Every good emergency kit should include some emergency candles. Candles are the perfect survival tool and have been used throughout time to do everything from lighting a room, to providing extra heat during an emergency.
Emergency Candles are an important item to have in your survival kit:
- They are great for providing you with hours of light and are more dependable than any flashlight on the market.
- Candles in a small room or tent can help provide extra heat. They can help you stay warm during a winter emergency.
- Cooking – Believe it or not, a good candle can actually provide you with enough heat to cook, or boil a small amount of water. Check out our Candle radiator instructions to help capture the candle heat for cooking.
- Lighting Fires –Â It’s a lot easier and safer to use a candle to light your fires than it is to hold a lighter or match.
Top Emergency Survival Candles
Emergency Essentials 100 Hour Plus Emergency Candle
The Emergency Essentials candle uses Petroleum Hydrocarbon Naphtha, and can be burned for over 100 hours. It’s odorless, burns clean, and is great for weather-related emergencies that cause you to lose power.
Coghlans 36 HOURS SURVIVAL CANDLE
The Coghlan Survival Candle is a small, odorless wax candle inside a round aluminum tin. It allows you to control the light and heat by lighting either one or all three of the candle’s wicks. Each wick provides up to 12 hours of emergency burn time.
The UCO Candle Lantern is a cool little add-on that holds the UCO 9-Hour Emergency Candle. The collapsible lantern is great for emergencies and helps reflect even more of the candles light. The lanterns easy-sliding glass chimney creates a windproof environment, making the lantern great even in a windy outdoor environment.
After years of teaching survivial as a Boy Scout leader and going on “survival” camp outs. One little trick I’ve learned is to pack a small box of those “trick” birthday candles. The wick is infused with magnesium. Get it started and you can walk around in a wind storm and it will come right back.
I really like that idea. I make my own dipped matches, and emergency heating canisters. I had never thought of trick b-day candles! Kool, Kool. Thanks
Fabulous idea! I’ll have to get the trick birthday candles and add them to my kit.
I keep small candles and a metal coffee can in my vehicles in the winter. If I get stranded I will light the candle and put it into the can … the can will warm up and keep the inside of my vehicle warm. I also have a thick hot pad to place the can on so it doesn’t burn my flooring.
I also have a small grate, just a little larger than the can. I can put snow into a heavy cup (always keep one of these too) and melt the snow to make tea, instant coffee, soup or hot chocolate.
I keep dried fruit mix in the kit so when I get hungry I will have something substantial to eat that isn’t just wasted calories.
Just my two cents worth …..
Good ideas. An even better one is to drive a Ford rather than a Subaru. That way you won’t break down.
A BIG Amen to that!! My brother drives a stupid Subaru and thinks it’s the best vehicle on the planet!!
I have used tea lights in place of the messy UCO candles, in my UCO Candle Lanterns, for 15 years, to heat up my breakfast and make very hot tea! I use a cleaned cat food or tuna tin inverted over the metal candle holders, it fits perfectly. Put 1-3 tea candles on that, light, close the lantern, place a grannyware mug on top, cover, and within an hour I have extremely hot water or a cooked cereal.
Just now made a grilled cheese sandwich using one tea candle and a grannyware plate on top. Time: 15 minutes. Obviously you can speed things up by using 2 or 3 tea candles.
Hi Sam,
Like your idea for substituting tea lights for the candles – I want to try that. What size tins do you use to cover the metal candle holders? Our UK sizing may be different.
Pearl
A cheaper alliterative to candles are crayons. If you get a box of crayons and keep it in your bag, car,or other survival kit you can have 30mins per crayon.