Firedragon Fuel

Firedragon fuel is a Gelled Denatured Fuel available in blocks/tabs in packs of 6x27 gram, 250 ml and 1000 ml bottles.

I was able to test the 250 ml bottled version to see how efficient the fuel was and how it would compare to a lightweight alcohol burner. I thought I would go for an lightweight stove and kettle setup.

Stove was an Esbit Folding Titanium Stove @11 grams and the kettle a Primus Litech Tea/Coffee Kettle @150 grams

I was able boil 300 ml of cold water (enough for a cup of tea/coffee) using this setup (there was just enough room to squirt around 6-7 grams of the firedragon fuel into the Esbit Ti Stove)

250 ml (around 200 grams) of Firedragon fuel would be able to boil around 8-9 litres. Not bad for a 410 gram stove + pot + fuel system.

Firedragon blocks also makes for an excellent fire starter in difficult weather conditions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM-0CCuxcAg

looks interesting / I wonder if we will be able to get it in the US

Dang it! You're always showing this cool stuff that we can't get in States! It does look pretty cool, though.

So what is this "Zip Fuel" to which they allude in their literature. Sounds like it might be the same thing....

It looks like they confused some form of (Zippo) lighter fluid with "Zip Military Cooking Fuel" which is some form of "Fatty alcohol" (methyl decanoate)



They also say
​✔​​ ​High calorific value​ (approx. 28,000 kJ / kg)
which makes it some kind of Sterno(gelled ethanol, approx 12,468 btu/lb ), fondue fuel, fire starter gel...
By my searching, the cost of 250mL of this fire dragon fuel is £5 (British pounds)

previously Am_Fear_Liath_Mor said he gets a can of sterno for £0.75
So fire dragon fuel £5/ sterno £0.75 = 6.67 more expensive
So generic sterno is 6.67 times cheaper than fire-dragon-sterno for about the same amount of btu

That is very expensive
Also consider that for £5 (about $8.17 usd) you can get 6lb vegetable shortening (crisco $8.98) which is about 95,000 BTU (versus about 5,500 for a can of sterno)

If worried about bears mix some cayanne pepper into your sterno candle

Correct me if I am wrong but will sterno boil water in a reasonable amount of time like this product? Just curious. The cost is certainly a factor. The product is coming to the US this summer.

Depends how you use the Sterno. To just about boil 1/2 litre of water can sometimes take around 15-25 minutes. This can be improved somewhat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhpELizxNKk

I have been able to get a rolling boil of 1/2 litre of water using gelled Methanol by using a Vango PowerEx Kettle, a Wild Woodgas Stove MK IIt stove and a Jam Jar lid after placing a couple of tea spoons of the gel onto the Jam Jar lid, down to around 5 minutes.

Methanol Gel will typically have 18 MJ/kg
Ethanol Gel will typically have 28 MJ/kg
Hexamine will typically have 30MJ/kg

So Gelled Ethanol will typically be 30% lighter.

The Firedragon Gel and blocks are expensive by comparison to chaffing gel fuels and fuel for conventional alcohol stoves and it will light with a strike from a Ferro cerium rod and it performs well even when compared to Hexamine, Trioxane and Greenheat gel (Military specification fuels). It burns cleaner than methylated spirit, Hexamine etc and is less toxic and cheaper than Hexamine and Trioxane.

Firedragon gel is also available in 1000ml making it around half the price of 4 x 250ml bottles.

There is also available 1000ml gelled ethanol Vango F4 fuel for an RRP of £8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM5rPqxW6Xg

Zip fuel is another cost effective fire starter available at local supermarkets.

http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=257570627

Zip fuel - "Guaranteed Irish" Wahoo! Say no more! Wher do I get the stuff (in the USA, that is...)