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.
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.