alternate zippo fuel
 

my zippo's out of fuel and i don't want to go out and buy zippo fuel when i have something at home that might work. i have tiki torch fuel. would that work? zippos and tiki torches seem to work the same way so i assume it would but i don't want to risk blowing something up or starting a fire or anything like that.

Does it tell you specifically that it takes butane only? That's what I thought the deal was with those lighters.

Well technically you could use gasoline/Karosine/etc since it all burns... but that tiki torch stuff doesn't burn all that clean so it would gunk up your lighter quicker.

i thought the point of having a lighter was to start fires.

well, i'm not an expert on pyrotechnics but i can see that the two fluids would be different and while i'm not sure it would explode, per se...... it might damage the lighter or just plain not work. my advice: go without fire for a few days till you get around to buying lighter fluid.

Cheapness is going to lead to hand-less-ness.

Nah. Skin-less-ness, maybe, but not hand-less-ness. Well, doubtful anyway.

As for the initial poster's question, why don't you just try it? It's science. You went through the phenomenon observation step by noticing you were out of fuel, through initial research step by consulting us, through the hypothesis step by suggesting tiki torch fuel as a replacement and now you're at the experimentation step. What's a mere lighter compared to progress?

Well if he's too cheap to buy a little fuel, then he is most definitely too cheap to buy a replacement lighter.

I tried gasoline in my zippo for awhile, unlike the other stuff, it gives off A LOT of black smoke when it's burning.

Just use the fucking stove until you've got the money for some replacement fluid.

that would be tight to have a gasoline fueled lighter. how was the flame? was it bigger than other fuels?

Enjoy paying $25 just to refuel your lighter.

My friend tried an alternate fuel and his zippo didn't work anymore. I think th wrong fuel means your lighter gets borked.

uh, i have a few zippos and i just refil them with regular lighter fluid.
http://www.proppersource.com/images/...hter_fluid.jpg

My father once told me when he gave me a Zippo lighter was that he once even used human sweat. But I didn't believe him. He's like that, yanno, lying to little kids and whatnot.

i accidentally dropped it in canola oil (oops) and that's not flamable enough so i took out the puff and let it dry and put the puff back in and filled it with gasoline but it doesn't light. it lights when i put some gas on the wick but not in the puff. i think the canola oil is clogging the wick so it can't soak up the gas. what should i do? is there a way to remove and clean the wick or is it dead?

Canola oil.

You know, both it and lighter fuel might be made of chains of carbon and hydrogen, but didn't you kinda notice that there was a bit of a difference in viscosity and volatility, among other things?

I'd be tempted to just say it's dead, but what the hell, I want to see what you'll try next. Post pics if anything particularly gruesome happens.

This thread has gotten ridiculous. Kind of reminds me of Hobbes trying to cut Calvin's hair.