Posted by: cedfire
Long-Term Test Report: Weber Lighter Cubes - 08/25/11 06:10 PM
A little over a year ago I purchased some Weber Lighter Cubes from Home Depot and vacuum-sealed a batch. This was after reading about them online and wondering how they stacked up to UST's WetFire Tinder. For a fraction of the price of the WetFire, you can get many cubes of the Weber offering. The big downside: how to store and transport them. The manufacturer's packaging is pretty flimsy and the foil backing is easily broken.
So I decided to open up the vacuum packaging today to see how long-term storage had affected the Weber Cubes. By now, they had been in everything from a garage to a backyard storage shed. Temperatures likely varied from 40-90 degrees (F). The firestarter used to ignite the crushed cube was a UST Strike Force.
The vacuum sealing process had broken the foil seal around several of the cubes. I took a cube from the most damaged area for testing.
After a few strikes, it was lit and cranking out some serious flame and heat. A slight breeze couldn't even put it out.
Total burn time was a little over 2:30 minutes. This compared very favorably to the 2:40 minute burn time when the cubes were brand new, in original packaging, and tested a year ago. Overall, I would rate the test as a success. If you have the ability to vacuum-seal some of these to preserve them, they should last at least a year in storage, if not more!
So I decided to open up the vacuum packaging today to see how long-term storage had affected the Weber Cubes. By now, they had been in everything from a garage to a backyard storage shed. Temperatures likely varied from 40-90 degrees (F). The firestarter used to ignite the crushed cube was a UST Strike Force.
The vacuum sealing process had broken the foil seal around several of the cubes. I took a cube from the most damaged area for testing.
After a few strikes, it was lit and cranking out some serious flame and heat. A slight breeze couldn't even put it out.
Total burn time was a little over 2:30 minutes. This compared very favorably to the 2:40 minute burn time when the cubes were brand new, in original packaging, and tested a year ago. Overall, I would rate the test as a success. If you have the ability to vacuum-seal some of these to preserve them, they should last at least a year in storage, if not more!