Cleaning your lighters/lighter care

Well today i tried to spark up the second of the four monticristo petite edmundos i got to see if my first thoughts and extreme dislike towards these was justified.....it is.

But the sheer crapness of these compared to the regular edmundos isnt the problem my lighters are for a while now they have been cutting out every few seconds which makes toasting kinda hard and now they refuse to refill completely.

So im asking you guys whats the best way to clean a jet flame lighter and whats the best gas to use as well as atm im just using regular old swan.

And just in case if all els fails anyone got any recommendation on some good double or triple jetflames as a replacement.

[Bill86]

This has happened to a few of my lighters. Vector, Xikar, Lucienne, Dunhill are all fine butanes. Never had a problem with them. Vector seems to be the most popular choice for premium butane.

As for cleaning the lighter, I take the lighter bleed it out and blow it out with an air compressor. Then load it up with a good butane. Seems to work for me.

[dwoodward]

If you can't get it working, I have been using the Black Ops Alpha lighter lately.

It's a nice Dual Flame torch.

http://www.cigarsinternational.com/p...LTR-A-A&cat=13

[OLS]

Like Bill said, people are often surprised to find that they can bring back performance
simply by taking a little screwdriver and pressing in on the gas valve and let it fart out
any air it has inside. Obviously don't do that after filling it, it will shoot out all your gas.
But you should bleed the air out of it when you run out of fuel. And maybe right now,
from the sound of it.

[CigarNut]

You can get some canned compressed air -- most places that sell or service computers sell it -- and use it to blow out the jets. Works great.

I found this on Amazon for $6.74 plus shipping:

[dave]

Lighter maintenance isn't really that hard. Granted, some lighters just suck. But, I've had very good luck with a wide range of lighters by:

1. I use Xikar butane. One large can has lasted me years - mostly using dual and triple torch for 10+ cigars per week.

2. Purge as OLS described - screwdriver, toothpick, key, etc....I don't do it every time I fill, but every 2-3 times.

3. Compressed air to clean the jets, as CigarNut mentioned. Won't take long before you can recognize when to do this -a little sputtering or ****-eyed flame, or.....anytime you know there's gas and you can see it sparking but the lighter isn't quite right

[BlindedByScience]

Another vote for the purge / compressed air maintenance.

I purge my lighters every time I fill them; only takes a couple seconds. They visit the air compressor in the garage every couple of months or so for a blow out with air. Many lighters use little pressed on plastic tubing inside them, so don't get too close to them with 100 psi.... Just enough to blow the ash and crap out of the jets....though, with good fuel, there isn't much if any.

I've been using King Butane (Googles right up) for some time and am completely happy with it. Very reasonably priced, and very, very clean. Stick with good fuel and purge before filling. Most problems are solved by this simple procedure.

[dave]

Guess you can't write c0ck-eyed.....oops.....lol

[Silound]

The cut-out problem can often happen from residue building up on the burners inside the lighter. No butane is perfectly clean, all of them will leave residue behind after a while. The sticky, oily residue traps particles of god-knows-what and forms a nice brown gunk that clogs jets and screens fast.

Blowing out the jets will often dislodge enough of the gunk to allow proper passage of fuel, but sometimes it doesn't do enough. Personally, I disassemble mine and clean out the jets using isopropyl alcohol when they gum up real bad. It's a painfully slow and tedious process (talk about lots of little things to lose), but I've got all sorts of lighters that are still working after 5 years.

I would not recommend that for anyone to try though, there's enough things you can lose or damage to ruin a perfectly good lighter. I'd take it to your local B&M or send it back to the manufacturer for cleaning.

I took your advice and went the compressed air approach gave it a good spraying and inserted a fine piece of wire down the jets and the refill value and now it works fine.

Thanks for the help.

[moosie]

For help with your Blazers.I had a real good experience with my Blazer PB-207. Check out blazerlighters.com. For repair . I have no connection what so ever just learned about him through a friend.

[RichardW]

Originally Posted by Reaver2145

Well today i tried to spark up the second of the four monticristo petite edmundos i got to see if my first thoughts and extreme dislike towards these was justified.....it is.

But the sheer crapness of these compared to the regular edmundos isnt the problem my lighters are for a while now they have been cutting out every few seconds which makes toasting kinda hard and now they refuse to refill completely.

[snip]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but what the heck? It' been a while since I've had a MPE, but that is a great cigar (IMHO)

As to Blazer repair, David Robinson (blazerlighters.com) is a great resource !! I've used him for years.

[CigarNut]

I too like the MPEs but apparently the OP does not. That's what makes everything so interesting.

[shopkins82]

I started noticing my Ronson Jetlites becoming less reliable after I removed the adjustment restriction washer and dialed up the flame length. At first I thought I was just going through more fuel and started refilling more oftend, but I noticed more and more puff-outs and mis-lights even with a known full tank. Instead of going out to the garage and pulling out the air compressor, I just gave them a few good blasts of butane right in the jet nozzle. This caused a bit of puff-out on the first couple of strikes afterward (I assume burning off the clean butane that dislodged the gunk) but after that they were back to new.