Gear Review: Smoke grenades.

So I have been thinking that it could be beneficial to have some smoke grenades. Not to mention fun. So I searched far and wide to find some, and settled on EG Grenades and their EG18 series. Now I wasn’t sure whether or not to get the 18 or the 18X, so I bought some of each. It turns out that I really like typing the word ‘grenade’ so I may use it quite a bit here.

I ordered them on Friday, June 26, and they shipped the same day by FedEx ground. The cost was $150 for eight grenades including shipping, and they arrived on Wednesday, July 1. They are available in eight colors: Black, Blue, Green Red, White, Yellow, Orange, and Purple. I bought red, white, and blue because those colors were on sale for Independence Day and because those colors won’t raise too many eyebrows while I am testing them close to July 4.

The grenades claim that it is safe to be stored at up to 50degC and 70% humidity. That means they should do well in an ammo can in the garage with a couple of desiccant packs thrown in there.

I waited until afternoon for the breeze to die down, and decided to test one. Humidity was 85%, temperature 81F, and wind was 3 mph out of the WSW.  The first grenade I tested was an EG18X in RED.

Deploying the grenade is easy- just pop off the safety cap, pull the pin, and toss the grenade. There is NO delay between pulling the pin and the emergence of smoke. The web page for the grenade states that smoke emerges for about 50 seconds. That may be true if you count every wisp of smoke, but the time for actual, thick smoke is almost exactly 30 seconds.

The smoke cloud stayed relatively close to the ground, with the thickest part of the cloud extending from the ground to about 15 feet in height. The cloud was thick enough and wide enough to completely hide the house across the street. I would say 60 feet wide by about 30 feet deep. It remained relatively intact for about 2 minutes.

This grenade is more than capable of obscuring the movement of people or objects from ground observation, as long as wind conditions allowed the cloud to remain intact. The smoke would have worked had I needed to move from the house to a vehicle in the driveway without being seen- in other words, instant concealment. It would also be quite effective for marking locations for spotting from the air. In other words, just like its military counterpart.

Another warning: The grenade came to rest on its side on my driveway. The discharge stained the concrete. I don’t know how long the red stain will be there.

Later: I will test the EG18 as a comparison.