Once you start shopping for cakes – particularly at specialist firework shops – you’ll quickly run into the terms 1.3G, 1.4G and pyromesh.
The majority of cakes fall into the hazard classification for storage and transport purposes of 1.4G, which determines how many fireworks both retailers and end consumers can store (which is quite a lot for 1.4G consumer fireworks). However some cakes may contain a more potent form of gunpowder called “flash powder” and if this is over a certain limit, the firework falls into the more “hazardous” classification of 1.3G. As a result, less are allowed to be stored by the retailer and they can be trickier to send by mail order.
Retailers will often push 1.3G cakes as “more powerful” or that they contain “1.3G effects” as a selling point. Whilst 1.3G cakes are going to be a little more potent than 1.4G cakes, do not think that 1.4G ones are under powered, they are not. Use the firework’s video clip to determine if you like the effects and power rather than its classification.
You can read an awful lot more advice on this topic in our 1.3G or 1.4G article (strong coffee required!).
To complicate matters further, manufacturers have the option of encasing a 1.3G cake in special wire mesh packaging known as pyromesh. This allows a 1.3G firework to be classified as 1.4G making them easier to store in bigger numbers. However, this somewhat frustrating packaging is pushed on to the end customer to have to remove – and dispose of – themselves. Again, we have a whole article just on this topic in our That Pesky Pyromesh section.