TheCampLab.com CanFire Operating instructions

Brand: TheCampLab.com

Model: CanFire

Type: Operating instructions

page 1

This wonderful product is safer than a regular campfire in many ways – it’s often even

allowed during burn bans. But, like a campfire, it is inherently dangerous and you

must take responsibility to learn its special hazards so you can operate it safely. Read

this manual, understand it, ask us about anything you’re unclear about, and keep it handy in

the lid pocket of the storage bag.

Operating Manual

for the CanFire™ portable campﬁre

The rock-bottom basics of operation are these:

* To turn ON: light the wick

* To continue: add wax occassionally

* To turn OFF: put the lid on

But if that’s all you know, you could get a nasty surprise one day. You need to know a

little more. Comparing the CanFire™ to a regular campfire:

The CanFire™ is NOT like a campﬁre in this way:

1) CanFires™ are extinguished instantly by putting the lid on – NEVER with

water! see next page for details

2) You can’t tell if a CanFire™ is hot or cold when it’s closed.

3) The CanFire™ operates with blazingly hot liquid wax. So knocking it over can

result in serious burns. see next page for more details

Your CanFire should come with these components:

1 CanFire™ can ﬁlled with 1800 grams of wax (4lbs)

1 Storage bag

2 Silicone pot holders

possibly:

1 trivet

1 tongs

page 2

#2 Consider location and context before starting a CanFire™

#3 Flame On! - light the wick at the ends

Locate the CanFire™ like you would a campﬁre:

• Use OUTDOORS only!

• In a level clearing, well away from burnables above,

to the side or under it. An old ﬁre ring is often ideal.

• Do NOT put it on a table. Like a campﬁre, the pot

gets really hot underneath – a wood picnic table will

burn, a glass patio table will shatter.

• Keep it low to the ground. Unlike a campﬁre it can

accidentally be knocked over and spilled.

Context is really important:

• KEEP CHILDREN WELL AWAY – No horseplay can be

allowed near a CanFire™.

• Brief EVERYONE on saftey and warn against trying to

put it out with water.

• Consider not using the CanFire™ that night if the crowd you’re with is likely to be rowdy.

SEVERE burns are far too high a price for drunken partying. You’ll get the “Best camp

toy” award some other night, trust us (and by the way it’s NOT A TOY)

• If there’s a breeze, you might prop the lid against the side as a small windbreak. This

also makes the ﬂame swirl in a nice way. The lid will get sooty and hot but it won’t hurt it.

• It takes about a half an hour to really get going.

SEVERE BURN HAZARD

No Skin Contact with Wax!

SEVERE BURN HAZARD

Keep Children Away!

FIREBALL HAZARD

Keep Water Out!

The wax inside the CanFire™ reaches temperatures of

over 600˚F. This is MUCH hotter than normal cook-

ing temperatures you’re familiar with. It will cause

SEVERE 3rd DEGREE burns if it touches skin.

Keep liquids OUT! Spilling water in, or pouring

water onto a hot CanFire™ CAUSES A VIOLENT

ERUPTION OF HOT WAX and a LARGE FIREBALL

— The ﬁreball is big – possibly setting ﬁre to things

that were out of reach before, like you.

— The hot wax splatter zone is several feet - well

within reach of friends who might be sitting

around it. At the least, their clothes will be ruined.

— No peeing on a CanFire™!

— Keep Rain Out!

#1 Two supremely important warnings

CARBON MONOXIDE HAZARD

Outdoor Use Only!

WARNING

OPEN FLAME

Keep Burnables Away!

page 3

• Add wax to keep the CanFire™ going. Don’t splash. Use the tongs.

• Regulate the CanFire’s ﬂame by adjusting the wax level:

— A half inch of wick showing above the wax makes a small ﬂame (roughly 2-10”.

— One inch to one and a half inches of wick showing gives a nice balance

between ﬂame size, 8-18”, and wax consumption – about a pound per hour.

— Running a CanFire™ with two inches of wick showing or more makes the largest

ﬂames and makes the bottom of the pot extremely hot. It also about doubles the

rate of wax use to roughly two pounds per hour.

* Sadly, toasting marshmallows on a CanFire™ is not a good idea. The ﬂame is very

sooty and it makes the marshmallow taste like wax.

* Add scented wax for effect. Citronella keeps away mosquitos. “Spruce” is a lovely

evergreen forest fragrance. “Campﬁre” scent is always amusing

* To prevent melting in a hot car, the CanFire™ uses high melt temperature parafﬁn

wax (160˚F, 70˚C, often sold as “Hurricane candle” wax). Using other waxes

could cause faster or slower burning. We sell bags of the right wax that are compe-

tively priced and conveniently shaped.

