Camping Lighters

craig333

Riley's Human
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Messages
8,164
Location
Sacramento
Last time I was out, out of my three cheapo lighters only one worked. I like stuff that works. Before I begin I will admit you can purchase many handfuls of cheap lighters for what you pay for one of these. However, all these are windproof. The three battery operated lighters have continuous ignition.



Top one is an Olympian GM-3X. Crazy long but if you like using flammable liquids on your campfire it could save some hair :) Relatively easy to use. I wish adults could buy non child proof lighters but oh well.

Second one is an Infinitylite. Also crazy long but difficult to use. Gloves or frozen hands would not work well with this one. I'll use it at home for the bbq.

Third one is a Bernzomatic, non battery and only sorta windproof but its the easiest to use of the bunch.

Fourth we have a Zippo. Also very easy to use and windproof.

All these are refillable butane lighters.

Finally a cheapie throwaway lighter.

Without a long term test, my favorites are the Bernzomatic and the Zippo.

Butane. Purchasing butane was interesting. Amazon (and probably others) won't ship it. Rite Aid manager told me the paper work to sell it makes it not worth carrying. Sent me to the smoke shop next door. After wandering past the bongs and assorted paraphernalia (I'm not even sure if they had tobacco) I found the butane. You have to show ID, sign a sheet with your address and then can carry out as much as you like. He looked at me a little strange when I said just one. Honey Do brand. Not very subtle :)
 
Quite the selection. I have been using the cheap red ones, yea they are ok but struggle at higher elevations to light. Back up is a box of wood matches.

Good luck with your search.
 
Always keeps some matches around. Hard to light the water heater with a match though.
 
On the Casita hot water heater I used a propane torch.. It heated up the gas valve to open and lit the burner. It was painfully long to light. It did not help that the propane line was super long and no way to bleed it.

To extend a wood match, take a metal cloths hanger and take apart and twist the end to accept a wooden match slid in. the other end make it long enough and bend up a "T". Slide the wood match in the end, light the match and push it in next to the burner.
 
Hi craig333
Thanks for the review as I was just using a few choice words on ( drumroll) yep number 5.
Where do you pick up 3/4 lighters. Amazon or a camping store. Thanks Russ
 
We actually have 3 of them, one uses batteries, and the other two are rechargable. They work really well when lighting propane or gas stoves, I just tried one on a piece of paper and it did light it, the paper then could be used to light the fire. If we do make a fire, I usually add a little gasoline before lighting, and the arc will definitely ignite that.

It is not just a spark, it is a continuous arc about 3/16" across.
 
camper rich said:
We actually have 3 of them, one uses batteries, and the other two are rechargable. They work really well when lighting propane or gas stoves, I just tried one on a piece of paper and it did light it, the paper then could be used to light the fire. If we do make a fire, I usually add a little gasoline before lighting, and the arc will definitely ignite that.

It is not just a spark, it is a continuous arc about 3/16" across.
 
Ahhh, gasoline to start a fire, must of been a whiteman’s fire. Sounds like fun, but don’t recommend it, less telling people about it. Not a boy scout were you.
 
camper rich said:
Check Amazon or Ebay for the flamless rechargable electric candle lighter. We have completely swiched over to them. They recharge by USB.
https://www.ebay.com/i/113351934414?chn=ps
I have some of these coming from amazon to test.
EDIT: Actually not those but this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D5WH23F/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


For camp fires I've found one of these to work the best:
Bernzomatic_TS8000_torch_01.jpg.aspx


The trick is to NOT use it at it's max setting. Use it near it's minimum setting. It is especially good with wet fuel when you really, truly need a fire.
 
For buying the cans of butane for recharging lighters, online cigar retailers all sell and ship them. The only thing is they have to ship ground, so plan ahead. This can save you a trip to the pot shop if you don't feel like dealing with that. I don't smoke cigars that often, but the last time I ordered some, I bought a Zippo, as well as a butane insert for it, that replaces the regular Zippo guts. I like it because it has that classic Zippo look and I can open and close the lid obsessively and obnoxiously just like I did when I was a cigarette-smoking high school punk, but it has the wind-proofedness of a butane lighter.

Here in Northern California, we are always hearing about some knucklehead blowing up his house making hash oil. I remember seeing an article about some weed head dumping thousands of empty butane cans off the side of the road somewhere up near Garberville. The article had a photo of mounds of these cans the size of VWs on some turnout in the woods. I think they busted the guy who did it. I got curious as to how the hell they used butane to refine weed, so I did some googlin'. It turns out they pack a bunch of weed into a container and flood it with liquid butane. The butane acts as a solvent and pulls all of the THC out of the weed. They drain out the liquid butane and evaporate it, leaving the concentrated THC behind. So these idiots are just sitting around in their garage, next to the gas furnace and water heater, with big trays of liquid butane evaporating. Then the old lady comes home and turns up the furnace. Guess what happens next? I wonder if health-conscious stoners know how their product is made.

Long story short: I wonder how long they will be able to sell liquid butane.
 
I use one of those cheapo hand-held starters for the propane stove in the camper because the smell of the Sulphur is pretty noxious and probably harmful to your lungs at best when the big kitchen matches are used. For starting the BBQ or an evening fire, I use plain wooden kitchen matches....no, not those measly, teensy things, but the beefy ones from back in the day.

Us Boy Scouts were taught to dip the tips into a little melted parafin to keep them water-proof or to carry them in a water-proof "match safe".
 

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