Lighter recommendation?


 

JayHeyl

TVWBB Pro
I'm looking for recommendations for a long neck lighter to use with the grill and WSM and other general around the house tasks. I want something that will light reliably and will produce a decent size flame when the gas adjustment is turned up. It must also work since way after a hundred lights.

A couple times now I've bought the 5-pack Costco sells. The price is good but the quality of these things is really mediocre. After a few uses they don't light reliably and the gas adjustment range seems to be from nothing to barely anything. I'm tired of fighting with them.

A few years ago I bought a very nice refillable long neck lighter. It was a thing of beauty. Stainless steel tube. Leather covered handle. Unfortunately, it was misplaced during a move and hasn't reappeared. I'd consider getting another of those but the price, which was already a bit high when I got it, has about tripled in the interim. Based on my experience with that lighter I suspect the biggest issue with the cheap lighters is the poor quality of the fuel. When I got the nice lighter I filled it with some Ronson butane I had sitting around. The performance was disappointing. Lighting it was often a challenge and the resulting flame often sputtered and was inconsistent. I purged the Ronson fuel and refilled with some quintuple-filtered butane I found online. The difference was night and day. It never took more than two clicks to light it and the flame was perfectly consistent. I can't see them using quintuple-filtered fuel in those cheap lighters. The impurities likely get clogged in the works and mess things up. That's why they work okay for a few lights and then never work right again.
 
Yea I don't know how many of those damn things I went thru over the years ( Disposable lighters) Like you Jay I had one keeper that sounds familiar, but the push button gizmo went out.
Butane and cold weather IME never works perfect. If I kept the lighter outside overnight in the garage it was useless but if I kept it indoors it fired right up.
I always have my BIC and some long wooden matches for back-up and a push button instant lite propane torch ( which always works)

Tim
 
I did some more research on this. The good refillable lighter I mentioned now sells for $50. I would have never paid that much. So that's out of the question.

Apparently the disposable ones are just long necks and a plastic handle around a conventional disposable cigarette lighter. If you get a long one you like, when it's empty you can crack it open and replace the fuel cartridge with a standard Bic lighter. You just need to exchange a couple parts from the cigarette lighter with those from the long neck.

In my online meanderings I came across a video review of a Crocs lighter from the dollar store. It was not adjustable and the neck was only a couple inches long but it had a really nice flame. I think it would work fine for lighting the charcoal chimney. Apparently they cost in the neighborhood of a dollar.

The other item I came across was a no-flame plasma lighter. No fuel to run out or get clogged in the works. Just recharge it through a USB port and it's allegedly good for several hundred lights. I've never used one of these so I have no idea if they'd be any good for lighting a fire in the grill.
 
Sievert Roofing Torch. You can get it in Titanium too if you want a lighter weight.
PRM3460KIT.jpg
 
Reviving an older thread, but on my last trip to Costco they had Kingsford-branded long neck lighters, five for $6 (IIRC). Three fixed shaft and two flexible. As I often do when I spot new merchandise at Costco, I looked them up online. For the same package I found prices from $18 to $20. I seriously doubt they're worth that much, but I figured if they were selling any at that price they ought to be worth at least $6. So far I've removed one from the package and gave it a few lights. Fired up on the first click with a decent flame on a medium setting. I realize most of them work well right out of the package but all too frequently go seriously down hill after that. I guess I'm counting on Kingsford caring enough about their brand to not put their name on junk.

Anyway, if you're in need of new BBQ/fireplace lighters and have a Costco membership, you might want to check them out.
 
Any I've ever bought they last the first summer and that's it. I thought I'd save some cash and get refillables. They die after one summer as well so refilling is a waste of time :(
 
Has anyone tried one of the battery powered arc plasma lighters? Amazon has several that sell for about $15. I was curious if they'd work properly for lighting a grill/smoker/chimney. The plasma arc appears to stay very close to the lighter so it would seem you'd have to make physical contact with whatever you were trying to light.
 
Any I've ever bought they last the first summer and that's it. I thought I'd save some cash and get refillables. They die after one summer as well so refilling is a waste of time :(

The lighter I've been using is at least 8 years old, have to refill it annually or so. It is showing signs of no longer functioning as well, though, it doesn't want to stay lit.
 
The lighter I've been using is at least 8 years old, have to refill it annually or so. It is showing signs of no longer functioning as well, though, it doesn't want to stay lit.
If you think it's otherwise worth saving, you might want to try a better quality of fuel. I had issues with a refillable lighter until I got some quintuple-filtered butane. I know it sounds gimmicky but it made a world of difference. As I recall it wasn't that much more expensive than the garden variety stuff at the store.
 
If you think it's otherwise worth saving, you might want to try a better quality of fuel. I had issues with a refillable lighter until I got some quintuple-filtered butane. I know it sounds gimmicky but it made a world of difference. As I recall it wasn't that much more expensive than the garden variety stuff at the store.

It certainly is possible that it's a fuel problem, I'm using the same can of butane that I bought a bunch of years ago. I wouldn't be too horribly surprised to find that some of the lighter compounds have boiled off through the valve.
 
I picked up a flex necked Zippo from Amazon last fall, second filling last weekend. As long as I don’t store it where it’s cold, it seems to be pretty good, the butane I have is probably five years old but, is working pretty nicely, so far.
My Meijer store was blowing out a bunch of “Croc”lighters so, I snagged a handful for something like $3 a piece I’ve thrown a couple into my “grilling tools” tool kit and hung the leftovers on the wall of cast iron. On a side note, I’m still using an old scripto longneck for the sixth year at the fireplace and even if it’s cold as a Montana well diggers backside, it seems to simply keep working!
 

 

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