Wetfire Tinder vs Cotton Balls and Vaseline for Fire Tinder. Which one should you use? Which one is better than the other one? This video may help you decide what to take with you when you are camping, hiking or out on a survival training trip. Personally I use cotton balls way more than I use Wetfire. In fact, I have never used Wetfire outside of instructing classes as cotton balls suit my needs and cost so much less. Do I carry Wetfire? Yes I do but only in case the cotton balls fail me and they have yet to do so. For the price it costs me to buy 12 Wetfire, I can make nearly 1000 firestarters out of cotton balls and Vaseline. Both have their pros and cons so I carry both but primarily use the cheaper of the two, that I can make myself.