I have not used a fire piston myself, but the guys who taught the matchless fire starting class at University of Scouting last fall tried to use one, with no success (i should probably mention they also tried with a bow drill set with no success either). Seems to me they are rather fidgety devices, with ongoing issues related to the gaskets required and as others have mentioned the required tinder as well.

From a gadget perspective, I suppose they could be fun to play around with, or good for demonstration purposes, but I wouldn't add it to my fire starting kit with all the other, more reliable methods around. Matches, lighters, fire steel, or flint and steel, seems like enough to me but maybe i'm missing something.

That item has a few faults which may decrease the fun with the new toy.
Aluminum may not be the best material for a fire piston as it is a fairly good heat conductor. In the picture the O ring protrudes too much from the piston. That will contribute to fast wear and indicates a bad fit of the piston. The surfaces of piston and tube show marks of improper cutting. If the inside of the tube is machined equally bad, the seal may be insufficient and further the wear of the O ring.
I would not buy it.

Those reviews have to be fake, or all the bad reviews were deleted.

Cool. Looks like it would be neat to play with, and the price is reasonable.



Why do you say that? I know that not all of their reviews are fake because I have written reviews that are posted to that site. Perhaps they delete bad reviews but I doubt it, there are poor reviews for other products.

All in all I don't think a fire piston is a great tool. As others have said they're fussy, they require maintenance and lube and are not super robust. Personally I prefer a firesteel even to matches.

I have been doing business with goinggear.com for quite some time, and I have the strong impression that they would not delete a poor review. There's no way for me to check, so I can't rule it out entirely.

I have no affiliation with goinggear.com other than as a customer.

I've never heard of goinggear but I'll check itout. I must say that I myself find it a tiny bit strange that there were no negative feedback on the little piston I saw. And I agree that it looks fun to play with, but it would never go in my gear. I'd rather have another item for the space it takes up, matches, tube lighter or even a large ferro rod. JMHO. Here is the link to the storm matches with included ferro rod.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191297408441?_trksid=p2045573.m570.l4467&_trkparms=gh1g%3DI191297408441.N19.S2.M-1137.R10.TR16

Oh, someone. I think it was Hiker (Too lazy too look for the post)mentioned they paid 32 dollars for an exotec match safe.I have seen them on ebay in orange and black for as little as 22.71. No affiliation with Ebay, just passing along info.
Again, thanks for all the feedback from everyone.

Since a piston depends on compressing air to high pressure, I have a tough time believing that the small quantity of air in a small Altoid sized piston can be feasibly compressed to a degree to result in compression. The more air that you start with, the higher the resulting pressure.

I don't remember what I paid for mine but I love my Exotac MatchCap XL.

I had one. Don't bother buying one, use the space in your kit for a Bic.

i agree with leigh and other: not worth having.

i bought a fancy custom aluminum fire-piston. spent a bunch of time beating it (and myself) up trying to get a satisfactory burn using char cloth, etc. never did, so down the road it went...

so i went back to carrying mag/flint bars, ferro rods, peanut lighters, and mini bics. done.