How a Zippo Armor lighter should have been made

Sorry, bro. I’m sure that we have our share of Ford Model T fans here, but that hardly means that they’re the epitome of car design.

Zippos were the cheese back in their day, but not no more and I’m an American.

BUTANE is the future!

Chris

Yeah except when it’s not…

Not sure what temperatures you get in Miami FL but out here we get –20*C (thats –4F for you Yanks) on regular basics during winter and at that temperatures most butane lighters don’t work well or don’t work at all. One thing if you’re a casual smoker minding his own business and a whole different story if you’re trying to light a fire outdoors at freezing temperatures and crappy weather. I use petrol lighters because they work and a nice o-ringed petrol lighter is a thing of beauty.

I can’t argue with your main point, as pressure in butane lighters does decrease with temperature, but that being said, most of us don’t live in –20* temperatures and petrol lighters still suck if you’re a smoker. Even crack heads don’t use them.

I’d venture to guess that most people carrying around lighters in their pockets, aren’t waiting to start a fire with them?

Chris

I’m not a smoker but I guess that’s true. On the other hand, a nice whiff od kerosine when you open a petrol lighter is sooo goooood :slight_smile:

AHAHAHAHAH Florida Man! Are we being elitist on which kind of cancer makes you look better in the coffin? :smiley:

Because throat cancer (Cigar) and tongue cancer (Pipe) are so much better than lung cancer (cigarettes)!
Is that your basis for your “Smoker tier”? :smiley:

I swear this bullshit about the “Hurr Durr Naphta Smell” should go back to the 50s where it belongs…
I use my Zorro, my vintage Dunhill, my Armor Zippo with a jetflame insert, and any bic/clipper lighter that is within reach and there is absolutely 0 difference when smoking cigarettes and cigars.
As far as cigars are concerned Zippo style lighters are just bad from a flame consistency point of view, provided you are not smoking some sort of cigarette sized cigarillos, in which case again 0 difference, we are talking about burning tobacco are we not?
Don’t even get me started on Toscano cigars whose taste is so strong (and good) you could light them using a burning tire and not notice any difference!

In all fairness I did notice a slight aftertaste on the 1st drag those few times I recharged my Zippo by dipping into the petrol tank of my buddy’s motorcycle :smiley:
Unless you plan on smoking you whole cigar/cigarette with a lit lighter in front of it there should be no issue even for you :+1:

Btw apparently you haven’t noticed that no one here has even mentioned the specific usage of said lighter, aside for the ones correctly pointing out that if you wanna light anything in sub zero temperatures, which are quite common in most places, tropics aside, butane is a non starter.

The whole discussion was regarding the build quality of the lighter’s body and the insert wasn’t even part of the conversation, a keen observer would have also noticed that in the first post of this thread is present both a standard insert and a butane one, but I suppose reading an illustrated book is considerable multitasking for some people :stuck_out_tongue:

4/10 would not bang
Try again Florida Man, fail again, fail better :smiley: :+1:

s. Thanks for livening up the conversation tho :wink:

Samuel Beckett…

Let us not derail the conversation any further :smiley:

I have a question for you, how do the batteries in those arc lighters hold up?
Also are they replaceable?

I personally like maintenance friendly lighter myself which is also why I was fairly disappointed with the butane inserts for Zippos, how is your experience with more modern stuff?
I am intrigued but dubious at the same time :smiley:

usb rechargeable. Probably a LiPo packet, so dunno how “replaceable” it might be without finding one in just the right size and worth it to buy/ship a replacement, vs just ordering a whole new lighter for 10bux.

Usually LiPo cells, they hold up quite well in my experience, the plasma x lighter in OP still works perfectly after a few years, though I potted that with silicone. 600mAh cell in that one.
I’ve also had a few zippo type arc inserts, seem good too. 200-300mAh in those.
The gas versions are not so good/ small gas tanks.
It is usually just a single screw to open them up but the battery wires are soldered, easy enough if you can solder small simple stuff.
I’ve used ‘Honest’ brand jet lighters for years, the same two that I use only for soldering/ reflowing, one double jet, one single but they have never failed though with most piezo spark ignitions they need to be kept clean. They have some interesting designs in metal, some with visible fuel tanks etc last time I looked.
Petrol smell, over here it depends on what brand you use, some really stink like clipper, swan, but some have next to no obnoxious smell such as perma fluid.

That is a big hurdle for me to overcome, I might be completely off base here but don’t arc lighters work by basically creating a short?
They seem very similar to the rebuildable atomizers for vaping which I know are quite harsh on the batteries themselves and people usually put resilient 18650s in those and from major brands only to avoid issues.

My worry is that being arc lighters quite cheap items, the quality of the batteries inside will be questionable and, without even considering the risk of venting (which I imagine has been taken into consideration by manifactures) the overall life expectancy will be of a year or 2 at best.

