I don’t think this is known by anyone, but I have a strong fascination with Zippo lighters. Now, I’m not a smoker but I do carry a lighter as part of my E.D.C. (every day carry). I tell people it’s in case of an emergency, but realistically it’s because my dad was a smoker and I remember him often carrying one. Now that he’s gone, I hold on to things like the Zippo that he used as a way to remember him.
Besides all that, I do have a major problem with traditional Zippos and that is just their design in general. Again, I’m not a smoker so my lighters get used far in between. If you’ve used a Zippo for any significant period of time and filled it up with lighter fluid, then you’d know that even without use, the lighter itself will run out of fuel because it just evaporates within the lighter. Zippos are just not designed for long term storage. Filling up a Zippo, you will only get a few days or a few weeks of life, at most, even without any use. Because of this, I stopped carrying my Zippo around because it would never have any fuel when I actually need it. I of course can schedule periodic refueling, but that’s just a big waste of fuel for someone who barely ever uses a lighter. All of that fuel would just evaporate. There had to be a better solution.
At some point in time, Zippo did come up with a new lighter and it was the Blu. This lighter used butane fuel and housed it in a sealed insert, meaning no leaking and much longer storage. This is a big shift in design for die hard Zippo fans, but I actually liked the Blu lighters. I never actually got around to buying one, but it was interesting. Now that the Blu line of lighters have been discontinued, I’m actually a bit disappointed that I didn’t pick one up. The Blu was actually my first introduction to a more modern designed lighter. It was a step forward, but it didn’t solve the issue that I had with my traditional Zippos.
Flash forward a few years and to a few nights ago, I don’t know how but the thought of a butane insert for the traditional Zippos came to mind. This would solve everything. It would allow me to use my dad’s traditional Zippos while having an insert that would be able to properly store the fuel. A quick online search and I discovered that there is indeed such a product, butane inserts for Zippo lighters. I immediately ordered one and this arrived, the Thunderbird soft flame butane insert.
This product is relatively straight forward. It just replaces the insert that the Zippo originally comes with. The main difference is that this insert utilizes Butane gas rather than lighter fluid.
If you go to THIS link, you will see that there are a variety of different butane inserts that you can choose from that are made by a few different manufacturers. Some feature a more traditional flame. Some feature the typical blue torch flame and piezo igniter of a typical butane lighter. Some feature a combination of the two flame styles. There surprisingly is a lot of options to choose from considering that I didn’t even know that such a product existed until a few days ago.
Ultimately, I decided to go with the soft flame option from Thunderbird. Out of the various manufacturers, Thunderbird seems to receive the best reviews and have the least amount of problems. The soft flame with wheel/flint combo is just personal preference. I wanted something that feels as close to the original as possible and this was it. I do plan on picking up another butane insert with torch flame soon, just to see how I feel about so I’ll make an update once that happens.
There are a few things to note. For those who plan on getting the same insert that I did. Be aware that once the cam is flipped to the open position, gas begins to leak in preparation for use. If you don’t want to waste all of your fuel, make sure to keep the Zippo lid closed when not in use or shut the cam when you want to keep the lid open.
Also, it seems like these butane inserts are only available for the classic Zippo size, not the Slim. If you use one of the other size variants, like the replicas, in theory the Butane inserts should fit because they all use standard Zippo inserts, but that is up for experimentation.
So far, the Thunderbird insert solves the biggest problem that I had with Zippo lighters. If you have a similar problem with your Zippo, then I’d highly suggest picking up a butane insert for yourself. They’re relatively cheap and can completely change the user experience for the better.
UPDATE
I’ve purchased the Vector Thunderbird Butane Double Torch Insert and have made a review here:
Vector Thunderbird Butane Double Torch Insert for Zippos
I also purchased an official Zippo insert and compared it to the Thunderbird insert here:
Zippo vs Thunderbird Butane Lighter Insert
If you're considering on buying any of the products mentioned, please support my work by using the links below.
Zippo Lighters https://amzn.to/2U0pdPH
Zippo Butane Insert https://amzn.to/2OtQQuw
Want to support my work?
Consider visiting the shop and buying "Absolutely Nothing" https://www.TheUpperLeftUSA.com/shop/absolutely-nothing
or
Become a Patron!
https://www.patreon.com/HaiHoangTran