I have a little esbit stove that I hardly ever use. One of the big reasons is that the esbit tabs are kinda pricey and I’m cheap. Somewhere on the internet I once saw a guy make his own. I had the idea to try to make my own and see how they would work. My main concerns would be it has to be cheap, work well and be easy to make. I think I accomplished how to make homemade fuel tabs that easily. Let me show you how I did it.
How To Make Homemade Fuel Tabs For Almost Free
For most the items need to make homemade fuel tabs you can get them from the trash. I went to my apartments laundry room for the dryer lint. The toilette paper roll was saved from going in the trash. For me, reusing always out ranks recycling.
I bought Gulf Wax paraffin for this project. One pound for about two bucks. You could melt used candles for this to keep with the reusing aspect. The only thing you really need to buy is Vaseline. and I used about half of the travel size container.
Total cost for this project about three or four dollars. I used about half a pound of paraffin. I figure you could make about 8~10 fuel tabs for that.
The first step is to thoroughly combine the lint and Vaseline. I just mixed in a big bowl trying to make sure that as much is coated as possible.Once the dryer lint is coated pack it inside your toilette paper roll.
I melted down half a block of paraffin and poured it slowly into the roll. once its full it will leak out the bottom. Set it aside so that the wax at the bottom would firm and form a seal. Once the wax was set I melted down the rest of the paraffin block and half of another.
I let the roll sit until it had completely set. I cheated and put the roll in the freezer at this time.
The set rolls ready to be sliced into tabs.
I sliced them about a quarter inch or so. You should be able to get about 4 or 5 tabs from each roll.
The Burn Test
The fuel tabs ignite pretty easy. I used the first one to test how long it would burn for. It burned for just a bit over 15 minutes. The flame at times got really big and was throwing off some serious heat.
I was very impressed with the burn time and heat, given off by it.
Next up the real test. Can this homemade fuel tab bring 1 cup of water to a roiling boil and how long would it take. I decided if I could not boil water (which esbit tabs usually struggle with) they would be a failure and would need some redesign
I got out my old trusty Heiny Pot with exactly one cup of room temperature water. Once again the tab light very easy. This time, the homemade fuel tabs seemed that it gave off a good deal of smoke and soot. I ended up having to open a window.
Here you can see that my pot is starting to become really sooty. I definitely prefer the cleaner nature of both alcohol stoves and the Jetboil stove. On the plus side, I got a good roiling boil at about 5. This tab was able to be blown out for use later. I estimate that you could get as much as three boils from one tab.
The Pro’s and Con’s for the Survivalpunk Fuel tabs are
Pro’s
- Cheap! This comes out to be about .45 cents a piece. At that price, it smashes the commercial ones outta the water.
- Easy. I made these in about thirty minutes while doing some other house chores and enjoying a Shock Top or two.
- Efficient! By far these out perform all the esbit tabs I’ve ever used. I’ve never gotten a boil from an Esbit tab.
Cons!
- Dirty! These things produce a lot of soot and smoke.
- Smell! They smell pretty bad. It took about an hour to get the smell out of my Apt.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Survivalpunk Fuel Tabs way out performed by expectations. If you like using an esbit type stove I recommend giving these a try. The heat output is much superior to Esbit. At a fraction of the cost of store-bought ones. All the soot is the only downside. I would be fine with the shoot to save that much money. They are definitely a viable, lightweight alternative for boiling water a few cups at a time. Have any changes you would make? Have you done something similar? Let me know in the comments.
Actually I have tried something similar. I, instead left the toilet paper rolls whole and stuffing them with paper,then melted paraffin wax. I use them as chemical free charcoal starters in my BBQ…. could also be used to start campfire.
However, I really like the idea of shortening the tubes and using them as an Esbit fuel. I carry an Esbit in my BOB and don’t like the idea of buying expensive chemicals to use as fuel…
Good article
Thanks,
TinMan
I wonder if using a different wax would result in much less smoke (but probably more cost). I make something similar using tea light candles with cardboard wound into them and then filled with hot wax. I like how portable they are. I also make larger ones in large tuna cans.
I’ve thought about trying beeswax to reduce the smoking. Haven’t thought about anything else.
This is so freaking cool, I just made my own fuel tabs and gave it a test run. This thing worked like charm, and doesn’t burn up too fast either. I love these DIY’s.
So I tried it again, and decided to used cotton balls instead of lint. Same results but less smoke and smell. I figured it was because of no dyes in the cotton like the one you’d find in lint.
Sounds great! Did you take any pictures?
I think the biggest reason for the smoke and smell would be non-cotton stuff in the dryer lint. If your clothes include nylon, fleece, etc., there will be a lot of plastic in the lint. Using cotton balls solves this, or just make sure you collect the lint after a load of 100% cotton clothes.
you’re right on target Michael. Lint does make a good fire starter, but it also contains some not so good stuff in it’s content. just because of what lint actually is. It’s that it contains particles not wanted or suitable for burning, such as human hair, dog and cat dander, (for those of us who own indoor cats and dogs and can’t keep it off of our clothes). We all know what awful smell comes from burning hair and fur. But I agree, most of the unpleasant smell from dryer lint comes from synthetic material in our clothes and probably not a good idea to burn indoors at least. Cotton balls are fairly inexpensive and well worth the try for DIY fuel tabs.
James, i love the DIY stuff, even the recipe’s. Would love to hear from other readers on their favorite outdoor, camping, Backpacking, or trail side recipe idea’s.
TinMan
maybe shredded paper instead of dryer lint? I will try and let you know.
Finally got around to posting back. Tried the same recipe, but with shredded paper instead of dryer lint. Worked pretty darned well if I do say so. There wasn’t much smoke, and the smell was a burning wax smell. Split a toilet paper roll into 4, they burned about 16 minutes!
Awesome I might need to give the shredded paper a go. Thanks for experimenting Ann!
On that note, I have an idea. I make homemade paper which involved making a paper “pulp”. This is made by blending paper (any type- however may need to choose wisely to avoid soot) and water until, well, pulpy. Then you use a mold and deckle to make a sheet of paper. Really any way to remove the water from the pulp is what you need. I’ll let you know how it goes when I try it. I just made my first fire starter with a cotton ball and tea light candle wax. I tested a cotton ball by itself and man it burnt great. I’m guessing the wax just slows down the process even more? My recipe did not involve Vaseline at all so I am curious why it is needed. Take care.
On this,….
Warning, Warning, Warning.
As the lighted fire starter heats up, the wax melts,
and the burning wax and filler (wood, cardboard, or lint)
quickly spreads out possibly starting a serious fire!
You MUST place these fire starter cubes in a mettle container
large enough to hold all of the melted burning wax before
lighting it. Don’t experiment in the house with this!!!!!
Corrugated cardboard rolled up in the tube will also work.
i am going to try it with some dried sawdust and grind charcoal .
Let me know how it turns out
I plan on buying a small foldable Coghlan stove soon. Don’t know if this would work for this purpose but i know that you can stick a candle (that has been cut off to the height of the can) into the middle of a can of Crisco shortening and it will stay lit for app 72 hours. (I have this in my emergency closet) Larger cans require two candles. So if you put a birthday candle or two in a tuna fish can filled with Crisco, it might do the same thing. It might not be hot enough since it is more like a candle. I don’t have a small can or I would try it. I believe this was the original intend of shortening. Look for the flame above the (i) on the Crisco label!
PS: shortening isn’t cheap but could work in an emergency