follow on, which fuel

[Andie]

morning all following on from my post yesterday about which bcb crusader is better the coated or non coated i ended up buying the non coated one anyway my next question is (me being tight here) instead of using green heat or hexi tablets what other CHEAP fuel is people buying that works good in the crusader as I'm wanting to buy in about 1lt pots but dont want to keep spending a fortune any advice would be great

 

[spandit]

What about cotton wool and Vaseline/petroleum jelly?

I've made fuel before from cotton wool soaked in paraffin wax - less messy (once dry) than above and still possible to light from a spark

 

[rik_uk3]

Get a bottle of cheap Tesco alcohol gel and try that.

 

[Graham_S]

I made a photon stove from a tomato puree tin and a red bull can.
If cut to the correct height, it fits in the crusader cooker.
It means you can use meths a bit more efficiently.

 

[Andie]

nice one folks appreciated for your replies

 

[eel28]

Have been using Hexi blocks in mine recently, find them more effective than the gel stuff.

 

[shortymcsteve]

What about cotton wool and Vaseline/petroleum jelly?

I've made fuel before from cotton wool soaked in paraffin wax - less messy (once dry) than above and still possible to light from a spark

Cotton balls in wax works well, very cheap and effective.. You also don't need much at all. You might want to look up which candles don't burn with a suit tho, as some will and make your mug go a bit black. I remember someone on here before who deals with candles told us which ones before but i can't remember what they said.

 

[AussieVic]

I've used some commercial "all natural" firelighters, as an experiment. I think they were made from compressed wood with wax. They worked well enough but I think they probably worked out aboutthe same proce as hexi - the hexi fuel was certainly more compact ie the hexi needed about half to 2/3 of the volume of material to boil water.

You could check out local prices ?

 

[tiger stacker]

Pine cones are a good way to make a brew, dry twigs collected together can just be as good if not better than hexi.

 

[shortymcsteve]

Got a question about hexi; Whats the difference between the round & the square tabs? ive only used the square ones

 

[bmh9716]

You could just build a small fire in the bottom and feed it through the side this worked really well for me

 

[shaggystu]

I've used some commercial "all natural" firelighters, as an experiment. I think they were made from compressed wood with wax. They worked well enough but I think they probably worked out aboutthe same proce as hexi - the hexi fuel was certainly more compact ie the hexi needed about half to 2/3 of the volume of material to boil water.

You could check out local prices ?

another vote for the fire lighter approach. "zip" make some "natural" firelighters, compressed wood fibres and wax as AussieVic suggested, they burn for 14 minutes (as stated on the packet and tested a few times by me!) which is plenty long enough to bring 500ml of water to the boil in my hobo stove. IIRC the tesco price worked out at about 17 pence per firelighter, how that compares to hexi i don't know but it seemed perfectly reasonable to me. they burn away to practically nothing, weigh very little, light fairly easily (easier than hexi), and burn with a nice steady flame/heat, downsides would be the massive amount of thick oily black soot they leave all over you cook pot and the fact that they have to be kept dry because they soak up water like a sponge and take forever to dry out again (strange for something that's wax impregnated i know).

hope that helps

stuart

 

[shaggystu]

just noticed where you live Andie, there's a b&m's near you so one option might be to get a crackle log from b&m's (£2-3 i believe) and slice that up into sections, that way you could make yourself at least a couple of dozen fuel blocks, tailored to the size that you want, for very little money at all

stuart

 

[spiritwalker]

fire it up pine fire lighters from clas olsen £2.99 for a bag of 72 will even take a spark if you fluff the end up

 

[eel28]

Got a question about hexi; Whats the difference between the round & the square tabs? ive only used the square ones

The round ones are smaller and therfore you need to use multiple round blocks to boil the same amount of water as one square one.

In practice I have found that if I use one square block to boil a crusader mugful of water, then blow it out once boiled. for the next brew all I have been doing is adding a couple of round blocks to the remains of that square one and it boils happily enough.

hopefully that makes some sense, seems to me there is less waste doing that way.

 

[shortymcsteve]

The round ones are smaller and therfore you need to use multiple round blocks to boil the same amount of water as one square one.

In practice I have found that if I use one square block to boil a crusader mugful of water, then blow it out once boiled. for the next brew all I have been doing is adding a couple of round blocks to the remains of that square one and it boils happily enough.

hopefully that makes some sense, seems to me there is less waste doing that way.

Ah okay, thanks.

Just i have never owned a hexi stove and was thinking about buying one to give a shot. Ive used them before tho.
I saw one for £2 the other day in Blacks on sale, it came with the round tablets. I think Wilkinson sell one for £2.50 and i THINK it comes with square ones (according to the picture on the website) however ive yet to find them sell any im my local store. I would love to pick up a mini esbit stove for the compact size but i don't think they are sold in the UK & online they are really expensive for what they are.. and i bet they are not as strong as hexi stoves.