Colibri will never have my business again.

[Nely]

I'm the unfortunate owner of two colibri quantum lighters and their performance has been quite shite to say the least. I have used only high quality fuel to refill them, and pretty much keep 'em clean with compressed air, but that does not seem to make a difference to them. I'm upset that such a popular brand can be so unreliable. I will be calling them soon and giving them a piece of my mind. Now I need to find myself a zippo insert and lighter. Sorry but I needed to vent.

[cameroncouch02]

Shoot, I just use the actual Zippo insert instead of the Z-plus.

[Ron1YY]

Just send it back to them with $7 and they will fix or replace it for you. If you need the addy, LMK.

Ron

[croatan]

Before I started hanging out on cigar forums, I just thought that I had some sort of terrible luck with Colibri lighters. Turns out it's an all too common problem

[Alpedhuez55]

Originally Posted by Ron1YY

Just send it back to them with $7 and they will fix or replace it for you. If you need the addy, LMK.

Ron

Sure people talk about their great customer service. But I would rather get a lighter that works right in the first place. The last one I had would not turn off. It just stayed lit and I had to wait a few minutes to until the Fuel ran out.

I have used their lighters and their fuel, and had the same bad luck with them. They make some nice looking lighters, but the quality can be suspect. For me it is three strikes and you are out. I have had better reliability from torch lighters I picked up at Dolar Stores. THe best lighter I ever had was a no name brand one I paid $4.95 for. Unfotunately, I gave it to a friend in Denmark on a visit there. When I got back to the states, they were no longer selling them at my tobaconnist.

[Blueface]

I recently had to send two lighters back to them also.
They fixed them free of charge and returned them to me as both were still under warranty BUT along with the lighters, I got more instructions on how to maintain the darn thing than I cared to see.
How can a $100 lighter that is rarely used required such high maintenance?
Since I got my Blazer Evo, life is good.
I refuse to use my Colibris any more.

[RPB67]

Originally Posted by croatan

Before I started hanging out on cigar forums, I just thought that I had some sort of terrible luck with Colibri lighters. Turns out it's an all too common problem

I dont want to jinx myself. But, mine has been OK for the past two years. It could be because I dont use it all the time.

[King Cat]

About a month ago I posted (in another forum) my frustration with my $75 Colibri lighter. For the first couple of weeks it worked beautifully. However, I began experiencing problems with the flame sputtering and then flat out going out on me. I tried everything I could think of and nothing helped.

Someone (who works at a cigar shop and sells Colibri lighters) provided me some good advice that I was unaware of at the time. Before refilling, you need to make sure you let out ALL of the fuel first. Don't re-fill on top of what you already have in the lighter. In addition, if you ever have any problems with the flame, just try pushing the valve quickly to let a little bit of fuel out. This sometimes gets the flame back to its original state. He also suggested that I periodically take some of that air spray (that you use on keyboards to remove dust) and use on the top valves (lighters).

Although I haven't ever tried the spray, I no longer have any issues that can't be corrected pretty fast. I went from wanting to junk my lighter to loving it again. It's so smooth!

I'm not sure if you've tried all of these things before, but if not, give it a shot before you completely give up on it!

[floydp]

We've been lucky so far with them, we have 3, all of them cheaper ones. I've only bought one of them, as for the others, one was a gift and the other came with a box of cigars from JR's. We have two blazer inserts that work flawlessly, also a Vip by Nibo which I got from my grandson last Xmas that I used lighting all my cigars the first half of 05. I think the key to Colibri's is to use them as little as possible. Ridiculous ain't it?

[King Cat]

Does anyone have a torch lighter that they haven't had some kind of an issue with at some point? The reason I ask is that I've owned many, and they all have seemed to give me issues. However, now that I know how to sort of tweak them, I have much better success.

[floydp]

Originally Posted by King Cat

Does anyone have a torch lighter that they haven't had some kind of an issue with at some point? The reason I ask is that I've owned many, and they all have seemed to give me issues. However, now that I know how to sort of tweak them, I have much better success.

The only one to this point is the Roburn table torch, aka RP table lighter among others. Mark(catfish swears by them) he talked me into getting one and told he'd buy it from me if I didn't like it.


I got mine from Atlantic...

[croatan]

Originally Posted by floydp

. I think the key to Colibri's is to use them as little as possible.

That ought to be in their advertising.

Originally Posted by King Cat

Does anyone have a torch lighter that they haven't had some kind of an issue with at some point? The reason I ask is that I've owned many, and they all have seemed to give me issues. However, now that I know how to sort of tweak them, I have much better success.

The PB-207. Best torch I've ever seen.

[Stogiefanatic182]

Just a suggestion but when you call them up I wouldnt blow a gasket and get angry at the person on the other end. I know companies hate this and it might not lead to the result you want.

[icehog3]

Not much luck with my first Colibri either...gave up after about 6 refills.

I am using a Blazer now, and so far am very happy. Have some Vector Fuel on the way, and hoping that will keep things running smoothly. Was going to give the Colibri another shot with the Vector, but I'll be damned if I can find the darned thing....

[illuminatus]

My colibri firebird hasn't worked right since I got it out of the store. Took it home, and the flame would go from very low when I lit it, to very high if I held it, then back low again... I know it was purged and then filled completely, I had them purge/fill it for me before I left with it. I emptied it, then purged it, then refilled it. No dice, same problems. I could live with just that, a flame's a flame, right? I've got this lighter:
If you haven't used it, the entire silver piece moves down when you click it to ignite. Well, one day, after I filled the lighter, and let it sit for a few minutes to warm back up to room temperature, I tried to light the lighter. I got a nice big flame. Right out from under the silver part and over the top of my hand. Fortunately, it went out in less than a second, and did nothing but burn the hair off the back of my hand (and palms! ) I've had 3rd degree burns on the other hand, and they suck, I don't want em again. Ever since that giant flame shot out the underside, I haven't been able to get the lighter to light again. And for the record, I wasn't stupid enough to try to light the lighter again... I gave it to the roommate I don't like and asked him to try lighting it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reproduce the hand-singing flame, or any other flame. So now I'm torn as to what to do. I don't wanna pay $5 shipping to send it back, as that's about 1/4 of what I paid for the lighter. I'm thinking of going back to the B&M and asking to swap it for a Z-plus, as I keep hearing good things about them...