Butane Cigarette Lighters

The most common form of cigarette lighters today is the disposable butane cigarette lighters. These lighters can be found at every gas station and convenience store, ranging from seventy or eighty since to a couple of dollars and have a plastic housing that makes them lightweight and attractive, giving manufacturers the ability to wrap the lighter with a shrink wrapped plastic skin, that is a certain color, design or even commercial brand name patterns such as logos or characters from movies or television shows.

Butane cigarette lighters, the disposable kind, are extremely cheap and you can find them at a dollar store in packs of three or four for a dollar. You can even get butane cigarette lighters cheapers if you buy them in large bulk packages online, sometimes allowing the price to go all the way down to about 10 cents per lighter.

You can also get butane cigarette lighters that you must refill, and believe it or not, these lighters don't cost any more than the disposable ones in many cases, only being priced at about a dollar or two. Generally, the butane cigarette lighter will have a valve in the bottom, that will only open up when you stick a butane tank into the valve, and refill the lighter.

These refillable lighters are often available in specialty shapes for only a dollar or two, or up to five fore more complex designs and can be found in anything from cigarette shaped, to the shape of a fire extinguisher, a pistol, a human shaped lighter, a lightsaber, bullet, mini flamethrower, musical instruments or classy lighter shapes with gold plating and cubic zirconia gems, as well as lighters for nearly every sport and professional team logo. You can even get butane cigarette lighters tha serve double duty, functioning as a pocket knife most of the time, then easily becoming a butane cigarette lighter in case you lose your regular lighter, or perhaps are stuck in the wilderness without one.

Butane Cigarette Lighters work by releasing the liquid butane that is stored in the lighter in a pressurized chamber, into a small and narrow stream of gas. Butane is a gas uniquely able to work well in this situation because when under pressure it is a liquid, but as soon as it is released into the atmosphere it becomes a gas, which means that releasing a controlled amount of butane is a safe and effective way to create a flame. The gas is ignited by a band of steel striking a flint or sometimes by using compressed piezoelectric crystal.

Another great feature about Butane is that it only uses as much of the liquid Butane as it needs to maintain the flame, meaning that not only is it safe, in that too much butane cannot be released through normal use and cause an explosion, but that it uses a minimal amount of butane so that a disposable lighter may last for weeks or even months depending upon usage.

The tank of a butane cigarette lighter is made up of plastic that are welded ultrasonically. This creates a safe, low pressure chamber with a metal ball sealing the tank after it has been filled. Depending upon the size to release a certain level of gas which is what creates a flame of the same height that remains steady, adjustable with a release valve. The holes on the steel cap serve to dilute the butane with a certain amount of air, and the windshield provides heat protection.

If you prefer to use disposable lighters, you should consider getting them online and in bulk orders. You can get lighters as low as $.018 cents or lower if you buy them online in packs of fifty. This will likely last you a year or more, assuming you use one lighter a week, which is feasible if you smoke a lot, tend to lose lighters or have friends that “borrow” your lighter. Get them in bulk and you'll always have a fresh supply of butane cigarette lighters.