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Step 82Refill Your Lighters
Try not purchase refillable lighters. Zippos are refillable with Butane, and instead of throwing your empty lighters out, refill them.
There are usually some stores in the mall that can refill your lighters. Zippo does not only use butane(They only use butane in Zippo Blu's), the more known Zippo uses Synthetic Isoparaffinic Hydrocarbon Fuel. Thanks CVJX for that tip!
Lighter fluid is not very expensive
Here is a tutorial on how to refill your lighter by yourself
There are usually some stores in the mall that can refill your lighters. Zippo does not only use butane(They only use butane in Zippo Blu's), the more known Zippo uses Synthetic Isoparaffinic Hydrocarbon Fuel. Thanks CVJX for that tip!
Lighter fluid is not very expensive
Here is a tutorial on how to refill your lighter by yourself
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Think people! Who cares about the soot! Soot is a speck of carbon! But the plastic lighters do matter.
A Zippo is made from almost entirely metal, hence being completely recyclable. Bic and other crack lighters, however, tend to be made out of plastic.
A smoker might go through over 500 Bic lighters in 10 ( YES TEN ) years. That's $50 a year.
Disposable Bic lighters are $1.
A Zippo has a guaranteed lifetime warranty and I'm sure that any emissions from the Zippo (shipping and mail courier gasoline that it takes when it is time to get it fixed) emits a tenth of the emissions that 500 disposable lighters will take to make, process, ship, and be lost, only to sit in a landfill once found and thrown away.
A Zippo's fuel will last for 10-14 days, with moderate to severe use. A bottle of Ronsonol (Zippo fluid) is $5 for a 12 ounces. A fill up ranges from 0.1 to 0.3 ounces, lasting about 40 refills for the 12 ounce bottle.
Do the math (12/.3=40*10days) equals 400 DAYS FOR $5 for severe use.
That is over a year's worth of fluid for $5! ( I used to lose a disposable lighter once a week. )
TOTAL SAVINGS PER YEAR = more than $33 for the first year ( Cheapest Zippo is $10 ) and every year after that you will save more than $43 with a Zippo over disposable lighters.
BTW, I said $33 and $43 because a flint will last for a good month or so, and I used to go through 6-10 flints a year. ($1 per 6 pack of Zippo flints.)
Also, a wick will last a moderately filled and properly maintained Zippo for a good five to ten years, adding cents per year, but the savings and lessened carbon emissions are MUCH greater than a disposable lighter will cause in it's lifetime.
Thank you,
Aaron
Simple fact is that fuel for Zippo lighters comes in a plastic container. It lasts the typical smoker about a month, then they throw the container away. The user of zippo lighters also has to have a can of fuel for the light around at all times.
If you drop a Zippo lighter while it's lit, it will not go out. Drop a Bic lighter, and it self extinguishes before it is out of your hand. Work for a major construction company sometime. Most of them have banned the use of Zippo lighters on the job because it wont go out.
Cost wise...I pay $1 or $2 per bic lighter. use maybe 4 a year. That's $8 a year. How the heck do you get that and I quote "TOTAL SAVINGS PER YEAR = more than $33 for the first year" When I only spend $8 a year anyway? Are you going to pay me the other $25 a year to use a zippo in which you provide wicks, flints, and fluid for?
What's this about a maintained Zippo? More work for me to do besides filling it, changing flints and changing wicks? There is no maintenance on a Bic lighter.
The self extinguishing has nothing to do with environmental protection, that is just a safety precaution, so that nothing catches fire by accident.
Properly maintained means not lighting it empty, not overfilling it. Flints are cheap and easy to replace. Saying that BICs are more environmentally friendly because they are easier to use doesn't make any sense at all...
For an equivalent amount of use, zippos are cheaper than BICs. Not easier, but cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.