Single Torch Butane Insert

Recently acquired this nice 2014 brass Armor case Zippo from a friend's estate. I've carried a Zippo before, but since I don't generally use a lighter much, it was often dry and useless when needed. Also, if you've ever had a recently filled Zippo leak fluid into your jean watch pocket, you know what the painful outcome of that can be. So, I found this cool Zippo brand butane insert. It works great, and provides a nice torch flame. Now I didn't notice that one can also get a version that has an old-school flame rather than the torch. I might have gone for that one, but the torch is fine for general purpose fire starting. And, it'll be perfect for the two or three times a year I enjoy a nice cigar. I do sort of like that the soft-flame version uses a wheel and flint, whereas this one uses piezo ignition (which hopefully lasts longer than the pile of cheap piezo lighters littering my junk drawer). As mentioned in some of the other reviews, there are a couple of quirks to this insert. Like others, I had to mess about a bit getting it to work when I first filled it. It would light for a second, then go out. After doing this a few times, and continuing to push in the butane, it finally accepted a fill and works fine. I think it has to purge out the air or whatever before the reservoir can fill properly. A minor thing to deal with on the initial fill. The other quirk has to do with the Armor case. As others have noted, due to the extra thickness of the case, the lid doesn't "quite" fit flush when closed. You can perhaps see the miniscule gap in my first picture. It's not particularly bothersome, but to those with OCD, it may be a tad off-putting. Picture three shows the bottom of the insert. My plan is to run the bottom of the insert across some reasonable grit sandpaper to get the surrounding edges of the insert down flush with the bottom. We're talking less than half a mm here, so it won't take much. Conclusion: I don't know how long this will last, but being an official Zippo product, I hope for quite a while. It does appear to be well made and well designed, and works well. I recommend this item, and would consider buying more for my other Zippos.

I don't smoke, I just like lighters. I mean, they are useful for other things, starting campfires, on heat shrink tube, etc. I have always liked zippos, but never liked the fact that the liquid fuel evaporates. It goes "somewhere" which means the air you breath, your clothes, your skin. And then, when you need to use the lighter 3 months later - it's dry. Zippos are not really made for occasional use, they are for everyday smokers. So this is a PERFECT solution. Fill it with butane, drop it in the zippo housing, done. Now I have a lighter that is useful for the things I do. I can throw it in a backpack, and it will work 6 months later. I can keep it in my pocket without the smell, and with the knowledge that lighter fluid is going "somewhere." This literally takes 10 seconds to install. It fits perfectly, nice and snug, yet easy enough to remove to refill. It still makes that awesome zippo "Click" sound! The flame is rock solid. Height is adjustable, but only to a point. Below aobut 1/2" high, it won't stay lit, so you have to set it a bit higher than that. But actually the factory setting is just about right anyway, at about 1" high. It lights on the first click almost every time. Very reliable. It does not leak when filling. In a pinch, you can use it "bare" without the case, and should your zippo lid fall off, it is still pretty safe to carry without a lid, since the button requires a fair amount of pressure. In works in any position, upside-down, sideways, with no change in flame height or direction (i.e. flame doesn't go "up" if you hold it sideways). It does not get excessively hot if you use it for a bit longer, like 30 seconds. I guess if you kept it going a long time it would get pretty hot, but you wouldn't normally use it like that. The *only* drawback to this insert is that it won't give you candlelight like an old-school zippo. But I'll just remember to bring a flashlight.

Update: Worked great for almost a year, right up until it was confiscated on my way into a concert venue 🙄🤷 COMPLETE REVIEW and TIPS: Solid heavy feel. Fits zippo lighter case perfectly. Very satisfied with quality feel. Testing the bejesus out of it (at Sea level). I have been using it like a fidget spinner for a month. Ignitor has been very reliable after many clicks. Refilled it 5 or 6 times times now with Zippo brand butane. TIP: place insert in freezer for 20 minutes, will refill more fully. TIP: if left on max power setting, you can judge fuel level via height of the flame. Tall flame = fully fueled, Short flame = low fuel Find that if turned to 60% power or less, won't really work except if freshly refilled, and only for a short time before you have to turn up the power. I usually just keep it on max power so I don't have to turn it up later because the flame height will progressively decrease as the fuel level decreases. The power level screw is tight, I can just barely turn it with my thumbnail, but thumbnail feels at risk of breaking. Easy with screw driver. When it's getting low on fuel, the flame height will be short, and will sputter out if the lighter is being used turned upside down. After sputtering out from being turned upside down, due to low fuel, won't relight even though you still hear a hiss of gas when igniter depressed. Can get it working temporarily after holding down the igniter for maybe 5 seconds to purge some gas for some reason. But it's generally a sign that it needs to be refilled, so I pop it in the freezer for 20 minutes and then refill it while it's cold. Decent total flame time on max power on a fresh refill.

