I've found fancier lighters, intriguingly beautiful lighters, and such over the years. But, for dependability? Regular Zippos with standard chimney, Bics and matches work best for me.
I think I’m done with Zippo Butane Pipe Insert
- Thread starter AreBee
- Start date
SmokingPipes.com Updates
Watch for Updates Twice a Week
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
Site Sponsors
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor
It took
It took a little practice to keep from scorching my thumb and I wish the flame was adjustable, but it does work. If you're using the liquid fuel lighter, a useful tip I learned on here is to coat the sides of the insert with Vaseline. I found that doubled the time before needing a refill.
So I should get the soft flame insert. The length of the flame seems ideal to me. If I smoked more consistently through the day the liquid fuel would be perfect.
I’ll have to try that. I have a Zippo with a pipe insert thats on a lanyard that I have attached to my upland hunting vest that I love. However the fuel doesn’t last very long even though between days afield when I wrap it in plastic wrap.
yes you are,mine thunderbird ,s hardly lasted 14 weeks.
The first one the spring on the gas on/off lever broke and the second one the valve stopped sealing after a refill
I just got mine and installed it.
If there was a demand for zillions of these a year they could and would be made in Bradford Pennsylvania.
Zippo has to profitably sell a few of these for maybe $25 each.
The miracle is the Chinese can make them.
They aren’t hand made one at a time at a bench.
These only cost $10, also imported by Zippo.
They work like a hammer.
If you want one, now’s the time to stick up.
If there was a demand for zillions of these a year they could and would be made in Bradford Pennsylvania.
Zippo has to profitably sell a few of these for maybe $25 each.
The miracle is the Chinese can make them.
They aren’t hand made one at a time at a bench.
These only cost $10, also imported by Zippo.
They work like a hammer.
If you want one, now’s the time to stick up.
"work like a hammer."
Reminds me of a story from a long while back about a guy who rode his Harley into the shop, and commented that it was running "a little rough." Turns out, one of the piston heads had a hole through it the size of a quarter. The guy telling the story came to the conclusion that "Harleys are built like a dinosaur."
Reminds me of a story from a long while back about a guy who rode his Harley into the shop, and commented that it was running "a little rough." Turns out, one of the piston heads had a hole through it the size of a quarter. The guy telling the story came to the conclusion that "Harleys are built like a dinosaur."
When I was in college fifty years ago it perplexed me how my economics professor taught us how companies like Zippo have a monopoly on their products.
The examples he gave were Tabasco, or McDonald’s, or Pizza Hut.
The more you think about, he was right.
Google helps us understand why:
—-
Zippo produces between 12 and 15 millionlighters per year. They have produced over 650 million lighters in total, according to 6abc Philadelphia. The company can produce as many as 75,000 lighters per day.
——
I just bought a genuine Zippo for ten bucks, the street chrome model.
Ten dollars might buy lunch at McDonald’s or Pizza Hut or a geniune Zippo.
The raw materials and even the labor to make a Zippo is neglible wherever on earth it’s made.
You might make hamburgers or pepper sauce or pizza or a wick lighter but you’ll never beat the originals in profits.
They keep the price low enough to eliminate competitors from entry, and a competitor can’t legally make the product.
The value is the brand name.
For every one of those inserts Zippo sells, they sell a lighter to the same customer who’ll use the case.
Last edited:
Untrue
Zippo exploited a patent loophole by copying Nimrod's design and beat the original.
Don't need Google. I've worked for enough automotive manufacturers to know that outsourcing jobs is more profitable to a company.
Ronson made Typhoon lighters and Storm King made dollar aluminum Zippos for years.
I still have a Windi II Ronson someplace.
But a Zippo was always like the bottle of Tabasco on the table at the truck stops
The wanna bees had to be a cheaper substitute
One night in 1975 after I’d hit a big lick on a hay hauling contract I bought four Zippos at a truck stop for me and my three guys on my hay crew. I think they were three dollars each, a little more than their meals.
There’s only one Zippo
Made in Bradford PA
Cling sound when it opens
It works or they fix it free
They don’t even need to advertise it
Appears so.
Zippo designed that gadget I guarantee.
Slick as slick gets.
Perfectly sized to hold spare flints under the insert
Lights first time you spin the wheel
One hole makes it about as windproof as a butane lighter gets.
I can run it with my left hand.
A left handed man would naturally be better at that than me.
Zippo makes 75,000 lighters a day at Bradford.
Some factory in China might make 750 of those.
They even have a two year Zippo guarantee.
It depends on the product.
America has a most wonderful problem among all nations. Most of the rest of them want to move here, but can’t afford to.
If you make Bic lighters in Shelton Connecticut (imagine any place more high tax and regulated and do gooders on every street corner than Connecticut) the $30 an hour employee will show up glad to work, he’s educated, and he doesn’t live in a shit hole. That $30 an hour employee watches a machine make maybe 30,000 lighters an hour, box them all up, and send them down a line.
My wife bought a box of those when she smoked.
BIC (a French company) has a monopoly on genuine BIC lighters.
Try making a better lighter for a dollar.
There’s a $2 BIC for sale right beside yours.
I don’t smoke cannabis (I’m too old to aquire new bad habits) but if you do, then some of the best cannabis is grown at my old hometown of Humansville Missouri.
But, they require an agronomy degree to earn the $25 an hour starting pay they offer, and Humansville looks like Berlin after the war, so the workers commute from nice towns like Bolivar.
What’s wrong with American manufacturing is there’s no profit in trying to hire uneducated cheap labor here.
We can’t underpay the Chinese.
Last edited:
Arebee, certainly a wise choice on your part given your experience. I've never been a great fan of the pipe chimney in any form. I've found Zippo, with the regular chimney, meets all of my needs. The same with matches and Bics.
I have two Zippo butane inserts. Both work well and I find them to be much preferred to the Zippo fluid inserts. The button doesn't bother me and I have yet to burn my thumb. I have large hands and have burnt my thumb on bics plenty of times haha
I’ve lost all count of my real Zippos.
While Zippo imports the two Ronson butane lighters, the Jet Lite and UX2 pipe lighter, and at least three butane inserts for real Zippos, every butane lighter always will have these problems a real Zippo won’t.
Over 5,000 feet in altitude they don’t work well
They aren’t as wind proof
They don’t work below freezing
The filling system and outlet are complex, prone to clog and fail
At my age I have all this weather proof gear but it’s more weather proof than I am.
Yes. With the Zippo brand hardest to press the button with your finger, so unless you’re a contortionist, not good for lefties. Z plus would be easiest to depress with your finger.
i have a Zippo brand butane, and the criticisms are true, but you can make it work fine. Should have a bigger easier button tho. I did burn myself in the wind last week, but I’ve done that too with a bic when windy.
Mine is going strong after 1.5 yrs and I use it mostly. Z Plus insert is the best operating, but probably won’t last too long.