View Full Version : How do you fill a lighter?
Daddles
31st January 2007, 10:23 AM
No, I haven't taken up smoking. Having got thoroughly peeved by the crappy gas matches you buy in supermarkets, I bought a refillable one when I bought my new gas bottle for the barbie - it's even shaped like a huge match :D
Come time for the first refil though. Butane gas bottle sitting on the bench. Appropriate tit slipped onto the nozzle. Lower refilling point of the match onto the bottle. Press down and hold.
Some gas went in but not much, enough for about three lights.
Tried again for an loooooonnnnnggggg time - long enough to start feeling stupid. Enough for about six lights. :~
So, what am I doing wrong?
Richard
see, I shouldn't have given up smoking when I was a kid :U
silentC
31st January 2007, 10:31 AM
Tip the lighter upside down. LPG is a liquid and it wont run up hill :wink:
Daddles
31st January 2007, 10:34 AM
Tip the lighter upside down. LPG is a liquid and it wont run up hill :wink:
I failed physics too (got 15% in my first physics exam at Uni :-).
Grrr.
Thanks mate. This probably explains why I could never get my butane gas torch to work either. :doh:
Richard
Bleedin Thumb
31st January 2007, 10:36 AM
Tip the lighter upside down. LPG is a liquid and it wont run up hill :wink:
Is that right? I would have thought that it was under pressure. No wonder I can never get the rotten things to fill.
silentC
31st January 2007, 10:45 AM
I don't really understand the physics of it all. LPG evaporates at normal pressure but is a liquid under pressure. I gather that it is heavier than air. I guess the pressure in the container is not enough to displace the air in the chamber of the lighter, although I could be speaking out my ####.
Anyway, I've always filled them upside down and I just went and had a look at a refill I've got in the shed and that's the way it says to do it. So if it works, it's good enough for me :wink:
Bleedin Thumb
31st January 2007, 11:00 AM
Ah... reading the instructions!
CODE VIOLATION... Beep...Beep.... Beep
silentC
31st January 2007, 11:01 AM
But in my defence, I only did it to confirm that I was doing it right, after I'd already done it a hundred times and only because Daddles asked. Those must be mitigating circumstances, surely to God. Please, have mercy!!
outback
31st January 2007, 11:08 AM
Just remember when you are filling that any little leaks can cause burns, same as for normal LPG, or I guess any gas expanding rooly quick.
Wood Butcher
31st January 2007, 11:19 AM
The reason that you fill them holding it upside down is that this places the liquid over the top of the nozzle and when you push down the gas (which is now above the liquid), pushes the liquid into the container.
39392
This way more is transferred into the lighter before the pressures of the two vessels is equalised at which point the transfer will automatically stop.
silentC
31st January 2007, 11:21 AM
Like I said:
LPG is a liquid and it wont run up hill
:D
Daddles
31st January 2007, 11:33 AM
It must be something we're supposed to know because it's not in the instructions on my bottle of gas ... the wee lighter came with none of course.
Ah well. It works, that's the important thing.
Richard
Bleedin Thumb
31st January 2007, 11:48 AM
Does this mean that I now have to suspend my gas bottle above my BBQ like some enormous medical drip?
Might as well get one of those defibrillators for the steaks.
silentC
31st January 2007, 11:53 AM
Only if you want liquid LPG spilling out all over your marinated chicken skewers...
Doughboy
31st January 2007, 11:58 AM
Does this mean that I now have to suspend my gas bottle above my BBQ like some enormous medical drip?
Might as well get one of those defibrillators for the steaks.
I think you might end up freezing your steaks instead of cooking them!
Pete
Bleedin Thumb
31st January 2007, 12:00 PM
Thats what the defibrillators for.....Stand Back....Clear.....ZAP...
Eddie Jones
31st January 2007, 12:52 PM
I dunno about this upside down thing. I had the exact same problem. Even bought a second lighter. Tried it both ways up and still no fill with either lighter. I gave up at this point and got an old fashioned scratchy sparky thingy. I'll try to find them, but I seem to remember I tied it all ways up. Just didn't seem to be opening the valve in the gas bottle.
jow104
1st February 2007, 04:11 PM
I dunno whats going opn with replies above but when filling a lighter you employ dockers or steevedoors, pull the lighter alongside of the wharf and crack the whip.
Hope that helps with the above problem.
Daddles
1st February 2007, 06:27 PM
I dunno whats going opn with replies above but when filling a lighter you employ dockers or steevedoors, pull the lighter alongside of the wharf and crack the whip.
Hope that helps with the above problem.
That sort of explains the Barmy Army bod trying to light his pipe by rubbing two cricket stumps together :D
Richard
Harry72
1st February 2007, 06:39 PM
Did you fully disperse the gas before filling?
savage
1st February 2007, 07:48 PM
Daddles, there are two type's of gas bottles for your BBQ, one for the BBQ it's self, and one for refilling. The one for refilling is marked with a black or blue stripe top to bottom, this indicates an internal tube. The gas expands when the valve is opened and pushes the liquidfied gas up the tube and into the empty bottle. This is the reason why you have to invert the refill can, as it does not have an internal tube.
A gas ligter on the otherhand has an induction tube as it is required for the correct air/gas ratio for ignition to take place, as for your lighter inverting places the liquid at the valve, pushing down opens the valve and the liquid expands and pushes the liquid into the lighter. Hope this helps you understand what is actually going on. Also as already mentioned, take care with your skin being exposed to the liqufied gas as it will leave a nasty burn.:)