MRE Fuel Gel?

DangerousDave · Post by **DangerousDave** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 3:55 pm

We've all heard of/and/or used tubes of Hexamine tablets and bars of Trioxane for ration heating purposes, but what is this new "MRE fuel gel" ? I was thumbing through the latest CTD catalog and there it was. We already have the FRH's in each meal, so whats this gel fuel for? Is this like miniature packet of Napalm, or?

dirtbag · Post by **dirtbag** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:19 pm

It's gelled alcohol, can be used in esbit stoves, or with 3 rocks...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CAMP-COOKING-GEL- ... dZViewItem

Post by **kman** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:48 pm

I picked up some of this stuff a while back. It looks basically like sterno in a pouch. Here's an article from the forums/news:

viewtopic.php?t=20

The stuff seems pretty cool - not near as toxic as the trioxane but I'd worry about it getting squished/punctured in my pack.

Treesuit · Post by **Treesuit** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 12:23 am

Hey has anybody actually tried it in the field, what is it like?

Post by **kman** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:37 am

Well, if my backyard counts as "the field", then yes, I've tried it. I used it with an Esbit stove - you know, the kind that folds up. Since the stove has little holes/slits on the bottom, I put a piece of aluminum foil on the bottom to stop the gel from leaking out. I emptied a packet of gel into the stove, lit it up, and put a canteen cup full of water on top. The stuff went up pretty darn fast! I was getting a little worried that it was going to all burn out too quick but it eventually came under control and heated up the water to just about boiling in the nine minutes the flame lasted.

All in all, I'd say the flame was a bit more intense than trioxane, not quite as "focused" (since the gel spread out in the tray), and it probably lasted about as long as trioxane. I'll have to re-run the tests after the holiday and take some pics.

Post by **MCIera** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:54 pm

Sorry to bring back an old thread, but it looks like Epicenter is now carrying the military Diethylene Glycol packs. $1.25 per pack of 3, or $.99 per pack when ordered in quantities of 10 or more. Trioxane sells locally for about $.89-.99 for a 3 pack in the surplus stores.

Post by **kman** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:10 pm

Cool - thanks for the heads-up. I found it on their page here:

http://www.geoduck.com/epicenter/order. ... rplus.html

C-rats · Post by **C-rats** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:03 pm

I bought some of these packets well over a year ago from "Cheaper than Dirt", but haven't used any yet (more of a novelty item, and besides; I have a ton of Trioxane to use).

Earlier this month I was at a very large Gun Show in Phoenix and just happened to find a few loose packets, as well as one GI box (of 3 packets). Looks just like the small cardboard box that contains 3 foil-wrapped bars of Trioxane. The alcohol packets are somewhat smaller than the loose ones I got from CTD a while back.

`rats

Post by **kman** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:08 pm

I picked up a bunch of those packs from Cheaper Than Dirt, too. I tried one of them and it seemed to work ok - burned a lot fast than trioxane (probably because of so much more surface area being exposed) - but it seemed to heat up a canteen cup of water pretty fast.