Lighters

[Morgan101]

Every fire kit I make I include a lighter; sometimes a mini; sometimes regular size depending on the kit. I have several Zippo lighters. One I carry with me all the time. I also have several butane lighters, which friends affectionately call "The Torch". These are usually used when we know we will be outside, and plan to smoke cigars.

My experience is that Bic lighters seem to be the best to keep stored for long periods of time. I will periodically check all my bags and fire kits. The Bic lighters always work. I have some Scripto lighters, but they are suspect. About 50% of them fail, even though you can see they still have fluid. My recommendation would be Bic, and I would not use the other brands. Do any of you include lighters in your fire kits?

 

[Meerkat]

Good idea Morgan.

 

[Caribou]

I found a package of 50 Bic lighters on sale at Amazon a year or two back. Every vehicle and every emergency kit gets one or two.

 

[Sparky_D]

I quit smoking 12 years ago and used Bic lighters exclusively.

I bought some Scripto lighters for preps about 4 years ago (were on sale).

My 12 year old Bic still works.

3 out of the 5 Scripto's had leaked their butane without ever being used.



I've junked the cheap lighters and replaced them with Bic's.

 

[Sentry18]

I have a couple of these. Got them off Amazon and they were around $8-9. They are rechargeable "plasma" lighters. They do the trick and are easily charged up with a small solar panel or crank charger. Otherwise I am all about the waterproof matches.

 

[Meerkat]

We have plenty of both,but more Scripto since for years the place we buy cig.s give a free lighter per caton. use to give Bic but past few years ago but always Scripto now.
We also have Bic lighters we stored for years now.

 

[Morgan101]

I have a couple of these. Got them off Amazon and they were around $8-9. They are rechargeable "plasma" lighters. They do the trick and are easily charged up with a small solar panel or crank charger. Otherwise I am all about the waterproof matches.


View attachment 37573

I got one for Christmas, and it was defective. Would not take a charge. Very disappointing. I am sticking with something I can refill or replace easily.

 

[Sentry18]

I got one for Christmas, and it was defective. Would not take a charge. Very disappointing. I am sticking with something I can refill or replace easily.

Hence that metric ton of fireproof matches. They never leak and their batteries never die.

 

[Peanut]

I keep Bic lighters in my kits along with water proof matches. 2 is 1... one it none. My fire kits consists of two small redundant mylar bags, vacuum sealed. Both contain bics/matches with various tinders and magnesium. Both are sealed again in a larger mylar bag. This slightly larger mylar can be zip sealed and reused. I always have a couple of extra bics in other small contains inside... say a bob.

Bics seem to be the most reliable. I've tried other cheap lighters, they fail. The fuel eventually dries out in zippos. Bic's are my go to.

 

[Meerkat]

I keep Bic lighters in my kits along with water proof matches. 2 is 1... one it none. My fire kits consists of two small redundant mylar bags, vacuum sealed. Both contain bics/matches with various tinders and magnesium. Both are sealed again in a larger mylar bag. This slightly larger mylar can be zip sealed and reused. I always have a couple of extra bics in other small contains inside... say a bob.

Bics seem to be the most reliable. I've tried other cheap lighters, they fail. The fuel eventually dries out in zippos. Bic's are my go to.

We also have a few old Storm King ligters but nto sure how long the lighter fluid last?

 

[Bacpacker]

I use Bic's for all my lits. I have a zippo, but seems like everytime I need it it needs fuel.
All my kits get a lighter, some type of flint/steel, or magnesium/striker set up. Also keep fuel tabs in the kits. half a dozen of those each. They'll burn 5-10 minutes each, more than enough to get some tinder going, or a bag of cotton balls soaked in vaseline.

 

[Sentry18]

I use Bic's for all my lits. I have a zippo, but seems like everytime I need it it needs fuel.
All my kits get a lighter, some type of flint/steel, or magnesium/striker set up. Also keep fuel tabs in the kits. half a dozen of those each. They'll burn 5-10 minutes each, more than enough to get some tinder going, or a bag of cotton balls soaked in vaseline.

I also use flint and steel, only instead of Vaseline coated cotton balls I use a mixture of dryer lint balls placed into cardboard egg cartons then filled with paraffin wax.

 

[Bacpacker]

That works well too.

 

[Weedygarden]

Every fire kit I make I include a lighter; sometimes a mini; sometimes regular size depending on the kit. I have several Zippo lighters. One I carry with me all the time. I also have several butane lighters, which friends affectionately call "The Torch". These are usually used when we know we will be outside, and plan to smoke cigars.

My experience is that Bic lighters seem to be the best to keep stored for long periods of time. I will periodically check all my bags and fire kits. The Bic lighters always work. I have some Scripto lighters, but they are suspect. About 50% of them fail, even though you can see they still have fluid. My recommendation would be Bic, and I would not use the other brands. Do any of you include lighters in your fire kits?

Good thread, @Morgan101 ! One of the things I did many years ago was to put one of the candles in a jar in every room in my house with a book of matches and a lighter in the top. I too keep lighters in many locations. I did notice that the lighters I bought for starting the grill woudn't light after overwintering in the junk drawer in my kitchen. I think they are several years old and checking out older lighters to make sure they are still working is something to do periodically.

 

[Spikedriver]

I only use lighters with the adjustable flame. Not that Bic lighters suck, but I've never had an issue with the cheaper kind, other than they do crack easier. I like being able to make a bigger flame with more heat than a Bic cig lighter. My favorite is a Bic grill lighter though. I always take one camping. And I keep a cig lighter (or 2 or 3) in every vehicle.

+1 on the Vaseline/cotton ball combo and the dryer lint. Dryer lint tends to burn only on the surface so be sure to break it up and spread it out in the tinder bundle.

 

[kd4ulw]

I have a lot of the Bic style disposable lighters but I also have some different ones.

This is an Austrian made IMCO Super Triplex popular during World War II. This one’s about 20 years old.

This emergency lighter has a rubber O-ring so the lighter fluid lasts a while when not in use.

 

[SeventiesWreckers]

Since Murphy's Law seems to follow me around like I owe it money, I practice radial redundancy. At the center is my old Optimus 80 stove, which uses Coleman white gas, and also burns fine in my Zippo's, which are my basic carry lighter. I store extra flints, & wicks in the cotton packing inside the lighters themselves, and pack an old Hoppes bottle full of fuel in the case that I can't get back to my big can. Zippos fully fueled last about 4-5 days for me, but that can vary somewhat person to person usage, & seasonal heat.

Since Zippos don't tolerate being fueled & stored, I also pack away Bics, and wooden kitchen matches in waterproof containers. I also stock & carry Heat Tabs, or Military Trioxane. It stores for decades in airtight foil packs, and if everything is too soaked to burn, you can quickly make a stove from a tuna can, and have a hot fire boiling your tea, & also drying out wood you surround it with, so you can have a proper fire without much bother.

I do like the little plastic lighters, but quality control isn't what it used to be, & when they quit on you, they're useless. If I have to resort to digging out my flint & steel, it's been a really bad day.

 

[backlash]

I have a couple of Zippo lighters. They are about 45 years old and they still work if I put fluid in them. I haven't used one for 40 years. It seemed like they always leaked fluid and made my leg red and sore.
I have a weed burner that connects to a propane tank. I can start a fire with it even in a rainstorm. Not very practical to carry but for home use it works great.
When I worked at the airport there were so many lighters confiscated they became a problem and the TSA had to ship them off the airport grounds. In Honolulu the TSA had so many lighters the fire marshal made them get a fireproof cabinet to store them in and they were only allowed to have 1000 lighters on-site at one time. The problem in Hawaii was Japanese tourists. At the time Japan allowed lighters to be carried through security and the TSA would confiscate them when they flew back to Japan.

 

[hiwall]

Am I the only one who includes a small magnifier in their kits? They are good fire starters that never wear out. Also handy if you get a sliver when gathering your wood.

 

[Bacpacker]

Nope, couple of my bags I have a small freznel lens. And yep they work well

 

[Weedygarden]

I also have a steel fire starter. I have never really tried to start a fire with it, to see if I could start a fire. I am aware that using a fire starter is not necessarily easy to start a fire with.

I also have fireproof matches in a water tight container.

I have tried to collect a bunch of lighters, but they are something I give to people at Christmas in stockings. One year, a friend at our Christmas gathering said that the Christmas stocking were full of preparedness items. Yep, they were: lighters, jerky, pistachios, tooth brushes, dental floss, chocolate. I keep bins of these kinds of things and raid them for stockings.

I made a bunch of fire starters a few years ago using shredded paper from my paper shredder. I put a wick in 3 ounce paper cups and then filled the cups with shredded paper. Then I melted wax and filled up the cups. I made quite a few of them, but I should make a bunch more of them.

 

[Sentry18]

Am I the only one who includes a small magnifier in their kits? They are good fire starters that never wear out. Also handy if you get a sliver when gathering your wood.

I don't have a lens. But I do have steel wool and 9 volt batteries in my survival bag. Something my son learned in a science experiment and then wanted in the bag.

 

[joel]

All my kits have a steel blade, a stone.
Bic lighter
Lip Balm for tender & 20 other things
old credit card
Birth day candle
matches & cotton balls.
Some have a cheap HF striker & steel
It is over kill, but it was fun making the kits.

 

[Supervisor42]

I never understood the fascination with the magnesium strip.

I've pulled a runaway Bic lighter out of a box of stuff that I know had been stored for more than 10 years.
It worked the first spin. I used it 19 times daily for over a month before it ran out of gas.
Suppose I had 2.
Drop one in an empty prescription pill bottle, and presto! it's water-proof.
Like everyone else, I only use Bic lighters.
If you're a smoker and your lighter craps out, it's bad

.
(We do the research so you don't have to

).

 

[ssonb]

I am in the second round of testing with a pair of Zippos. Like everyone else if kept fuled the Zippo will always work, but you have to fuel every five days.
I read about how some special forces take a bicycle innertube and cut an inch wide section and slide it over the lighter to seal the case.
In the first test the lighters were fueled then a "ranger band" was used one lighter was left in a temp controlled area the other left more exposed ,once a week I would slide down the band and strike the lighters, after eight weeks they still worked.
I refuled one and am going to carry it around to see how long this will work !
This Ranger band seems to have multiple benefits one is sealing in the fuel, sealing out moisture ,keeping the lighter from sliding out of your pocket and silencing the metal against rattles against objects in the pocket.

 

[Supervisor42]

I am in the second round of testing with a pair of Zippos. Like everyone else if kept fuled the Zippo will always work, but you have to fuel every five days.
I read about how some special forces take a bicycle innertube and cut an inch wide section and slide it over the lighter to seal the case.
In the first test the lighters were fueled then a "ranger band" was used one lighter was left in a temp controlled area the other left more exposed ,once a week I would slide down the band and strike the lighters, after eight weeks they still worked.
I refuled one and am going to carry it around to see how long this will work !
This Ranger band seems to have multiple benefits one is sealing in the fuel, sealing out moisture ,keeping the lighter from sliding out of your pocket and silencing the metal against rattles against objects in the pocket.

Zippos are great, except for storage.
Lighter-fluid evaporates/dries-out.
Butane, under pressure in a sealed container (like a Bic does not go away).
I love a good Zippo for lighting-up, but it ain't 1974 nomore.

 

[SheepDog]

Zippo lighters are great and you can buy a gallon of naptha at the hardware store to fuel them. Keeping an extra wick and containers of flints will keep it working for years.

 

[Just Cliff]

I also use one of these over a fire steel in my fire kits.It's a Coleman igniter. They work very well and last a very long time and put out a heck of a spark. Use with char cloth.

 

[joel]

Just Cliff, how is it going?
That works like my trouch lighter, for welding.
I have some replacment tips for the troch Striker.

 

[backlash]

I also use one of these over a fire steel in my fire kits.It's a Coleman igniter. They work very well and last a very long time and put out a heck of a spark. Use with char cloth.View attachment 37687

I have those on all my lanterns. If you don't slide them back out of the lantern after you light it and do it later you will burn your finger. I speak from experience.
I read that the Zippo lighters were popular in WW2 because the GIs could just dunk the cotton in anything flammable and they were good to go. Not sure if that's true or not but it sounded good.
The best thing about Zippos is they are guaranteed for life. Just send it back and they will make it like new. Military lighters get special attention.