Cooking out with the firedragon
- Thread starter mrcharly
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" A lot of the meths burner and fuel need to be up to temp to get it going and stay lit". True, however, it only applies to those burners which rely on vapourized alcohol to work, including the Trangia type. If you use an exposed wick burner, such as Zelph's "Fancy Feest", it will work very well, and light easily at very low temperatures,such as -20 C,even with the fuel at that temperature.
PDA1 sir, yeah it was the "Coke Can" style of meths burner I was thinking of. So in that respect, exposed Tab or exposed Wick, same same.
From a rubbish/trash point of view, I would dispose of the gel package the same way as I would get rid of the "Boil in the" bag, packed it in... pack it out or put it in a bin same as all the other rubbish. I have had, on one occasion, to pack out everything and I DO mean everything. "They must not know we were here!" Seeing as the main part of the "Game" was a fire fight I did think at the time..... they really really do know we where there! The point being, getting rid of or hanging on to, a used gel pack is not a big deal.
From a rubbish/trash point of view, I would dispose of the gel package the same way as I would get rid of the "Boil in the" bag, packed it in... pack it out or put it in a bin same as all the other rubbish. I have had, on one occasion, to pack out everything and I DO mean everything. "They must not know we were here!" Seeing as the main part of the "Game" was a fire fight I did think at the time..... they really really do know we where there! The point being, getting rid of or hanging on to, a used gel pack is not a big deal.
It's also my experience that 1 FD tab is too small to boil my 1/2 litre Mkettle, which is a little frustrating. The tabs need to be 1/4-1/3 larger.
Now that is really odd, because I would have thought that the kellykettle-style of 'boiler' was the most efficient way of capturing heat, and I did far more than bring a half litre to a boil with one tab. Temperature might well be the factor; what temperatures have you tried this?
A storm kettle works by making stuff burn well with the chimney, but if you've got something that burns well enough I'm sure I've seen people half cover the chimney to trap the heat. Burning wood will radiate lots of heat to the bottom of the kettle as well as flames licking the top, but something like fuel tabs will mainly convect the heat straight up. Hitting a pan to boil it, or out of the chimney of a storm kettle, hence blocking the chimney to slow it down.
Lightly edited first posting to remove ridiculous autocorrect mistakes!
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As much as I love my Ghillie Kettle, I find cooking on the top to be of little use. It heats the water in itself so quick the "cooked food" is burnt on the bottom but not heated all the way through . It will get a pan of water with a rat pack hot and then I finish it off by using the fire bowl alone i.e. remove the water jacket ( full of boiling water now) and make use of what fuel is left. That been said I also have the 1.9 litre model and it only takes 5 -8 mins so my fire is a delight to see. As a fire starter, the gel is just perfect and will dry out enough rubbish wood to get the fire to self sustain.
It is worth taking a look at chafing gel before handing out money for the firedragon stuff. Chafing gel is the stuff they use to keep your breakfast warm in hotels and the like so you can buy it in big catering sized drums for not a lot of cash. The firedragon is ethanol with something added to help it keep its shape and the chafing gel is, errr, ethanol with something added to make it thicker, though it is a sort of thick liquid.
Now I haven't done any testing with firedragon as the chafing gel works just fine for me but as the actual bit of it that burns is the same - ethanol - so it is going to have about the same energy density though clearly holding it to shape might change exact boil times etc.
The chafing gel comes in big drums usually about 4 - 5kg in weight for less than £20 and it is a simple matter to decant it into a suitable container for your purpose. I use the half litre milk bottles as that works for me.
Now I haven't done any testing with firedragon as the chafing gel works just fine for me but as the actual bit of it that burns is the same - ethanol - so it is going to have about the same energy density though clearly holding it to shape might change exact boil times etc.
The chafing gel comes in big drums usually about 4 - 5kg in weight for less than £20 and it is a simple matter to decant it into a suitable container for your purpose. I use the half litre milk bottles as that works for me.
15deg C or so....It caused plenty of flame up out of the chimney! I'm planning on using it for a trip in couple of weeks time. I previously tried a donut ring (literally) to contain the gel and burn only around the edges, which made no difference, so I've now made a small choke plate to put over the chimney (with a tapering slot for adjustability) to see if that helps.
I found a use for the tiny bushcraft essentials edc stove: line it with foil, push a block of bcb dragon fuel in, and it will boil enough for a hot drink easily. I left it on and got a 6 minute rolling boil. (I tried using the edc stove with dry twigs to no avail, other than frustration, but it works as a holder for the block quite well, I suspect that it lengthens the burn time a little, too, as it's upright. Maybe.)
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I tried cooking *in* the chimney. Used some old stainless bike spokes, put chunks of veg and hallumi cheese on them, I could fit two in the kettle at once. Let twigs burn down to coals then added the skewers. The 'elbow' on the bottom of the spokes stopped food from sliding off into the fire.
It worked ok, not great but ok.
