A rugged non-ember producing portable campfire

Hoping this is an ok place to share something I've been working on and that is being made here in Boulder Colorado.

My friends and I got exposed to a DIY portable campfire on a rafting trip last year.  The original idea was named the "Grand Canyon Candle".  You can find it on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGk6wtlTWy0

We loved the thing.  It puts out a ton of heat, the fire is interesting in the same manner as a traditional campfire, and it's leave no trace and non-ember producing.  The DIY version from that youtube video is "ok", but it isn't great.  The thing will burn great for about 2-3 hours and then decline to a sputter over the next 4-5 hours eventually leaving you with a burned can with a few pounds of wax glueing the remaining cardboard to the bottom.

We spent the last 6 months figuring out how to make it better.  The resulting kickstarter is here.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshdavislight/magic-fire-box?ref=a9t2z0

I'm a software engineer by trade so selling things isn't something that comes naturally to me.  I can say that it's an impressive alternative to a campfire, that it is incredibly portable and convenient, and the non-ember producing nature makes it great for the portion of the year when we're all trying really hard not to light our state on fire.  Maybe it's something you'd be interested in?  Maybe you do the #vanlife thing?  Maybe you just like fire?  Maybe it can provide some warmth for you at a cold crag?

I hope you like it.  Tell me if you don't.

after reading your message above, i had low expectations but this actually looks really neat!

Total burn time depends a little on how you use it.  If you light it and burn it all in one go, it'll burn for 6+ hours.  If you use it in 30-90 minute increments, you'll get a solid 8+ hours of burn time.  Both of these are for a "full" box, aka, a box with 3x fuel bricks in it.  The reason for the wide variance is that a single-run-start-to-finish burn continually pushes more heat into the wax and exposes more and more wicking material, making it accelerate until it finishes all the fuel.

curt86iroc wrote:

after reading your message above, i had low expectations but this actually looks really neat!

Most people we show the box end up saying something similar.  When they hear about it, their expectations are somewhere around expecting it to be similar to an "adequate but slightly dissapointing propane fire".  We have consistently gotten the feedback that they are genuinely impressed by how much heat it puts out and how visually similar (and interesting) it is to a traditional campfire.