If that is the case I’ll steer clear of those and stick with my Zorro or my Zippo which are fully serviceable and if not “immortal” at least “undying” :smiley:

Yes exactly, the thing to love about the zippo type lighters is that they are fully serviceable and even slightly moddable.
The only things that were really wrong with Zippo lighters were the cheap hinges and fuel evaporation problem, hence this thread…
My titanium war armor lighter has a thin titanium tube in the flint tube to better fit the flints, keep it more central & even wearing as there is always slop in the standard tube internal diameter and I just replaced the flint wheel with a replaceable version that comes with a little chicago screw instead of the rivet so that can come out easy for cleaning etc.
Some people like taking their stuff apart for maintenance every so often, some don’t bother.
The titanium fuel tank has been brilliant too, making evaporation even less of a problem along with the lid seal plus that gives me the option to just give the lighter a shake to roughly gauge fuel level.
Who says I’m not picky. :smiley:
I did slightly puncture an arc zippo LiPo cell with a screw once, nothing major happened, just a little hiss and it was gone. It wasn’t fully screwed through or that might have been slightly different.
I think the arc lighters work along the lines of a stun gun rather than creating direct shorts, there are little transformer? type units that boost the voltage, two in the x type units. They heat up so a good quality arc lighter will have an on timer of about 12 seconds or so before it cuts off. This will help protect the cell too but like most things, they will slowly degrade over time. Plus a control PCB/ charging circuit/USB port that won’t last forever either.

Yeah I’ve used anything from alcohol to actual petrol in my Zippo, I’ve noticed a real smell only with the petrol but I think the big ass black smoke trail coming from the flame was already a warning sign :smiley:

I usually use Zippo fluid as I can find it in every tobacco shop and as far as I am concerned, short of huffing the built up fumes that get trapped in the lid, I never actually experienced this aftertaste, could it be because I do not light the cigarette in my mouth?
I normally smoke rolling tobacco with the very thin rolling papers.

Btw later I’ll post the darn picture of the my Zorro in his final form, it is ageing beautifully, I also ordered a new insert from Ali because the brass on brass is too much for me, the new one is in stainless and matches my edc and tastes perfectly :slight_smile:

Thank you again for making the first post, I would have never known about these lighters otherwise, really, REALLY appreciated :slight_smile: :+1:

Youuuuu……Stop poking me in the brain! :smiley:

When and if you have some spare time can you do a full rundown of the mods you did on your Carson?
I got the gist of what you are talking about but I want to properly understand so I can replicate :smiley:

I’d love to know what is your experience with fuel evaporation with the tank compared to the cotton, I was considering buying those plugs to replace the “lift to fill” felt thingy that Gebe mentioned, but getting a tank is intriguing, I might not go for a titanium one but one of those Japanese made zippo tanks, the only issue would be compatibility with the Zorro, it might be too “slim” like the Zippo inserts, that would be annoying :cry:

No worries I’ll come to the rescue!

Load your pictures on this website, you can even select how long they will last (I chose forever for posterity sake :smiley: )

No registration required, just drag your pics on the page.

Once it is loaded select the HTML code, not the one for miniatures.
Click on the small sunset icon you see here above the box where you write a post.
Paste the HTML code.
Wham! Bam! Ya done! :slight_smile:

Alternatively you can just link an Ali Express / Ebay / Obscure website link to something similar, less hassle and it can help others too, not just me :slight_smile:

Think of ’em as tasers for unruly bugs.

Yeah, it’s a “short” in air, but that’s done by a HV arc that’s created by an autotransformer with a huge turns ratio. No more dangerous than a car’s ignition coil or an old teevee’s flyback transformer.

Ahahahahah that is a genius description! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
Now I wanna tase one of the giant stag beetles that populate my coutryside with one of those :person_facepalming: :smiley:

yes it’s brass. Tank is part of the body, threaded and sealed with o-rings. very well made.
Actually most brass oil lighters over $20 are very good, and especially the ones sold by that seller.
I’ve bought so far around 30, some very heavy 300g+ :smiley:

The ones under $20 usually just look like brass, but they are not made of brass. It’s just some zinc alloy that is plated.

Tomorrow I will pick this one up from the post office
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32877871939.html

The one with jet flame are made out of plastic inside. I have never seen a jet lighter all metal. It must be some technical limitation.
If you really want a jet lighter go for the ones with 4 burners. Those seem to be the most reliable and can sustain a flame even at lower temperatures. Avoid the zippo butane insert - the worst and most expensive jet lighter I ever bought

I just like how they look for some weird reason.
Normally I would not spend more than 20$ on a lighter unless I knew it was really good, but now with these coupons I can test-drive many almost for free.
Currently the only lighter I use is a bullet shaped lighter like this:

Because it’s reasonably small and can be held in a keychain. And because it is threaded and has a o-ring, the gasoline does not evaporate so fast like on most oil lighters

The zippo arc lighter is lipo and as far as I can tell not really meant to be serviceable. I haven’t cracked mine open but I bet its a small custom cell you can’t easily find.

I’ve only had mine for about a month now (had a chinese arc lighter awhile back) and I’m not overly impressed with the zippo one. It’s fine for ciggs but just about unusable for cigars and just about impossible to easily light a pipe.

If you are gonna light a fire you better have some paper on hand. It will not light up dry leaves, instead just burns a small section and smolders out.

Over all it’s cool but if I would have paid for it I would have been disappointed.

I’ve had a Thunderbird insert for my Zippo for a couple years then inevitably it failed,
I thought about replacing it with a Zippo one when they first came out and everyone
was hyped online and reviews started coming out…
I watched the first review which OBVIOUSLY was shilly and super positive and boy was
I disappointed :

-No lifetime warranty
-Made in China and not in USA
-Plastic components disguised as “steel construction”

What a load of BS and the dumbest thing is that being basically a Thunderbird insert incased
in cheap metal, it contains even slightly less fuel than a thunderbird.
Worse idea they could have come up with, they could have done their homework on it and priced
a well made insert at 50$ and people would have bought it, but the smell of cash was too much
for them to resist.