On my STAINLESS Steel looking all metal Zippo Butane Lighter, the ones with the long flexible head, the instructions said to fill with butane fuel (zippo kind), but wait 2 minutes after refilling before using.
Why? Is the Zippo company trying to teach americans self-control? Does Butane need time to get ready?
And it also says not to keep it lit more than 30 seconds. Why? Will it melt the metal tip into molten steel if I hold it down for a minute? What’s with the limit?
I don’t get it.
(Extra credit) Also, what is with their nearly impossible to use childproof button thing?
Usually when you fill these things excess fuel spills over as the tank is topped up. I’d imagine that the 2 minute wait is to allow this vapor to dissipate. They may have had instances where that cloud of vapor as ignited. Or their lawyers think it might.
Yeah, the two minutes is for the vapor to dissipate. Plus it gives any spilled fuel time to evaporate and be gone. This actually is decent advice.
As for the 30 seconds - I imagine that as you keep the Zippo lit, the whole thing heats up. I can imagine if you kept it lit long enough the body might get hot enough to flash the fuel within. So again, not bad advice.
The 2 minutes and 30 seconds rule are probably both way cautious, but that’s probably what the Zippo lawyers insist on.
My experience is that escaped butane is gone almost instantly. For the quantity involved to fill a lighter, I’d say two seconds is more than enough time to wait, and two minutes is just ridiculous.
The warnings do seem excessive and my guess is that they are advising the long times because some idiot will end up blowing themselves up or burning themselves and when they try to sue Zippo can point to the warnings to try and cover their rears. So many products have truly insane warning on them because we are such a sue happy society. So, the manufacturers of products have to go to the extreme in their warnings.
It depends on the situation. Butane is heavier than air (especially when chilled on exiting a pressurised container) and it can to a certain extent pool in folds of clothing, etc. I’m sure two minutes is excessive, but that’s the nature of warnings - if a risk is diminished after 30 seconds and you tell people to wait 30 seconds, the sharp edge of the bell curve will get you - so you tell people to wait for a period that is quite comfortably longer than the period of significant risk.
I assume you’ve noticed that when you refill the lighter it becomes very cold. You wait after refilling it to give the butane time to come up to room temperature; holding the lighter in your hand will warm it up more quickly. While the gas is cold (below it’s boiling point), it doesn’t create enough pressure to insure the proper amount of butane is coming out of the nozzle.
The warning about not keeping it lit for a long time is because the thing will get hot. The flame on those torch-type lighters is over 2000 degrees.
