Submitted by -WhatCouldGoWrong t3_z5kqie in explainlikeimfive
the flint and wheel lighter. the flint often breaks when you got a ton of gas left. the wheel shreds your thumb and often doesn't catch on the first turn. adding to more shreeded skin
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Why is the flint and wheel still a hugely popular design for cheap throwaway lighters? the electric just click lighters seem to be better in every aspect of use, and they cost the same to buy at the shop?
yes buying bottom of the barrel, not talking about Zippos here, talking about the £1 a lighter ones
Ah. Yea ok live in us so don't know how shit one pound if I am correct. But one pound lighters are. At least over here I have never encountered a cheapo that bad. If you find bics go with them for a cheapo.
Yeah BICs are def the goats for cheapo ( and in my experience the only cheapos that also often function in the wind ) .... anyways glad that i did stop smoking
Haven't had a sig in a while. Then again I picked them up usually for the fifteen minute break at work. Still prefer a good cigar or a pipe. Though finding navy flake for my pipe round here is all but impossible.
Even with cheap lighters, you get what you pay for. My wife bought me a 75¢ lighter because it looked cool... I got maybe half a days use out of it
It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s reliable. If you I want to make a lighter as cheap as possible and still work, that’s the way. The “click” ones involve a piezoelectric switch which is still very simple and cheap, but not so much as a piece of mischmetal and a wheel.
i bought two zigzags electric lighters for £1.50 today, the flint and wheel was £1 for 1?
i honestly dont know about the cost to make them but i find the electric ones much better to use
£1 for one isn't bottom of the barrel. Used to be you get 6 ultra cheap flint ones for the same price as 4 ultra cheap small ones, used to work in PoundWorld.
dude id happily pay £2 for 6 electric lighters right now! gonna go pound shop tomorrow
It's been a few years mind, but pound shops and home bargains usually have packs of 3 electrics for a quid.
Can't compare the cheap ones from dollar stores to Bics. I've been using Bics for as long as I know and I always use up the gas before the flint is gone. If anything, when the gas is done, I take the flint out to reuse in my zippos.
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Because it is cheaper, reliable, and easier to manufacture.
You also don't have to worry about the peizo dying before the gas runs out
peizo?
Sorry, typo.
Piezo. Charge builds up in a crystal when struck. This charge is dissipated as a spark
Also, a lot of people like the sound. Seems inconsequential but the wheel is part of the experience for some people
*does his best robert duvall impression*
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i love the smell of shredded skin in the morning!
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maybe im getting old and grumpy or just need to buy better lighters. I'm looking at a blood blister on my lighter finger and I'm genuinely hating the wheel right now
Don't buy the brand that "shreds your skin." I don't even know what brand that is, because I've never had a wheel lighter do that.
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I like zippos, but I grew up in a family of cigarette smokers. Dad used to say that disposable lighters are for amateur smokers, zippos are for professionals. Dad meant well, I think, but he had some strange ideas.
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A small addition or aside to the conversation, but clippers are a neat version of the classic flint and steel.
Star shaped wheel for easy grip. Removable poker with the gas button to poke or fix things, and easier to refill if need be then most cheap lighters if you find one you like as well as the flint and steel being very easy to replace. Also costs as much as a Bic where I am.
hapkidoox t1_ixwl4ah wrote
What ones are you buying and as for why. Its easier and cheaper to make the flick and flint. Add to that it's an old design, everyone and their cousin has used one. It has become something we immediately associate with a lighter. As for the broken flint, never had one break. Nor encountered a wheel that bad. Don't know what brand your buying. But it seems to me that your buying bottom of the barrel.