Nisbets Gel fuel review

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,450
526
kent
Following the thread on value of different fuels ( meths, gel, gas, wod) I treat myself to some tins of gel fuel and below is my initial findings.

Nisbets are a catering supply company and as such stock tins of "Chafing" gel for use in resturants. Was it any good as fuel for making a cuppa on the go. In Jan 2018 they have a deal, all orders are post free, I therefore took the chance to pick up 12 tins of 200gms for £9.00 to my door. Ordered Monday, at the door 1330hrs next day. So far very good.
GelA.jpg


So I have 2 tins of gel. One unopened, and a 2nd one, in place in the base of a swedish army stove.
If you look inside the windsheld you can just see the unfolded pot support.

GelB.jpg


The "pot" containing 500ml of cold tap water is then placed on the cooker with clearence above the opened gel tin.

The gel is lit and a timer started. The gel burned with a "lazy" blue flame which never came beyond the base of the pot. Compared with flames from the new style gel rat pack stoves it was very very laid back. After 5 mins it seemed nothing was happening. After ten minutes I knew I was not going to get a cuppa very soon. Some may say that its not surprising with 500ml of water but I like a real cuppa so testing with 250 - 300ml was no good to me.

I was about to pack it in at 15 mins but it then started to faintly sing, so I waited. At 20 mins there was enough sound to think I could make instant coffee but not tea. For tea I have to have boiling water so I waited for steam to come from under the lid. As time rolled by I thought that I will give it until 30 mins and no more. At 28mins I lifted the lid and it was just there, by 30 mins steam was flowing out from under the lid.

Indoors in a cold kichen it took 30mins from lighting to pouring. When I lifted the pot to pour the water I was surprised to see so little fuel had been used!

I then weighed a full tin, 230gms, the used ( now cool ) tin weighed in at 190gms. So when they quote a 2 hour burn time per tin, I have no doubt its true.

My next step is to take 50gms of gel out of the tin, put it in a more open style container to allow it to burn faster i.e. use the supplied dish on my little wood stove. I am sure it will burn faster and reduce the "cooking" time. I will also fill the dish in the new style rat pack stove with this gel and try that..

Will I get 4 good brews from a single tin... YES. Will I be happy to wait that long...maybe not.
Price wise I still think it beats some of the prices I have seen being asked for the Dragon Gel fuel but I need to see how it does out of the tin.

In closeing I think it is worth mentioning that I am sure the tins themselves will be put to good use once the fuel has been used. Light and strong with a resealable lid.. whats not to like.
 
Jan 13, 2018
356
248
67
Rural Lincolnshire
I found that the bottom of the pan needed to be about 25mm above the can - it easily boiled (almost a rolling - but not quite) 500ml in 15 minutes for me.
It doesn't seem to get hot enough to actually get a full rolling-boil however long you leave it.
I was always happy to have a 99 degrees c brew.

I have pan stands that clip onto the rim of the cans and give the correct stand-off height, but, as I'm not a full member I cannot post the pictures.

Can you redo your test with something lifting the can up to a 'better' height ?
 
Jan 13, 2018
356
248
67
Rural Lincolnshire
There are 3 types of gel fuel :
Ethanol
Methanol
Diethylene Glycol

The 'lowest' output is the DG at 890 Btu, followed by the Methanol at 1430 Btu and the 'hottest' being Ethanol at 1630 Btu

I have some of the Nisbets cans and they don't appear to specify the gel type.
I have normally used some (manufactured in Turkey) Ethanol Chafing fuel.

Interesting to note that the Swiss 'army issue' stove is a gel fuel can with a pan-stand incorporated.
I cannot post pictures so here is a link on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Swiss-M71-Stove-With-Fuel/dp/B009ERH39G

The pan-stand supplied with the M71 stove can be 'opened out' a bit and will clip around the standard (Nisbets) gel can, and will also, when opened out, act as a pan stand.
 
Last edited:

mrcharly

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 25, 2011
3,257
44
North Yorkshire, UK
I bet that the 'gel' doesn't burn at all, only evaporated ethanol from the gel will burn. Given that the tin is very enclosed, little air is getting in, vapour escape is restricted, it isn't surprising that the burn rate is so low. They probably design it like that.

