry out, I have never had one fail. They make fire starting kinda boring, cause they just plain work; but that's exactly what I need in a real emergency out in the woods.
I highly recomend these in any kit...

I know some people are really excited about this product, but I'm a bit skeptical. I wouldn't care so much if we were talking about fire starting for a weekend barbecue. Lack of fire in a survival situation can end a life.

One poster went so far as to say this product does not dry out. Really? What are the details of that analysis? How long did you have this product? Under what conditions? Was the inner material exposed to air? A reader's life may depend on your answers. You might say, well, the reader should test on their own, but the reader may be a novice and may not know any better.

Here's an example comparison to PJ cotton balls. There was a PJ jar and some cotton balls package sitting in a shed behind my parent's house. The stuff must have been sitting there for over 25 years. My parent's house on Mt. Hamilton freezes in the winter and gets blazing hot in the summer. The shed had been hosed down at least once a year for general cleaning. I'm sure whoever was cleaning was not too careful about keeping dry the tools and other things, including the PJ jar and cotton balls. I know this because I cleaned that shed several times. As you may have guessed by now, the PJ and cotton balls ignited right up from a spark as if I had just bought them from the drug store the same day.

Since this is a survival forum, sometimes we talk about things on which a person will be betting their life. I would bet my life on PJ and cotton balls. Can you say the same about this Sure2Burn product?

I can say that I have been using them for YEARS, and have had zero issues. The argument about them getting exposed has no merit for me. They are sealed for a reason. So I am suppose to trust my life on Cotton balls setting in a shed for 25 years... are you F-ing kidding me. I care enough about my life to check my gear regularly. If I ever found a packet with a hole I would replace it (I have not yet, but I would)
I do this stuff, its what I do, not just talk about it on the internet. I hunt, I scout, I'm out in the bush alone A Lot. If I scream NO ONE will hear it, yes, you can say I bet my A$$ on my gear.

Good to hear about options for fire starting, thanks.

I'm going on a week-long camp trip (car camping in a state park so not especially perilous) in August and plan to play around with several fire starting options - some dedicated fire making products as well as pj-cotton balls, steel wool and magnesium.

I, too, am especially keen on the cotton balls and petroleum jelly. Cheap, easy and innocuous to have those products at home, in the car and in a pack -- and they are multi-use so I have them around anyway.

If I can get some Sure2Burns before the trip, I'll try them out.



.

Just what I needed for my lunch break a trip to HD.

Thanks for the info.
Lee

I've broken about a zillion Weber cubes. They burn even better that way, albeit a lot faster.

What is your carry protocol, Yee?

I have some of them which have been stored in kits since January 2009. They were not treated with kid gloves, but they were not pounded or stomped on either. I was going out to teach my Scout troop wilderness survival in March this year, one task of which is to start a fire three different ways. As a test, I used all of my Sure-2-Burn packets, just to see how they held up for 3 years. All of them lit with no problem. Several I opened up and tested with various spark type fire starters, and they all lit. I don't think I would trust them if they had been exposed to air. None of the packets had opened up though. They store nice and flat, they are flexible, and they are light. All of that said, however, I always carry multiple types of tinder in my kits: Tinder-quick, cotton balls and petroleum jelly and then something else like the sure-2-burn or Esbit cubes. I don't like to be in a position of being dependent on one method to save my life. Just like carrying multiple tools to start the fire: lighter, storm proof matches and a spark type fire starter.

>I've broken about a zillion Weber cubes. They burn even >better that way, albeit a lot faster.
>
>What is your carry protocol, Yee?

You are absolutely right. They burn MUCH better broken. They, however, deteriorate much faster broken. More exposure to air.

As far as my carry protocol, I noticed that it is possible to carry TWO weber cubes in the small pocket behind the USGI canteen carrier.

The cubes themselves deteriorate when exposed to air. The aluminum foil covering is rather flimsy. I cut the Weber tray into individual cubes. I attempted to ameliorate aluminum foil failure by covering the weber cube tray with candlewax.

The two cubes were placed into a single ziploc bag rotated 180 degrees with each other and placed into the canteen carrier pocket. The canteen carrier was worn on weekends for about a year without any attempt to protect the weber cubes.

The result was somewhat pulverized weber cubes, not satisfactory for emergency use due to likelihood of deterioration from air. For routine use, they lit up fine. Subjectively, the cubes did not last as long.

