Can I save my lighter?

[Robb01]

I have a colibri firebird, it worked fine until the butane ran out, bought some ronson fuel i saw at the store, should have done my research 1st, it doesnt work that well anymore at all. I just bought some Lava, supposedly pretty good. Is there anyway i can purge my lighter of the old fuel or has it already clogged stuff up? Thanks

[jmcrawf1]

hmm...i have a colibri firebird....why can't it use ronson?

Originally Posted by Robb01

I have a colibri firebird, it worked fine until the butane ran out, bought some ronson fuel i saw at the store, should have done my research 1st, it doesnt work that well anymore at all. I just bought some Lava, supposedly pretty good. Is there anyway i can purge my lighter of the old fuel or has it already clogged stuff up? Thanks

[Robb01]

its not very good quality fuel, it seemed to have clogged up the firing thing, so it doesnt work as well

[physiognomy]

Originally Posted by Robb01

... Is there anyway i can purge my lighter of the old fuel or has it already clogged stuff up? Thanks

From what I have read the Ronson fuel is bad news... Anything triple/quad refined is what you are looking for. To bleed the old gas in your lighter you only need to find a fine pointed object (even a pen) & press down on the gas intake where you inserted the nozzle of the can. It should hiss when the gas is released, just keep pressing until it's all out. The instructions for my colibri state that before filling you should turn the flame adjustment to it's lowest setting. Hope that helps!

[Mr. White]

Originally Posted by physiognomy

From what I have read the Ronson fuel is bad news... Anything triple/quad refined is what you are looking for. To bleed the old gas in your lighter you only need to find a fine pointed object (even a pen) & press down on the gas intake where you inserted the nozzle of the can. It should hiss when the gas is released, just keep pressing until it's all out. The instructions for my colibri state that before filling you should turn the flame adjustment to it's lowest setting. Hope that helps!

Eventually the better/hotter burning fluid should clear out the clogs but it may take a few refills. If you're lucky. If not, it may never work right again.

[RPB67]

Originally Posted by Robb01

its not very good quality fuel, it seemed to have clogged up the firing thing, so it doesnt work as well

Bleed it dry and fill it with some better fuel like Vector or Lava. You will see your lighter will work much better with those in it.

[RJT]

Originally Posted by RPB67

Bleed it dry and fill it with some better fuel like Vector or Lava. You will see your lighter will work much better with those in it.

I like the Lava..

[physiognomy]

Originally Posted by RPB67

Bleed it dry and fill it with some better fuel like Vector or Lava...

Tonight I was dragged to the mall by my girlfriend, so I went over to Williams-Sonoma & picked up a 320ml can of Vector Quintuplus for $6. Not a bad price considering how long it will last me

[SUOrangeGuy]

I have saved many Colibri's and other torch lighters using Vector after purging the inferior butane. One time the clog was very bad and it needed to be sent in for repair.

[chibnkr]

I agree with the above posts. Bleed all of the fuel out. Never use Ronson fuel, it just seems to gum-up lighters more than anything else. Vector and Lava have both been very good IMHO. In fact, my most reliable lighter is a $4.00 ronson torch. I ordered four of them and got a free can of Ronson fuel. I just laughed and pitched the fuel straight in the trash.

[TastyCaramel]

Sounds like you guys need to get lighters that work better with Ronson fuel . I've had a Delta Windmill for years in which I've only ever used Ronson (I've been tgrough several of the big bottles), and it lights on the first click every time. I can hold it out the car window at 60 mph and light it, even if it's raining!

Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe the Windmill can take the abuse of the Ronson crap since it's an outdoor lighter (waterproof, shockproof, windproof, etc.). At least I know for sure I'm cheap/poor and if my lighter doesn't work with Ronson, I'll probably be using matches!

BTW, aren't Colibri Firebirds notoriously bad lighters? I've never used one, but I seem to see people complain about them breaking/not working, even with good fuel, quite often .

[wharfrathoss]

you can try cleaning the burner w/rubbing alcohol (91% works best) & a qtip-use compressed air to blow at it (air compressor instead of canned air works better, somewhere around 100 psi)-then try good fuel

[n2advnture]

Just thought I'd give my tips on fixing lighter problems.

IMHO 90% of the problems that occur with lighters are because of the quality of the butane that is being used. (The most common symptom is sputtering)

The reason is that butane contains impurities that cause clogging in the ignitor of the lighter. These impurities can be filtered out during the refining process. (That's why I have chosen to carry Vector butane - it's also the cheapest per volume is the most consistantly available.)

The MINIMUM number of refinings you should use is "Triple Refined" but the Vector is refined 5x and the Lava is 5x refined. These two are by far the cleanest and best fuels that you can use.

The other most common problem with lighters is having air trapped in the fuel chamber. Most lighters come with instructions on how to "purge" the lighter. That's what it's referring to.

These are simple things to do to tell if the lighter can be repaired or not.
Here are just a few;

1. Bleed the lighter until it's total empty. Make sure the valve is pointing down. (Do not attempt this while the flame is lit). You have to shake the lighter as you bleed the valve.
And may have to repeat many times before it's completely empty.

2. Refill with a MIN. of triple refined butane. This may take two or three shots to totally fill it. Wait several minutes for the butane to come up to room temperature. This is fairly important as cold butane will not ignite.

3. Turn your flame level to the (-) sign on your lighter prior to lighting. I have noticed that after refilling the adjustment is out of whack. So after every refill turn it down and gradually adjust it to the desired level. Many times this is why a lighter doesn't work properly after a refill as well. (Also, generally as your lighter gets low on butane you have to adjust the level higher)

4. Make sure you have a spark. If you have a soft flame (ie flint) the obvious solution would be to replace the flint. If you have a torch lighter, you should see the spark coming from a small wire inside the lighter. If there is not spark, there may be lint from your pocket. Use some compressed air in short spurts to clear it out (try to avoid blowing in it if possible, you usually get small amount of spit on the ignitor which will also prevent a spark).

5. If you are using a flint (soft flame) style lighter and still don't have a flame make sure your burners are clean. Sometimes they get built up with tar from cigars and burning gas residue. You can use a TINY amount of distilled water on a q-tip or a small wire brush to clean them. Be VERY gentle and make sure it's dry before trying to ignite.

If all else fails, use a match! Just make sure you let it burn for a couple of seconds before lighting your cigar with it as the sulfur from the match impart a funky taste into your stick!

Hope this helps!

~Mark

[Benjy]

Helpful information Mark, thanks for sharing.

[tfar]

Very good reply, Mark! I actually also had a Windmill and used Rowenta and Ronson in it. It clogged. When I filled it with Vector after bleeding it, it worked again.

Very nice lighter. The Dupont sucks outdoors, but ...quel bling!

Till