Care for Your Butane Cigar Lighter
How To Care for Your Butane Torch Lighter
Butane cigar lighters are one of the essential items that most every cigar smoker carries daily, or at the very least owns 1 or more of. Despite the fact that they can cost anywhere from a few dollars to a few thousand dollars, they all operate in a similar fashion.
First and foremost, we want to have everything we'll need to refill/care for a butane lighter on hand. While the Xikar MTX Multi-Tool is a fancy tool for cigar smokers that would come in handy here, it isn't entirely necessary.
The bare minimum that we need to start with is:
- Small Screwdriver or Penknife
- Premium Quality Butane Fuel - You want fuel that is at least 4 or 5 times refined. Anything less than that will clog your lighter.
- Our Butane Torch Lighter
Step One: Bleed the remaining fuel from the lighter. To do this, turn your lighter upside and use the head of the screwdriver or penknife to gently press down on the refill valve, purging your lighter of butane. You may need to do this step a few times. This process is similar to that of deflating a tire of it's air using the air valve.
Step Two: Turn the lighter down to its lowest level/setting using the flame adjustment wheel or screw.
Step Three: Flip your lighter upside down, inserting the butane tank tip directly onto the fuel nozzle. Press firmly down on the butane can and hold for approximately 5 seconds.
Step Four: THE HARDEST STEP – WAIT 3-5 minutes. Waiting a few minutes will allow the butane to evaporate and the gas inside the lighter to return back to room temperature.
Step Five: Reset flame adjustment setting to your favorite height using the adjustment wheel or screw.
Step Six: Every few months or refills, depending on how much use your lighter gets, a short blast of compressed air in the ignition area will remove any lint, dust, or dirt that could clog the ignition valve.
Step Seven: Before storing lighters or putting them away for an extended period of time, be sure to purge them of the butane inside them using Step One above.
To Light Your Butane Torch Lighter
- Push down slowly on the ignition button. Pushing slowly ensures that the gas is being released before the spark ignites, which creates the flame. Please keep in mind that the flame burns VERY HOT, often over 2000 degrees and is also often difficult to see in bright light. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!!
- Everyone knows someone in high school or college who burned Bic lighter tops on their friends bodies. DO NOT TRY THIS WITH A BUTANE TORCH
- Using your lighter for several short bursts of flame is preferred over one long flame as the heat may cause harm to the user or even the lighter itself.
- Simply letting go of the ignition button should cut off the flow of butane to your lighter, extinguishing the flame.
- Should your flame continue after you have released the ignition button, your flame adjustment setting needs to be lowered slightly.
- As I mentioned before, PREMIUM refined fuel is essential to the good care and feeding of your butane torch lighter. But for you high-altitude folks, this is even more important. Low quality fuel can clog your lighter and cause it to become unreliable.
- High-altitude folks should keep their fuel tank as full as possible, refilling often.
- Allowing your lighter to warm up to room temperature after refilling is very important.
- Turn your adjustment wheel to a lower setting in high-altitude situations to compensate for the lower level of oxygen in the combustion chamber.
- Slow down considerably when lighting your lighter. The gas, spark, and flame process here is an important one.
- To prevent your lighter from freezing, keep it in a pocket against your body, or in the inside pocket of your coat or jacket.
- There are also some lighters that are made specifically for our friends who live at high altitudes like the Xikar Stratosphere High Altitude Lighter.
Extinguishing Your Flame
Special Considerations for Our High Altitude Friends
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