The Gelfuel is an alternative fuel source to methylated spirits. It is made from Ethanol which is derived from sugar cane and other renewable agricultural sources.
Benefits they say
The benefits of Gel over Meths are:
Safe
- The fuel is a gel & therefore does not spill
- It's safe if you spill water on it
- The gel is non flare, non explosive, non splash, non toxic
Clean
- The gel burns clean & odourless - only very low CO2 emissions & water vapour are emitted.
- It can be used indoors & near children & pets as it does not pollute the air
- No black soot or smoke is emitted, pots & pans stay clean
Efficient
- Fuel can be extinguished & reused
Eco Friendly
- The gel is made from renewable agricultural sources rather than fossil fuels/deforestation
- It burns clean (ie CO2 neutral)
Our Initial Burn Test
Myself and TG, tested the Gel against a brand new out the wrapper Trangia burner.
For:
It boiled water at the same speed as the Trangia Meths burner. It's good that you can knock it over and just stand it back up. Clean pots, no soot on them. Comes with a clip on lid so you can close it up when not in use.
It burns direct from it's own container, you don't need to make a cooker fo it. A 200g tin that will burn for 120 mins and gets a thumbs up. it smells like Brandy ;-)
Against:
It's taller than the Trangia burner, but does come with a spring loaded wire ring that lets you lower and raise it in a Trangia cook set. For me it made it to tall for my Hobo Stove and would mean that for us "make you own stove people", we would have to knock up a new stove to accommodate it.
My thoughts:
I'm happy with my Meths, becuase when I run out of Meths I can throw twigs into my Hobo Stove, and although our first test proved that it boiled up water as fast as the Meths burner, I'm still not convinced that it would make it into my pack as a replacement for my trusty Meths burner.
I will toss my tin into my daysack and take it as a hand warmer for those nasty cold day hikes or treks up places like Ben Nevis, for those times where you have to take your gloves off and can't seem to get your hands warm after putting them back on.
It will also double as a fire paste for starting wood fires, just scoop some out and light it.