First, let me say I have been a loyal Zippo user for quite some time. I have used - and worn out - any number of Zippos over the years. The classic flint, wheel, fluid style lighter has been in my pocket for a long time. Seemed like, as an acquaintance of mine said, there was always something I had to do with those old classics. I was fiddling, it seemed, with my lighter more often than I wanted to. So, I went in search of something a little less maintenance intensive. Or so I thought. Enter the Zippo butane insert. I thought with a butane insert, built in igniter, fill it, and go. No more dealing with flints or over filled fluid tanks. Right? Not for me. Full disclosure, I did not have "premium" butane on hand when I bought this insert. I'm still not convinced that "premium" butane makes that big a difference on the problems I've had (though, I bought some in my journey with this lighter insert). Out of the box, and after filling with butane for the first time, it worked ... okay. Couldn't get a good flame height out of it, though it was reliable in lighting. Went online, found the "modification" videos out there on this problem and made the mods. Wow. Had to be careful I didn't burn my nose off. Now I'm happy, adjusted the flame just right and burned through my first tank of butane all hunky-dory like. Proud of my fancy Zippo butane lighter. Second fill is when the finicky aspects of this insert began to rear their ugly head. Did my second fill. In my search finding the fix to the flame height issue, I discovered that one must purge the tank of air before filling. No biggie. Purged it. Fill for 3 seconds. Purge. Fill for 3 seconds. Purge. Let sit for a few minutes. Go out back for a smoke. Won't light. I'll get it a flame, which then seems to blow itself out. But no steady flame. Adjust flame height screw lower. Same result. Lights up when I light it with another lighter. But, won't ignite itself. Baffled, I set it aside and used my backup lighter. Next day, on a whim, I pick it up, and lo and behold it worked! Lit first time, and worked fine through a tank of butane. Which lead me to a cycle of going 2 or 3 weeks of perfect performance, and then after a fill the insert being stubborn and not wanting to work. Sometimes, I would get an initial light off which wouldn't last. At some point in this process I did buy "premium" butane after having done every "fix" I could find on the internet. Look, I've made my living over the years off of fixing stuff. Building stuff. It's not like I'm not mechanically inclined. Working with my hands and making stuff work is who I am. Zippo, it shouldn't be this hard. I've had this lighter insert for just over a year. A little over half of the time, it worked just fine. The other half, I had to fiddle with it, re-purge it, set it aside for a day, whatever. What I've found is that every fill cycle I just don't know whether it's going to work or not. I had two, three months of good use after switching to premium butane. Really thought that was the solution. Then, I dropped the lighter. It bounced off a 2x4 on it's way to the ground. And just like that, the problems have returned. It'll light once, and then ... nothing. Set it down, walk away, come back in an hour. It'll light once and then ... nothing. I've adjusted the igniter probe (for lack of a better thing to call it) and got a week's worth of pretty reliable use out of it. Filled it. Now, nothing. Will light if I put another lighter flame to it. But, not on its own. Zippo. It. Shouldn't. Be. This. Hard. Is a year the average lifespan of the igniter on this thing? I don't know. Because I have now determined that has to be what it is: An igniter problem. Paying nearly $20 for a years use of a butane lighter seems a bit expensive to me. Especially when I can buy two Bics to get me through a year for a fraction of the price. Or, just go back to my fluid insert. I gave this thing 2 stars only because when it works, it's the best lighter I've ever owned. Wind resistance is excellent. Flame height easily adjustable. I deducted 3 stars because in the 14 months I've owned it, I've had to fiddle with it far more than any other lighter I've owned. Since I still have a 3/4 full can of premium butane, I'm probably going to buy another one and see whether premium butane from the first use on makes a difference in reliability. I will say this, though. When YouTube is full of videos of people telling you how to get around design flaws just for the privilege/prestige of owning a Zippo ... it doesn't inspire confidence. Update: Decided to order another one of these. Smart decision. Right out of the box, and after filling it, it has worked like a champ. Flame height adjustment was good out of the box. Reliable lights. No modifications necessary. Good right out of the box. Have used the latest through a handful of refills, and still works like a champ. Just like a Zippo should. Manufacturers deserve criticism for when their products don't meet standards. They also deserve credit when it appears they've listened to consumers. It would appear to me they have fixed the problems I, and many on the internet, had been encountering. Kudos to them.

This is one of those items that would be fantastic if it worked, and it makes it even more frustrating that it doesn't work. I bought this as a gift, read all the comments here about venting it first, adjusting the flame up high and made sure to do that. It works great after a fresh fill for the first 5-10 lights but after that it will spark a flame and immediately go out. I don't know what's wrong with it but no matter what I do it will not light consistently unless it has been freshly refilled. And that's really a bummer because it's so awesome when it works for the first 5 lights. Beyond that, Zippo's customer service has been abysmal. I emailed them and got no response at all after more than 3 weeks. I get that it's COVID and places are slow but that's ridiculous. I gave up and attempted to call them. Their customer service line placed me in a line with callers in front of me and when I got to the front - I was asked to leave a message. The system hung up on me after about 10 seconds, cutting off my message. I called back, waited in line again, and left my name and number first before it hung up. That was a week ago and I have not received a call back. So buy at your own risk. It sounds like some of these inserts work but a lot have an issue with consistent lighting. And good luck dealing with the manufacturer if it doesn't work. Update: I exchanged the insert through Amazon (still haven't heard ANYTHING from Zippo customer service) and got a new one. I held the button open for about 10 minutes to "vent" the lighter fully, filled it and again it worked for a few lights immediately after a fresh fill. But very quickly it was lighting and then going out again. On this new one I can hear that the butane is not flowing consistently, the hiss is sputtering like there's something partially blocking the flow. I think when the lighter is freshly full there's enough pressure to keep the flow going but as soon as it's not totally full it stops working. I messed with the height adjustment and couldn't get it to work any better. So I'm 0/2 on this insert, both with similar but slightly different problems. Save yourself the frustration and look elsewhere.

Love zippo butane insert. Now please note that from my personal experience these past few years with the zippo butane insert: use a high quality butane always, I personally do not refill until it will not flame at all, I then turn the dial to the lowest setting and burp my zippo by pressing the fill valve on insert I then lightly shake and burp again and I will do this about 4 to 5 times to be sure I have released as much air as possible before filling the insert with the butane. I know I shouldn't ( but I do ) I like to press into the fill port for a few seconds and then release completely quickly. I do this 4 to 5 times avoiding the bouncing somepeople like to do when refueling butane lighters. Zippos do not like air in the tanks. I very gently shake the insert between each squirter of butane. If I begin to feel the butane spraying out I stop at that point it's either full like it should be or it is full of air and is refusing the fuel. I turn the insert upright and insert into the zippo case close the lid and set standing up for 3 to 5 minutes before ever attempting to strike. They tend to freeze when fueling so give it a few to thaw a bit before using the zippo. I know this seems like a task but it takes me less than 10 minutes and I use my zippo for several days before fueling again smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. I find this insert for zippo to be in my top 3 of butane lighters. Quality however makes zippo always number 1.

I swapped out the traditional fuel insert in my classic Zippo case with this 65826 chrome single torch butane insert. It fits perfectly without any modification. The push-button piezo ignition fires up consistently, and the sharp blue torch flame works great even on breezy days. Refilling with butane is simple, and there is almost no unpleasant odor. I bought it as a birthday gift for my brother and kept one for myself. It is a wonderful gift choice for many occasions. The build quality feels solid and Zippo’s warranty gives peace of mind. Highly recommended upgrade

Likes to not ignite most the time. I have purged, tried higher quality fuel, modified gas valve. It's a bad product, I'm getting the non jet insert.

perfectly fit into zippo lighter

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Prisvärd samt bra kvalitet.

Solid great job

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