Aaarrgggghhhhh

I hate butane lighters!!

Well, actually I love using them, saves my thumb from chaffing and calluses, since I have to click them instead of rubbing on the wheel. But I will be damned if I ever found a reliable butane lighter that could be refilled and re-used.

I have purchased expensive Xikar lighters, Ronsons, the common cheap ones, but some how they all get messed up.

I blow air on the lighting area to clear it up, used Xikar, ronson or zippo butane fuel. I set the flame to the lowest, then empty the gas tank with a pin, then carefully fill the lighter with the butane cylinder, but ... nada, zilch, zip. Some how the gas tank gets filled with air and not butane.

What am I doing wrong?

Why is this so freaking annoying?!!?? :smiley18::smiley7:

Try a higher end butane bro. I went through the same thing a few years back.

Personally I use Vector Quintuplus Butane , it is filtered five times, and you can launch a shuttle with it.

There are some other high end brands but this is the first I bought and it is what I have stuck with over the years. I usually grab it at Amazon if I can't find it local. Maybe a few other members have some brand suggestions.

I presently own two XiKar lighters and both work perfectly. One is around a year old and the other two.

I have to agree that is is likely the butane you've been using. I've been using Colibri brand butane and have had no issues with either lighter using it

I use a camp stove butane 'can' (isobutane/propane mix) with a lighter refill adapter (made by Brunton). Has worked fine for years at hugely lower cost (for Canadians, best price is at Mountain Equipment Co-op).

Cigaraficionado has a nice video on their site showing how to purge, refill, and clean a butane lighter (properly).

I used to have a Nibo triple flame that I had the same problems with...

I really like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Blazer-CG-001-.../dp/B002VA4CTC

It is super durable (I've dropped it about 9,000 times).
It has the sight glass so you can see how much fuel is left.
It is a single flame which I prefer for touch-ups.
I've refilled it a dozen times and had no problems.

I had a Nibo double flame that I had troubles with. I could refill it over and over and I would get nothing at all. Last month I went to a cigar event with a fried who was having trouble with his Xikar lighter and since a Xikar rep was there we decided to talk to him. He showed us what we were doing wrong.

First my friend was using Zippo brand butane which is not a great butane, switched to the Xikar butane.
Next is the most important, the purge, every time you refill you have to purge. It needs to be a good purge too, hold that sucker open until you can't even here any air coming out at all. Air in the tank is bad and will screw up you lighter quick.

I got home and took my Nibo that I thought was shot, gave it a nice long purse until I couldn't hear air anymore and then refilled with Xikar fluid and lo and behold it is back and working good. Purge. Very important.

I have purchased Xikar fuel, ronson fuel, zippo fuel. Same results in all 3. And I do purge the lighter of the gas / air inside before filling.

But after I fill, I seem to be filling with air. Because the flame wont light up. And when I hold the gas ON and hold the mouth close to my lit stove, I get a very light blue flame. Then i know the tank is filled with more air than gas, and lo & behold when I purge, its air.

Its like 3 times purge, refill, but the tank seems to fill up with air.

I will check out the video as suggested. Does anyone have a link?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Baron_Kaz

I have purchased Xikar fuel, ronson fuel, zippo fuel. Same results in all 3. And I do purge the lighter of the gas / air inside before filling.

But after I fill, I seem to be filling with air. Because the flame wont light up. And when I hold the gas ON and hold the mouth close to my lit stove, I get a very light blue flame. Then i know the tank is filled with more air than gas, and lo & behold when I purge, its air.

Its like 3 times purge, refill, but the tank seems to fill up with air.

I will check out the video as suggested. Does anyone have a link?

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Which way are you pointing the nozzle on the refill can? Towards the ceiling? Or towards the floor?

I definitely have no issues filling a lighter when I point the refill can nozzle towards the floor...

If you've properly purged and refilled, my guess is that you don't have the flame adjusted properly. I've found with some torches there's a fairly fine line between too high and too low. You gotta find that Goldilocks zone. :smiley20:

Ronson Jet lighters filled with Ronson butane. It works for me and it even works in my high $ Colibri . If you want to run 100 octane in your minivan by all means go ahead ,it's your $

I use a bic. Of course, I have manly thumbs.

I have a Lotus lighter.... it performs very well....

I keep 10 lighters on my desk and every damn one acts different when filling them up. :smiley7:

To lean how to fill them get a cheap plastic lighter that you can see the fuel level in so you can see how much air is trapped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=0ttjmi4PK0A

You never said if you were letting the nozzle face down. There isnt a hose to suck the butane, you have to have your lighter face down and let gravity work. Im assuming making that mistake once would remove the pressure from the can and make your next attempts not work even if you changed the orientation

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steffanan

You never said if you were letting the nozzle face down. There isnt a hose to suck the butane, you have to have your lighter face down and let gravity work. Im assuming making that mistake once would remove the pressure from the can and make your next attempts not work even if you changed the orientation

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Uhhh... Read up seven posts. I believe that point was already made. But thanks for playing anyway.

The point I'm trying to make, is that I think if a person did it wrong the first time, the compressed air could be gone from their butane can, making every attempt afterwards fail also.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ggiese

Uhhh... Read up seven posts. I believe that point was already made. But thanks for playing anyway.

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I don't pay any attention to you either George so it's no surprise he missed your post.:smiley44:

You might want to try pointing the can of butane towards the floor and letting gravity work for you.


Hi George.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steffanan

The point I'm trying to make, is that I think if a person did it wrong the first time, the compressed air could be gone from their butane can, making every attempt afterwards fail also.

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There is no compressed "air" in the butane can. There's compressed butane in the butane can. ...and - the can would be completely empty if there were no compressed butane. If he's trying to fill his lighter with an empty butane can - there truly is no hope. :smiley2:

Again - thanks for playing! :smiley20:


Gravity, though - that's an interesting concept... You folks say we should point the butane can towards the floor when we fill our lighters? That's a novel idea! I oughta to give that a shot!