As a matter of interest, since I was thinking about it AND it was pouring outside this evening, I took petroleum jelly/cotton balls (about 3 years old!), Weber cubes (1 year old), Sure2Burn (new) outside in the pouring rain and attempted to start a fire with just a ferro rod and striker.

Difficulty was encountered with the Weber cube. Sure2Burn failed (but I didn't try too hard). Petroleum Jelly/cotton ball lit up on one strike. When tired, hungry and scared, which one of the above is likely to work?

Admittedly, I have the MOST experience and MOST comfortable with PJ/CB. I would RELY on PJ/CB if my life depended upon it (there is NO data out there that suggests that PJ/CB deteriorates under ANY known circumstances, it is just messier). I like the convenience of the Weber Cube for its ability to boil a single cup of water. I suspect that Sure2Burn would fair better in the pocket outside of my canteen carrier but it is too small to boil a full canteen cup of water.

All three have their advantages and disadvantages.

Conway Yee

Considering things further, I have a followup question.

I have been EDC'ing a small off brand BIC. The reason for this is that they can be modified to allow "blowtorch" mode.

The manner of EDC is the least hospitable to man. I make a small loop of the outer sheath of paracord and tape it to the body of the cheap lighter with about 6-12 inches of duct tape (Gorilla brand). The excessive tape is to dual use the lighter.

The lighter is then attached to my keychain. I have found that each lighter has a functional life of about 6 months. Since I do not smoke, this amounts to 1-2 uses of the lighter before failure.

This is unacceptable in terms of reliability. Does anyone know of a way to carry a cheap lighter in one's pocket without it falling apart? Perhaps a case of some sort?

The failure mode seems to be uniformly the metallic part of the lighter surrounding the flint wheel. I have attempted to tape the metal to the body without success.

Conway Yee

I have thrown Bic lighters, the real ones,into pack pockets, etc. and carried them for several years with good reliability. I have also invested in a peanut lighter which I EDC on my key chain. I test it about every few months, since i rarely have to light a fre under emergency conditions these days.

If you ever have to build a fire under true emergency conditions, the trivial investment in diverse and reliable fire building gear will pay off immensely. Don't be afraid to spend a little money for this stuff.

I do not smoke, but am a gadget geek, I love lighters-

+1 on the peanut lighters- They use regular old lighter fluid, but are sealed, so they don't leak. Only minus is they suck in the wind; must have wind guard

I bought mine at http://countycomm.com/lighterfamily.html

I also carry a Ronson Jetlite. They are about 5.00 at Walmart and Walgreens They are a blowtorch style butane light. I have been carrying one bare in my pocket for 4 years- the silvering has worn off, but it still lights every time.

Before that I carried a pipe lighter that I got for 12.95- sorry, don't know brand off-hand. I liked the fact that I could push it down into a glass candle-holder while lit without burning my fingers- I carried that for 5 years before the Ronson. It still works, I just like the profile of the Ronson better.

You could always use more than one to boil a cup.

I think I will be carrying both PJ cotton balls and Sure2Burn. I can use the Sure2Burn for convenience and the cotton balls if needed.

I purchased a Ronson Jetlite. It looks good. I now have duct tape on it and is attached to my keychain. Time will tell if it stays as a permanent part of my keychain.

I also purchased a peanut lighter off ebay. It should arrive in a few weeks and will be attached to my pocket knife lanyard.

Thanks for the advice.

Conway Yee

Yee, you said off brand Bic. That's not the same thing as far as reliability goes. Bic probably has a legal strangle hold on the mechanism they use, so that nobody can copy it absolutely the same. It's weird to talk about a $1 lighter like this, but Bics are pretty amazing. I have a Bic that's at least 8 years old, and it still has plenty of fuel in it.

Good point. The "Bic" was off brand. I may purchase a couple of name brand "Bic" to throw in the car/knapsack/house/etc.

I deliberately chose the off-brand lighter over the name brand for the specific reason that it is possible to adjust the flame to the point where blowtorch mode was possible. Unfortunately, the very adjustability (the ability to take off the covering metal shell and adjust the flame mechanism) makes the metal cover very prone to fall off during use. This in turn causes failure of the mechanism underneath particularly in the event of using the flint wheel.

Conway Yee