Zippo Lighter Fuel Versus Ronson

[Briar Lee]

When I was a kid, Zippo didn’t market lighter fuel I ever saw, but Red Devil was the cheap stuff and Ronson the top shelf. A Storm King cost a dollar and Red Devil fluid was a quarter. Every truck stop sold them. A genuine Zippo was three dollars and Ronson fuel was 35 cents. Those sold at drug stores.

I haven’t seen a can of Red Devil or a Storm King lighter either one for about forty years. They worked, but a Zippo and Ronson fuel was the deluxe way to light smokes.

Zippo bought out Ronson, and markets only Zippo liquid fuel lighters (years ago Ronson sold one called a Typhoon) and your choice of Zippo and Ronson liquid fuel.

I just dropped a 12 ounce plastic can of Ronson fuel and it broke and sprayed all over my office kitchen. No more plastic lighter fuel cans for me. Zippo uses a metal can for Zippo fuel.

I have no preference for Zippo or Ronson fuel except a metal can is more idiot proof, and I need all the help I can get in that department.

But does anyone prefer Zippo or Ronson fuel, for other reasons?

Worse fools than me used to use gasoline years ago.

I can afford the best lighter fuel, as little as it takes.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I have both, been using the Zippo lately, not noticed any difference. I'm guessing (only guessing) they are the same fluid now. I have yet to see a definitive answer on the two being identical and I don't claim to know, lol, but that seems to be a reasonable assumption!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

But does anyone prefer Zippo or Ronson fuel, for other reasons?

No, I've never noticed a difference.

 

[scout19d3]

I have one of each on the shelf at the moment. One was at home and the other came home during a motorcycle trip. I can't tell the difference in function.
I'm pretty sure I picked up the Ronson because it was plastic and I thought it would be safer banging around in my GoldWing's storage. Now you have me wondering if the metal Zippo would be better

 

[burleybreath]

Worse fools than me used to use gasoline years ago.

Like WWII fighter pilots using avgas?

When I was a kid, Zippo didn’t market lighter fuel I ever saw, but Red Devil was the cheap stuff and Ronson the top shelf.

I'm old enough to remember that too. The Ronson fluid had something in it that actually smelled good, a very distinctive scent that outclassed the others. It was near being exotic, actually. I wrote the company years ago to ask why it no longer smelled that way, and was surprised that some q.c. guy actually knew what I was talking about and wrote back. It had something added to it that made it attractive to some of our least intelligent human spawn, and they were using it to get a buzz goin' in their empty skulls. So the gubbermint stepped in and outlawed it, doing what it does best: ban, make mandatory, take, and destroy. Wish I could find the letter.

 

[ray47]

I found that Ronson lighter fluid caused the striking wheel on my Zippo to become dirtier compared to the Zippo lighter fluid.

 

[captpat]

I prefer the stuff in the metal can, that’s a preference from the days when the plastic can stuff was inferior.

 

[crusader]

Like WWII fighter pilots using avgas?

Ha! I once upon a time worked in aviation and we filled our Zippos with avgas. A lil lead never hurt nobody except for California's

 

[bullet08]

Ronson was my choice for the longest. Now I use Zippo only because I can get it at REI down the road. If I can get my hand on large plastic bottle of Ronson at local drugstore, I'll probably get that.

 

[burleybreath]

It's all just naptha, or "white gas," isn't it? In which case, one could buy it by the gallon for less than twenty bucks U.S.