Sunday, May 25, 2008

Lube Experiment (Now with video!)

So I was reading a sex education book that is a bit out of date and has some inaccurate information in it, but otherwise is a reasonably good resource. Anyways the point is that it said that silicone lube is highly flammable. Oddly enough in all of the reading I've done I'd never heard this before. Or actually a more likely story is that it just hasn't stuck. Well it will stick now because today we did lube science.

That's right, we lit lubes on fire. I have a much larger supply of water-based lubricants since I use a lot of sex toys and I don't want them to melt. So we tried 3 different water based lubricants: one with no glycerine and no parabens, one with glycerine but no parabens, and one with no glycerine but with parabens. None of these were flammable. In fact they all extinguished the fire so if you're ever in a fire and there is nothing to put it out with, but you have water-based lube handy it may just save your life ... but I wouldn't count on it.

You will want to be absolutely sure that that lube you're putting out your fire with is water-based though because as the book I was reading said, silicone lube is indeed highly flammable. I only had one brand of silicone lubricant to test unfortunately (the other one is going to be given to the winner of the lube contest that you should all be entering). The lube was Doc Johnson's iLube and when a lit match was held to a small puddle of the stuff the lube burst into flames. I was amazed at this and was not happy just knowing about one lube so I called a friend and had him set flame to his Eros silicone lube and he said that it also burst into flames. So I'd say that our results are pretty conclusive. Silicone lube is very flammable.

But why do you care, right? You're using it for sex, not as a lining in your baby's crib. You should care because silicone lube does not come off easily. This is a great property for a lube, but not such a great property if you're dealing with fire. This can especially be a concern if you play with candle wax during sex, are the romantic room full of candles type, or you like to cook a snack between sex romps to get more energy. I am imagining hands and genitals bursting into flames at very inopportune moments (really every moment is inopportune when it comes to bursting into flames though). So the point of this blog is to say that if you're using silicone lubricants BE CAREFUL!!! Wash your hands with soap and water before you handle fire and do not wipe your silicone lube covered hands on towels that may be close to flames.

Update: We redid part of the experiment using only Maximus and iLube and made a video. Enjoy!

8 comments:

Patrick said...

This is absolutely fascinating!!!!! You need to get the word out about this.

Tuck said...

I see my next fire testing item!! Thanks!

Tuck said...

Awesome! I will have to see what I can write in fire now!

Anonymous said...

Who knew! Thanks for alerting the world!!

Dee said...

Well I'll be! That's a very useful thing to know.

I wonder ... would water-based lube put out a silicone-based lube fire?

xx Dee

Garnet Joyce said...

heh that sounds like another science experiment waiting to happen curvaceous dee. Although I'm not sure I would count on it in an emergency.

lucy said...

Oh no, I work for an Adult Novelty and lube wholesaler. I'm surrounded by lube all day long.

Anonymous said...

Oh my, I never thought to burn my eros, but I'm going to have to give it a shot now... I wonder how well lube would work for a fire performance/dance routine instead of white fuel? Perhaps it's the next big thing.