Instafire

Anyone used Instafire? I saw a story on it on a tech site, then watched their video on their website and also saw that Jason Klass has a test of it on his own website (www.jasonklass.com). It looks like it would be handy to carry one of the small packets of it for emergency use. It is relatively cheap.

www.instafire.com

Not sure who sells it retail, but the company sells it on eBay.

Looks interesting. Just how big are those single packets?

I'm sure it's good stuff, but is it much different than putting some paraffin wax on dryer lint, woodchips and sawdust and storing in a mini-ziploc? Go crazy and add some magnesium shavings (smile). If it's inexpensive (I didn't check the price) it would certainly be easier to buy it pre-made though.

According to their website, it comes in big pails and small packets.Why anyone would want 5 gallons of this stuff is a mystery to me, but I think the small packs are 4 oz. each. A dozen sell for $10 on eBay.

It seems to be ground up pumice mixed with wood shavings and then sprayed with paraffin. Pumice is why it floats. A handful burns for a couple of minutes-long enough to get a fire going as shown in their video on YouTube. I think most people buying it will be using it to start their barbeques or maybe a campfire while car camping.

My snake oil sense is tingling...

Heck, I just take an old cardboard egg carton, chop up the lid and drop it in the little cups, then pour in old melted candles or parrafin.. then cut them apart.

Floats (wax floats) without pumice - can't see how the pumice does anything.. other than marketing.

at least one of those puppies (the egg carton cups) will start just about anything.. two will fire up the most inexpertly laid wet pile of stuff you've ever seen..

That's a beautiful website and the product is interesting. It's not something I think most active backpackers that make fires often would bring, but I can certainly see a market for it.

The video was pretty funny though. They took big pieces of wood and put a little pile of their stuff under to demonstrate it being used, but there is no way that wood ever caught fire. They did it at least twice, once with a big cut limb and another time with a big piece of split firewood. They even did a second scene with the split wood where they tried to imply it was now burning, but you know it isn't.

That may be petty criticism because the video was well done too, but if you ever built a campfire it looked kind of ridicules.

I bring a small handful of "Fatwood" that's split into tiny pieces and keep it in a zip lock. I use them too. It's faster than not, and I've started plenty of campfires without them and don't need to practice. So I can see where that product would be convenient.

I like the egg carton fire starter idea. That'd be great for car camping and having a few in the car or boat for emergencies.

Jason has some more stuff on firestarters on his website and there are a bunch of videos on YouTube. Phat's eggcrate solution has one glaring fault-you need to buy eggs, which I never do-I'll have to get the box from a friend.

The egg carton fire starter is certainly effective, but in southern climes, the paraffin tends to run and melt all over everything. The enclosed packets of Insta-fire should preclude that.

Think of how handy floating fire starter would be if you were scuba diving. You surface from a dive, the boat is nowhere around, and you need a cup of coffee...amazing capability!