Campfire hacks - camping hack or internet crap?

Starting a campfire should be simple, but when the wood is damp, the wind is unhelpful, or everyone’s shivering and waiting for toasties, you’ll take any shortcut you can get. That’s where these clever (and quirky and delicious) fire-starting hacks come in.

We’re putting three ideas to the real camper test:

• Cottonball firestarters
• Dryer lint bomb firestarter
• Dorito firestarter

So lets take a look at whether these are:

Cottonball firestarters

The combo of cotton balls and Vaseline isn't one that comes to mind naturally, but could be a very happy marriage. The flammability of cotton balls and the high ability of Vaseline that burn at high temperatures, we could be cooking with this one.

The idea: Dunk your cottonballs in vaseline

Dunk your cotton balls in Vaseline and store in a plastic ziploc bag. Just light the cottonballs in the firepit when you’re ready to go.

The verdict:

We lit one and it took off instantly burning for ages allowing us to easily start a great campfire. Hack confirmed.

Dryer Lint Bomb Firestarter

With dryer lint being highly flammable and candle wax enabling a long, slow burn, this seems like a match made in, well... a laundry.

The idea: Dryer lint, candle wax and egg cartons - who knew?

Grab some lint from your nearest dryer and light 12 tealight candles to melt down the wax. Put some lint in each of the egg cart sections and then pour some wax over the top. Let them set before cutting the egg carton into individual pieces. Then, simply place the egg carton in the fire and light.

The verdict:

These work really well. And with less mess than the cotton ball hack. The lint bomb was still burning strong when we tried to put the fire out about 10 minutes later. Absolutely, this is a hack.

Dorito firestarter

Doritos have high fat and oil content, plus starches and carbohydrates which make them highly flammable and helps them burn well. You don’t even need the hot and spicy ones.

The idea:

Can you actually start a campfire with just a bag of Doritos? We first tried lighting one chip and then the whole bag.

The verdict:

One chip was a good burn. The whole bag? It went up like a bonfire. We were so impressed. We even managed to cook a burger on the Doritos flames.

Get campfire creative

Three out of three - let's not tell the kids about these... If you are looking for parks which allow campfires, check these out.

Check out more camping hacks tested and tried by true campers or watch the video below: