I’ve had this one for a little over 2 years, but I suspect it wouldn’t last the average person 2 months before it outright fails and they just throw it away.
Why? Well, electronics don’t exactly like smoke of any form, whether it be nicotine, weed, wood, paper, etc. But that’s exactly what these lighters do, literally light things on fire, which of course generates smoke and dirties the electrodes, up until the point they start shorting out, if not other issues first.
I happen to be an electronics technician that knows how to safely disassemble, service and clean this thing occasionally, but its highly suggested that nobody ever try to service them, as they generate thousands of volts for the electric arc, which absolutely will burn the piss out of your fingers, if not worse.
I’m actually glad to have it, it was a cheap late Christmas gift from my mom back in January 2024, but I figure basically 99% of average consumers would end up having issues with it and throwing it away within ~2 months or less.
Sigh, e-waste…
This isn’t a shower thought. You’re clearly in your car!
LMFAO!
I left the car window open through the car wash, does that count?
I went on a date with a guy who used these. Problem is, I use a metal mesh filter on my piece. When he went to light my pipe, the metal reacted to the electric charge and popped out, scattering burning weed around the floor.
Yeah, no, I’ll stick to regular lighters, thanks.
I used to use those mesh ones but now I get a little glass honeycomb. Way better and I think I got like 20 for $4 a few years ago and still using them. If you’re careful theylast a while and can be cleaned
Oof ⚡
Yeah I hear you there, even without a metal mesh screen, they’re not all that great for lighting pipes or bongs, that’s still best left to a good old trusty Bic lighter.
I work in a teaching lab and we use candle lighter versions of these for students to light their Bunsen burners. They’re pretty reliable for that purpose. Way better than the flint and steel strikers that my previous position used.
Cool cool, and makes sense really.
According to a number of other comments, when such lighters are used in cleaner settings, they last a lot longer. But when used to light a pack of cigarettes a day, well the lighter gets dirty much more quickly and eventually starts shorting out.
Yes, bad habit, I know…
I’m going add another anecdote to the rest. I have one of the long versions that we use for lighting candles. We’ve had it for seven years. Still works great.
Edit: I checked and it’s actually been nine years since we bought it.
I’ve been using my cheap $5 electric candle lighter for like 5 years now. It’s saved probably 10 butane candle lighters from the trash.
The butane ones are refillable though
Except for the ones that aren’t.
I’ve never seen one that isn’t, that just sounds depressing.
Yay Dollar Tree! … ☹️
Yeah though, even the refillable ones have their faults. The clicker spark button igniter thing tends to end up breaking all on its own within around ~10 refill cycles, at least in my experience.
I’m all about renewable and reusable tech, and I’m actually happy to have this lighter as long as I can keep it lasting, but sadly nothing lasts forever…
I love my little electric lighter, I consider it a clean upgrade. But for about ten years I’ve had the same metal clipper lighter (butane, refillable) and just replaced the flint again so it feels fresh.
Flint is actually more reliable in the long run than those electric clicker things, so yeah that’s awesome actually 👍
I used to have an adjustable one but they stopped making them that way I guess
I appreciate yyour perspective, but my experience has been better. I have used mine for 4 years now and it appears to be going strong. im not sure how many plastic disposables it has saved, but i would guess several. Lithium ion batteries are highly recyclable- if they made it so that you could swap the battery, i think it could be an improvement over disposable lighters. of course, you could say the same thing about refillable butane lighters.
This makes me wonder if you could have one with a capacitor and a fly wheel or something and maybe even work somewhat like a self winding watch.
That’s actually cool as fuck though. I don’t smoke, so I don’t have that kind of lighter. But that X in the middle really makes it look like it’s from the future!
I’ve had one of these for years and it hasn’t failed. But it also isn’t exactly useful for lighting anything but a cigarette due to how the electrodes actually are placed and function. It doesn’t work very well trying to smoke weed from a pipe/bong and I am skeptical how I might use it to start a campfire even though it’s supposed to be a camping tool.
Heh, yeah I got one of those lightsaber lighters for Christmas since the stove always has one burner that doesn’t want to light and I’m tired of fucking with the sparker. Tried a pipe once and am still regrowing my mustache.
My sister uses a variation of this closer to a traditional lighter with a long neck to light her candles. It’s rechargeable, and she’s been using the same one for over a decade.
Lol, the idea what a battery powered device is a camping to for starting fires is just funny to me. Of all the ways we have to start fires one that requires a battery is the last thing I’m wasting weight and space on when camping.
Makes it a helluva lot easier to “refuel” it when you have a car and can just plug it in as opposed to a disposable BIC or a zippo. It also keeps a charge for a very long time. And it’s faster than rubbing sticks together.
Flint and steel… Matches… No battery required.
Those are also comsumable and need to be replaced when you run out of matches or wear away all the flint, which costs more money than charging a battery.
My concern isn’t money, it’s the reliability. If you store those things correctly they will always light. If you store a batter powered device correctly, no matter what it must be recharged even if it hasn’t been used. I don’t want to have to think about whether I charged my firestarter. The checklist is long enough when you are going camping. It’s just one more thing to forget.
Leave it in your car attached to a 5V1A solar panel so it neither loses charge nor explodes.
Yes, I’ll just build an entire infrastructure to support a gas station lighter that only exists because “if you’re dumb enough to buy cigarettes you’ll probably buy this gimmick.”
Thousands of volts? Really?
Yes, really. Pretty much any time you can visibly see an arc through the air it’s in the thousands of volts range. If you walk around in socks and zap something and you can feel a shock from your fingertips it’s probably 2-3 kV at least, can be up to 15+ kV, but very low current
Plus, the second it hits your skin the voltage drops to basically zero because skin has a high electrical resistivity and the device can’t pump out enough amps to do any real harm.
Bruh, these lighters are quite literally designed for the sole purpose of igniting fires, you think your skin is somehow immune to this? Go ahead and zap yourself once, for even a split second with one of these things, and you’ll instantly get 4 dead burnt spots on your finger.
If you care to test longer, these lighters arc around 1000 times a second, at thousands of volts. And they arc for up to around 7 seconds before automatically shutting off. So if you wanna lose your fingerprint, or perhaps even half your finger, then go ahead and try lighting your finger up like a cigarette, you’ll find out just how flammable human flesh can be when electrocuted.
So, with all due respect, please for the love of fucking God do not ever again try to tell anyone that something is safe when you clearly don’t know a fucking thing about it.
I ought to report you, but I won’t. I expect you to edit your comment and apologize for telling people that electronic arc lighters are supposedly harmless.
THEY ARE NOT HARMLESS, ELECTRIC ARC LIGHTERS CAN AND WILL ELECTROCUTE YOU IN AN INSTANT AND BURN YOUR FLESH TO LITERAL DEATH!!!
Please ignore user village604, they clearly don’t know what they’re talking about when they said electric arc lighters are supposedly harmless.
They are most certainly not harmless, in fact they’re as dangerous, if not more, than a regular lighter.