• When moving the CanFire, put it out ﬁrst (put the lid

on), then use the potholders to latch the lid locks and

hold onto the side handles.

• Never leave a lit CanFire™ unattended. If you need to

brieﬂy leave it, put it out with the lid, lock it and put it

somewhere safe and out of trafﬁc. Remember, once the lid is on, it’s hard to tell if

it’s hot.

* Sooty wax is almost impossible to clean off of clothes, objects or the ground. It

makes a real mess of a campsite so please be careful. It’s about a million times

dirtier than littering.

#5 Putting it out

• Put the lid on. NEVER use water!

Use tongs or pot holders if the lid is hot.

• Lock the lid on and make sure that it’s put safely out of

trafﬁc. Note that the lid seal is NOT LEAKPROOF.

#4 Ongoing operation - ﬁberglass wick lasts forever

#6 Transporting — only when cool!

• NEVER transport, a hot CanFire™. The outside can burn and melt your gear, maybe even

start a ﬁre or burn you or others in the event of an accident.

• A CanFire™ usually takes an hour to an hour and a half to cool enough to transport. If it’s

too hot to touch it’s too hot to travel.

* If you travel while the wax is still partly liquid, it will slosh around inside, mangle the

wick and coat the inside so the lid is stuck on. Big mess.

— Don’t use it in the morning if you’re traveling soon.

• Lock the lid on while cooling and transporting. Note that the seal is NOT LEAKPROOF.

BURN HAZARD

Locked Lid Can Leak!

FIREBALL HAZARD

Keep Water Out!

page 4

#7 Maintenance and general information

CLEANING the CanFire™:

• At some point you may ﬁnd the collection of burnt bugs and sooty wax inside the

CanFire warrants removal. One simple way to do this is:

Let the wax burn down most of the way. Put the ﬁre out with the lid. Let it

cool a few minutes. Take off the now-hot lid with a potholder or tongs.

Pick up the CanFire with the potholders and pour the wax and debris into

a container that won’t melt, like a paper cup or bowl. Don’t splash and

don’t even try to get the insides any cleaner.

• Add new wax and melt it using the techniques below.

NEVER HEAT WAX DIRECTLY — use an oven or a double-boiler on a stove. The wax

must not be allowed to get much over it’s melting point because the hotter it gets, the

more wax vapor it gives off – which is ﬂammable. FAILURE to prevent over-

heating risks burning your house down.

NOTE too that the speciﬁc temperatures in these directions only apply to the

IGI-1260, 160F˚ melt point wax that we use in the CanFire™.

Low Heat Oven: Take off the CanFire’s lid and put it in an oven at 200˚F

(95˚C) DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED.

Double Boiler: Put a pan on the stove that is amply sized to ﬁt the CanFire base.

Put an inch or two of water in the pan. Put the CanFire into the water and take off the

lid. It might ﬂoat if there’s not much wax in it, that’s OK. Boil lightly until the wax is

melted. DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED and DO NOT LET THE PAN RUN DRY.

• Cleaning the outside is best done with a paper towel and paint thinner. Content

yourself with just getting off superﬁcial wax and grime. Don’t try to make it clean like

a food pot. Use all normal paint thinner preautions.

Removing Water from a CanFire™ is a pain (it sinks to the bottom)

You can use the low-heat oven techniqe above to evaporate water caught inside.

Depending on how much is there, it could take up to an hour.

Note on BURN BANS:

One of the best features of the CanFire™ is that, many times, you can use a CanFire™

when campﬁres are banned. During burn bans, seek permission to use the CanFire™.

NEVER disobey an authority even if they’re being unreasonable. Nine times out of

ten, humor and respect will get you what you want. We even put the words “ON”

and “OFF” on the lid in case the rules say “it needs to have an ON/OFF knob.”

Literally, the entire lid is an ON/OFF knob.

Still have questions? Email [email protected]

Lost manual? Email [email protected] for a free replacement

Ha-ha, little joke. How can you remember to email for a new manual if the email address is on the

lost manual? Yes but maybe I can get you to remember that you CAN GET a new manual from the

website if I can trick you into reading something memorable – Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha, like this perhaps?

TheCampLab.com CanFire Operating instructions

Brand: TheCampLab.com

Model: CanFire

Type: Operating instructions

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TheCampLab.com CanFire Operating instructions

TheCampLab.com CanFire Operating instructions

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