How to Make Fire Starter from Coffee Grounds and Save on Your Heating Bill?

by Stephanie Yankova

Can you make a fire starter from coffee grounds? Learn a clever new DIY hack for preparing a barbecue or lighting the fireplace in the winter by upcycling your leftover coffee!

How to Make a Fire Starter from Coffee Grounds

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How to make homemade fire starters? How to make fuel with coffee grounds? If you’re a coffee lover like me, you’ve come to the right place. With this guide, you can easily prepare 100% natural fire starters for your barbecue, wood stove, or fireplace. Why do it? First, it’s an excellent way to recycle coffee grounds. Secondly, it’s a great eco-friendly alternative, as most store-bought fire starters contain chemicals like gelified ethanol. So, here are the products you’ll need:

Ingredients

  • Small paper cups or recycled egg cartons
  • 10 tablespoons dried coffee grounds
  • 200 g soy wax
  • candle wicks

What Ingredients to Avoid

Many people add flammable liquids to fire starters, such as alcohol, to make them burn faster and more intensely. But this is not recommended at all. It’s very dangerous to do such experiments at home, so please avoid them altogether. Coffee grounds are calorific enough – 5000 MWh/tonne.

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Read also: How to Clean the Glass of a Fireplace: Natural and Safe Methods

How to Prepare

  • First, melt the soy wax in a hot water bath, or at a very low temperature to avoid burning it.
  • Meanwhile, place the wicks in each paper cup.
  • Pour a small amount of wax into the cups to fix the wick.
  • Then fill the cups with used coffee grounds, leaving a gap of about 2 cm at the top.
  • Take the wax and pour it over the coffee residue, which will quickly absorb it.
  • Leave the wax to cool completely. If you’re using egg cartons, you can cut them open once the soy wax has set. This will give you individual, ready-to-use firelighters. You don’t need to remove the wax from the cups. We use cardboard boxes, so you can place them directly in the fireplace. Depending on the size of the cup, the burn time may vary, but you can expect at least 20 minutes of beautiful flames.

Making Coffee Logs: Video Tutorial

Here’s another way to use coffee grounds as a fire starter by making logs. Simply mix 600 g dry used coffee grounds with 250 g wax and 250 g black molasses. Make sure the wax is natural and not paraffin based. The latter releases toxins when burning. Once the mixture is ready, bake it in the oven for half an hour at 180 degrees, and you’re done! While enjoying the soothing effect of the flames, you can also benefit from the energizing smell of coffee. Isn’t that nice?

Read also: What to Do With the Wood Ash from the Fireplace? 10 Practical Ideas



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