Friday, January 29, 2010

Don't Flick your BIC!


Cause it won't light. Same for most propane lighters like pictured. Don't believe me? Well leave them out in the cold over night and then try to light them. You'll be real lucky if they do light. (Especially when you want to use them to light a heater!) I found this out the first and second nights I left the heater off and then decided to light it with the BBQ lighter just to find out it wouldn't light. I tried the BIC and the same thing. No Light! I assume the propane in them gets so cold that the pressure drops and there isn't enough gas coming out to light. (I didn't have any matches!)  I wised up after those two nights and started keeping them under the cover with me so my body heat would keep them warm enough to light. At first I did it with the BIC and wound up having to light the BBQ lighter with the BIC before I could light the burner. Might be a good idea to keep some good matches handy in cases like this. Nothing like freezing your posterior off just to find out you can't light the heater. What I had to do the first time was keep rubbing my hands together with the BIC in between my palms long enough to warm it up so it would light for me to be able to light the BBQ lighter. Then I could light the burner to warm the Iron Dungeon up.

7 comments:

  1. Yep, propane don't work so good when it real cold. Back when I flew Hot Air Balloons, we put water pipe heating tapes on around the tanks and plugged them in on a timer, if the weather was forecast to be real cold the night before. We had them on timers to turn on and off.
    Butane was worst, it "froze" at a higher temperature than Propane. that's why you used to see butane tanks buried at houses Don't think they even sell it in the US any longer.

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  2. Ben, I haven't even heard the word Butane for many years! I remember that was what we got when I was a kid, but the tank was on the ground. I don't remember us ever being without heat, but can't swear that we never weren't. I do remember something about propane replacing it though.

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  3. Lighters are good, but matches are your friend. ;)

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  4. When I go camping, I take matches with me. I dip them in wax to waterproof them.

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  5. Well that explains why I've gone through fifteen of them bbq lighters this winter. Gollee! Thanks for the info, tffnguy!

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  6. found this solution that could be adapted to solve your problem...
    Monte’s Cookie Warmer

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