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Turn dryer lint and used cooking oil into eco-friendly fire starters! This no-wax method is simple, waste-free, and ideal for quick, effective fires.
The cost of electricity in Spain is ridiculously high. (Over half of our electric bill consists of taxes, which may make electricity appear more expensive.) To make things worse, I live in an area where it never snows, and homes aren’t equipped for the cold. They usually lack central heating or natural gas.
While we have small heater/air conditioning units, they aren’t enough to heat our house. So, we installed an iron fireplace with a fan to help heat our living room in winter.
Why make dryer lint fire starters?
Even experts sometimes need help to start a fire quickly. I use this at home to quickly ignite our fire each morning, especially on rainy days when my wood is damp.
This quick and easy project also allows you to repurpose materials you’d otherwise throw away.
Materials
These simple homemade fire starters use two simple materials: dryer lint and oil. The oil serves as the fuel, and the lint as the wick. (You’ll also need a glass jar or another container for storing the finished fire starter.)
To collect dryer lint, clean it off the lint traps of your clothes dryer. (I store mine in a mason jar in a cupboard in my laundry room after each load of laundry. I keep collecting all year so I have enough in the winter.) Dryer lint is great for starting fires because it ignites easily, but it needs oil, or another fuel source, to keep burning.
You can use any inexpensive cooking oil for this project. If you deep-fry foods, you can even recycle the used cooking oil and use that!
How’s that for a no-waste option?
How to make dryer lint fire starters
Pack some dryer lint into a small glass jar. After adding some dryer lint, cover it with some oil. Add more dryer lint and press it into the oil below to help absorb it. Continue layering dryer lint and oil in the jar until it’s full or until you run out of materials.
To thoroughly saturate the lint with oil, apply pressure as you add each layer. Continue pressing until the lint is completely immersed in the oil.
Cover the jar with a lid and keep it near the fireplace. Using a cute jar on your mantle is a stylish and space-saving way to store your fire starters without wasting space.
How to use them
To use your fire starter, pull off a small piece of oily dryer lint and ignite it. It should burn for long enough to help you start your fire! It’s really that simple.
How to get the fire going
As a summer camp counselor, I became skilled at starting campfires. One year, I was even called to help another counselor start a fire after he struggled, much to the disappointment of his boys. 😉 (What? You called a girl?)
The trick is to go slowly and add small twigs first, leaving room for air between them. Once you start the fire, slowly build it up with kindling and progressively larger sticks and logs.
Making portable fire starters for hiking or camping
For a compact fire starter while camping or hiking, wrap small amounts of oily lint in wax paper. The wax paper ignites quickly, providing extra flame while keeping each fire starter clean and easy to handle. Store these packets in a waterproof container, like a plastic bag or food container, to keep them dry for your outdoor adventures.
Alternative fire starter ideas
Over the years, I’ve tried burning various household items that typically go in the trash, such as dryer lint, wine corks, pine cones, and cotton balls.
To help fuel the fire, you also need something flammable, like wax, oil, or alcohol. Many people use wax (from old candles), but Vaseline (petroleum jelly) is much easier to work with and less messy to use. On the downside, it’s another thing you would need to buy to make your DIY fire starters.
Some backpackers use cotton balls or wine corks soaked in alcohol as a lightweight fire-starting option.
(I show how gel fuel is made with alcohol in my post about how to make hand sanitizer.)
Egg carton firestarters
A popular fire starter method involves using cardboard egg cartons filled with dryer lint. Simply place the lint in each compartment, cover it with melted wax, and let it cool. Once set, you can cut out each section for individual fire starters.
Pros
This method creates highly effective, mostly waterproof fire starters.
Cons
- Making egg carton wax fire starters is messy, time-consuming, and space-consuming. I often spilled the wax, and it was difficult to clean up afterward.
- My hands got sore cutting out the compartments.
- Paraffin wax can be costly, and while you can recycle old candle wax, it adds extra effort.
- Once we got our hens, I lost easy access to cardboard or paper egg cartons.
Toilet paper tube firestarters
If you lack egg cartons, use paper towel or toilet paper tubes. Cut the tubes shorter and fold the edges inward to create a bottom. Fill with dryer lint or sawdust, cover with melted wax, and fold the top edges inward to seal.
It’s another option, but it’s still more complicated than my no-wax method.
Safety considerations
- Synthetic fibers in dryer lint can release harmful fumes when burned. If you will be using these in a closed place, consider using lint from natural fibers like cotton or linen.
- Clean your dryer vent regularly to prevent lint buildup, a common cause of house fires.
- Be careful when starting your fire to avoid burning yourself.
Full tutorial video
No-Wax Dryer Lint Fire Starters
Equiment
Materials
- dryer lint
- cooking oil (can be used cooking oil)
Instructions
- Pack dryer lint into a small glass jar and cover it with oil. This is most easily done if you work in layers.
- To help saturate the lint with the oil, press on the lint as you add it over the oil from the previous layer. Keep adding layers of lint and oil until your jar is full, or until you have used up all of your materials.
- Cover the jar with a lid and store it near your fireplace.
- To use your fire starter, pull off a small piece of oiled dryer lint and ignite it. It should burn for long enough to help you start your fire!
Notes
Short video
This post was originally posted on December 15, 2014. It was later republished to add clearer instructions and video.
Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board
AlaskaBarb
If one is using oil, or wax, or alcohol, as an accelerant, it can really just be placed directly on the kindling, wadded up newspaper, cardboard, bark, pine cones, or small pieces of dry firewood and skip the middleman.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Perhaps, but this lights up immediately, much faster than the oil directly on the wood. You don’t need to use as much oil to start up the lint, and it allows you to put a use to something you’d otherwise throw away.
This is also easy to transport and much less messy than trying to pour used oil over the wood in your fireplace.
Adam
In reference to people worried about plastic in their lint and using this in their bbq…
I don’t imagine there’s very much nylon, polyester, etc. in the lint. Even if all your clothes are like 50/50 cotton/polyester, I suspect your lint is probably 90%/10% cotton/polyester. Those synthetic fibers don’t shed as bad as cotton. I consider the risk as negligible as using lighter fluid or newspaper. I don’t think I need to explain the lighter fluid reference. Newspapers are full of chemicals that was used to make the paper and ink. So don’t sweat the small percentage of plastic in your dryer lint.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Great thought!
Mel Cheesy
Carrying around a glass jar in your backpack? Obviously the author isn’t traversing far from the parking lot. In that case why not just bring a small vial of gasoline?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
I use the glass jar for keeping by my fireplace. I obviously wouldn’t suggest the glass jar option for backpacking, but a plastic baggie would work.
Sandy McGovern
Excellent idea. I think I could even go to a restaurant or bar & get old oil. They wouldn’t have to pay to have it picked up. I was keeping dryer fuz in baggies for fires in my car emergency box. Of course, only my Sister understood the reasoning behind it. Now I can print & share the article. Thanks.