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Don’t Be Like Joe..

I have a quite a few cigar lighters at home as you could probably imagine, and the other day I went to light my cigar and the lighter wouldn’t work, it coughed,spluttered & stopped. So of course,I grabbed another one & sure enough it did the same thing. I almost completely lost my mind when I picked up the third one and it did the same.

Now yes, I was being incredibly impatient as the can of gas to refill the lighter wasn’t far away at all. So eventually I grabbed the gas and went about refilling the lighter I had on the table. I duly lit my Tatuaje& savoured the flavour of the Black Label Corona Gorda. Such a good stick.

Now I was reading at the time and forgot to consistently puff on my cigar, and its tarted to go out, so I reached for near full lighter& flicked the button, and well…bugger me if the lighter wouldn’t light again. I knew it wasfull & it looked like there was a spark coming out of the little piezo arm, but the bloody thing wouldn’t light. I turned up the gas and got a jet flame for about half a second.

First-Class Cigar Clown 🤡

And then it dawned on me! What a first-class clown, you’d think it was my first-time smoking cigars or rather using a jet lighter.

I remembered I hadn’t bled the lighter in ages, so of course the darn thing wasn’t working.

Which got me thinking about you, and whether I had actually taken the time to make sure that all my great mates in the CigarBox Family knew about bleeding their lighter& what a difference it makes to your cigar enjoyment.

Now, if you're thinking to yourself what the bloody Nora is Joe rambling on about now, then let me take the time to explain it.

On the other hand, you may already know..

Let’s start with the can of Butane Gas. Now the butane gas can that you use to fill your jet lighter up with contains 80%butane gas & 20% propellant (the propellant in the can is compressed air).

Now every time you fill your lighter up with gas a bit of the propellant also gets in the tank of the lighter, and over time your lighter fills up with propellant & even though it looks like it is full it doesn’t have enough butane gas and the lighter coughs and splutters and doesn’t work.

And this may be the reason why it seems, after you have had a jet lighter for a while it eventually stops working.

The Key to solving this problem is what we call bleeding your lighter. This will remove all the propellant (compressed air).

Now bleeding your lighter is a pretty simple exercise and generally takes about 15 seconds and if I was really smart I would probably do it every time I filled my lighter, but I think we have established that that is not correct on two counts 😞🤦🏼‍♂️😳

To bleed the lighter, you are going to use something to press down on the valve where the gas normally goes in (the inlet valve).

You can use a few things to press on the valve, such as a little computer screwdriver, or even a pen, or anything else that is the right size to press the valve down.

I actually use the bleeding tool on one of my favourite cigar cutters the MTX multi-tool from Xikar.

The useless parts of my cigar cutter…

Despite loving the MTX to cut my cigars, (it’s like a little pair of scissors and you can really nail the cut), it saying it is the Multi-Tool is a bit of a stretch.. Now, because your me mate, I’ll let you in on a little secret 🤫.

Here it is.. That is just about everything else besides the cigar cutter and the bleeding tool is completely useless on the MTX, but the cutter is so good and the bleeder is so useful, that the MTX is an absolute cracker& I generally always have one in the coin pocket of me King Gees.

When you think it’s gone, do it twice again..

Anyways, back to the bleeding, make sure the the lighter is the right way up (inlet valve on tye bottom) and then press the inlet valve with your bleeding instrument and let out all the air and any gas left in it. When you think it’s all gone, doit a couple more times. Then it will be completely empty.

Then refill the lighter (by turning the lighter upside down & the can of gas upside down) & the lighter will fill super easy.

One Last thing, once you fill your lighter they say to wait 3-4 minutes for the gas to warm up, of course we are too impatient for that but don't be worried if it doesn't light the first few clicks.

Now you can go back to lighting and enjoying your favourite stick.

So, remember, bleed your lighter regularly & don’t be a fool like me😊👍🏼.– Your Great Mate - Joe

PS If you got any questions don't hesitate to shoot me an email on joe@cigarbox.com.au

P.P.S. - If your keen on check out the MTX tool I use with the bleeder, here it is.  

https://cigarbox.com.au/products/xikar-cigar-cutter-mtx-multi-tool-bead-blast