Would be interesting to see what would happen if you inserted a metal wick, say, a coil of mesh, into the gel - as the wick heated, it would evaporate the gel at a very much increased rate I think, and draw it up like a chimney.
 

Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,450
526
kent
I bet that the 'gel' doesn't burn at all
In that respect it is no different from wood gas. I can see the mesh working but when it comes time to cut off the flame and close the tin, then there are going to be issues. Plus how much gel will stick to the mesh when its removed. Would the same size mesh work for full and part used tins. Food for thought mind.
 

Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,450
526
kent
GelC.jpg


Well I filled the well in a new style rat pack stove with 40gm of gel. In short 15 mins to a good boil. Seems I have a workable cost effective solution.

Mentioned above was the idea of moving the wind sheld to allow a 25mm gap between tin and bottom of pot, a quick measure shows it is 23mm in any case. Don't think it will alter the burn time to 15 mins so I will use rat pack stove, with external windsheld. Job done.
Payday is 27th so another 12 tins before free post offer ends I think.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alan De Enfield
Jan 13, 2018
356
248
67
Rural Lincolnshire
Thanks for undertaking the test, it seems that Gel can be a suitable alternative, just need to get you onto gas now !!

Did your 15 minutes use all of the 40g of fuel ?
 
Last edited:

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,983
7,759
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Did my own tests today with the Nisbets gel; I was really hoping for a useful burn.

I used my woodgas stove, just using the top part

2.jpg

As you can see, not a strong flame - it took about 20 minutes to boil starting with 500ml water at 3C

Next, I thought I'd compare with the stove lit with woodchip:

4.jpg

5.jpg

Obviously a much stronger flame and it took 9 minutes from initial match to the stove to reach a good boil.

So, just to get a comparison, I tested with the MSR running on petrol

6.jpg

It took 10 seconds over 3 minutes to reach a good boil.

So, three options, three very different results. I think if I was in a rush I would get the MSR out; if I had time and in the right location, I would used the woodgas stove; if I had plenty to get on with while I waited for my cuppa and couldn't light the mini fire I'd use the gel but only as a fall back.

But, in the right place at the right time, none of them would replace a nice camp fire :)
 

Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,450
526
kent
Did your 15 minutes use all of the 40g of fuel ?
Sorry forgot to say. The Gel burned on until the 20 min mark, after that there was a much smaller flame, enough to keep the water good and hot to heat rat packs through. After that as I now had my tea made... I put it out.

Final thoughts. Slower and heavier then Dragon gel fuel vs comes packed in a metal tin. Cheaper then Dragon Gel ( even more so until end Jan 2017), packing can be re-purposed after use ( tinder store ?).
 

Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,450
526
kent
How did the bottom of the pans look like? Sooty?
The pan was black before I started any of the tests so I just did not look. On the first test the flame was a loverly blue so I would say sooting was nil to very low. On the second test there was some junk left in the stove from before. The flame had areas of blue and some parts where changing mixes of blue and yellow. No way to tell if it was leaving soot.
In short ... no idea, sorry
 

Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,450
526
kent
Found some batteries for my digital scale and when I weighed the used tin it was heavier than I thought. It follows that I must have used a lot less gel then My mechanical scale led me to believe, so yes well impressed with the gel. 4 easy burns from one tin (9.00 /12 = 75p), call it 20pence per mug of tea.
 

XRV John

Nomad
Jan 23, 2015
256
26
Scunthorpe
I use gel with an Esbit. Gel goes in a cut down tuna tin (which I use to snuff out Trangia stoves as well)

The Trangia and tuna tin go in the Esbit pot stand which goes inside the pot mug

I find the gel good for simmer type cooking like porridge and sauces so the food doesn't bake onto the billy tin or cooking pot

Not bothered about cooking time as I'm not in any hurry


Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 

KenThis

Full Member
Jun 14, 2016
825
121
Cardiff
I hope Nisbets are paying you commission Hammock_man.
On the basis of your excellent review I've ordered some.
Cheers
 
Jan 13, 2018
356
248
67
Rural Lincolnshire

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE