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?

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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.

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WexfordHo t1_ixwl4un wrote

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.

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gooeychedda t1_ixwmmzk wrote

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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-WhatCouldGoWrong OP t1_ixwmp3z wrote

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

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hapkidoox t1_ixwn1sd wrote

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.

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hapkidoox t1_ixws8lp wrote

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.

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Aussie_Mo_Bro t1_ixwt2zd wrote

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

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Mnmcdona t1_ixwubre wrote

Also, a lot of people like the sound. Seems inconsequential but the wheel is part of the experience for some people

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-WhatCouldGoWrong OP t1_ixwuz9a wrote

*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

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Smashville66 t1_ixwxxj8 wrote

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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[deleted] t1_ixwz8bo wrote

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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cj122 t1_ixztpan wrote

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.

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