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 post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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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
Ooh, have a link so I can see what it looks like?
I've been using the metal ones for years, but only recently found a way to clean them. I hold them with pliers and use a small blowtorch (the same one I use for heating resins.) It burns up the residue surprisingly quickly. It does make a bit of a smell, and since the metal gets super hot I'd recommend doing it over a sink for safety, but hey, it works.
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!
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
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.
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?
Are you me? I just noticed your pants have a wear rip where my pants usually have a wear rip. Also the dashboard background looks awfully familiar.
😂🤣
Wash the car and have a bath all at once haha
I tried one and I could not deal with it because it created a high pitched buzz which only me and cats seemed to be able to hear. Glad to know I am not the only one to dislike them.
Oh, I definitely hear that sound too, I'm pretty sure many people do. It doesn't bother me though, its only like 3 to 5 seconds, not like the sound is on repeat.
Now as far as your cats... 😺
How does it not make you want to drop it when screams at you like that?
It's not even loud yo. Are your ears okay?
I'm no medical expert, but I've had hypersensitive hearing before.
You might wanna check in with an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doctor if you can..
You might actually be on to something. My one side of the family has sensitive hearing and I do hear pretty well up to 18±0.5kHz. Aside from loud places it's rarely an issue though.
I am made of stronger stuff than the unpleasant wine my 10 gram plastic lighter makes
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
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.
Do people not clean them? My cheapo Chinese one has lasted 5 years and all I've done is wipe with with a paper towel every now and then.
The instructions for these things literally say to not ever clean them. Well, I'm not exactly one to follow all instructions.
I end up fully disassembling mine every couple or few weeks, to thoroughly clean the ceramic insulator and electrodes with rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, and even a toothbrush.
Note: Remove the ceramic insulator from the device before attempting to clean it this way, as practically everyone should know already, rubbing alcohol is flammable..
Better yet, just have an experienced electronics tech do it for you if you're not 100% sure how to fully clean it yourself.
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.
I have personally used an electric lighter for several years primarily for starting campfires. It's definitely less convenient than a traditional lighter but totally works and doesn't need any lighter fluid. I don't personally feel comfortable carrying flammable fuels in my backpack, so electric was a good choice for me
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.
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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.
Meh, aside from cigarettes and such, they can also be useful survival equipment tools, if you got a pack of toothpicks or even just some thin dry twigs available. Easy rechargeable fire starter ya know..
But yeah, I've had nothing but a pain in the ass with this thing, I've had to disassemble it to clean it every couple weeks or so, and have also had to replace 2 electrodes and resolder the lid safety switch twice and the charger port once.
I've probably serviced this thing like ~40 times since I got it. You'll know you got a problem when the lid safety switch gets too much crud in it and gets stuck in the ON position, and the damn thing starts lighting up on its own in your pocket.. 💀
I modified mine to where if that should ever happen again, I can literally snatch it apart and snatch the battery out in less than 2 seconds without tools.
You can use it to light kindling for a campfire
For bongs, may i recommend hemp wick
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.
You know what else isn't consumable? A credit card sized Freznel Lens magnifier, I keep one in my wallet, and they're stupid cheap by the dozen..
Yeah, if there's a need to start a fire, I'll find a way... 🔥
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."
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But, and hear me out here, it's also wicked cool.
Ours is more stick-shaped though, and really only good for candle wicks. If we smoked, you might be able to get a cigarette into the arc. It'd probably also work well if your grill's or gas stove's spark igniter was broken.
My mom got a 4-pack of some of these that look kinda like long kitchen lighters. She gave me one, and I've used it a few times for lighting my bowls when I smoke, but you can't beat an actual flame. The arc on those things isn't big enough so you have to put it right on there. We still have them, but we use them for candles.
That's cool.
According to some other comments here, others tell me those sort of long electric arc lighters tend to last a lot longer, when used for lighting candles or gas stoves or such.
But using arc lighters for cigarettes or weed, it'll likely start acting up within a couple months or less..
At least I know how to service mine, but that's not for the inexperienced or the faint of heart.
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Pretty close, had one for a brief while, mostly used for incense till something got screwy and apparently connected the electrode to the casing to zap the hell out of me.
EXACTLY!
Some folks have better, longer lasting luck out of these things, others don't, but yeah you totally get that these things can (and often will) eventually short out, one way or another.
I happen to have enough electronics knowledge and experience to keep mine properly cleaned and maintained, but I don't think that 99% of people would even be able to do that, at least not safely..
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