How Long will Lighters Last?

No prepper should ever set off without a fire starting tool as part of their kit. On your person or in your bug-out bag, you have to have a way, preferably more than one way, to start a fire in an emergency.

You can use a flint and steel, a ferro rod or other primitive methods, what’s your meat and potatoes fire starting tool is always going to be a good lighter.

Two of the most common and popular lighters in the world are the cheap, disposable, trusty Bic and the living legend that lead needs no introduction, the Zippo.

Even today, debate rages over which one is best suited for survival purposes. The Bic uses butane. The Zippo uses modified naphtha. Most preppers want to know which one lasts longer.

A Zippo lighter will keep its fuel supply for about two to three weeks in nominal conditions. But most of the time its fuel evaporates entirely in one to two weeks. Contrast that with a Bic lighter which can maintain its fuel supply for a couple of years before evaporation slowly claims it. You can expect around 200 lights with a Zippo on a full fuel load. Your average Bic, on the other, hand will light around 1000 times with a full fuel tank.

The difference in longevity is startling. It is also not the entire story as far as the suitability of one lighter over the other for prepping purposes. How much fuel they hold and how long that fuel lasts is just one element.

Other factors are worth consideration. Things like repairability, durability and adaptability. Keeping in mind how many lights you can expect out of your fuel load, and how long the fuel will last let’s read on and see what else you should consider before choosing one of these lighters.

Zippo Characteristics

The Zippo is iconic in every sense of the word, a literal living legend. These heirloom-grade lighters are distinctly American, and remain very popular nearly a century after their introduction.

But that vintage prestige comes with a price: a century-old icon uses, quite literally, century-old technology and design.

Your typical Zippo carry fuel from the fuel chamber for the chimney for lighting by way of a wick that is woven through cotton batting which absorbs the fuel. Capillary action carries fuel to the chimney which is ignited by the striker.

There are no two ways about it: Zippos leak fuel like a hole in a boat, and this evaporative loss is exacerbated by dry conditions.

If a lighter is upended or left on its side, evaporation will accelerate. If you top your Zippo off, and I mean sloshing-near-the-top topped-off, you’ll get around 200 quick lights off of a full tank.

The design of the Zippo, while part of the charm, simply does not seal the fuel tank in any meaningful way, meaning that the volatile Zippo fuel, or ronsonol, always has an easy route of egress to the atmosphere.

But the Zippo still has a few tricks up its sleeve for preppers. Your Zippo will, in fact, function on many different kinds of fuel, even if the factory would tell you not to. You can use diesel, kerosene, gasoline and even rendered animal fat to keep your Zippo lighting.

This multi-fuel capability is a big boon in a survival situation. Something else to consider is a Zippo’s simple design. Easy to service and easy to maintain means that the Zippo might practically keep functioning longer than a comparable Bic.

Bic Characteristics

The everyday, garden-variety Bic lighter is a disposable, butane fuel lighter that is non-refillable by Design. You weren’t supposed to repair a Bic lighter when something goes wrong.

If something breaks, the fuel runs out, or it just stops working, you throw it away and pull another one out of your pocket or out of the package.

This is an acceptable trade-off for most people, since the Bics are so cheap and even at this inexpensive price point your average Bic will give you over 1,000 lights.

Aside from a low price point, of most interest to Preppers is the sealed nature of a Bic. The tightly sealed fuel cell means very little evaporative loss occurs to the atmosphere in the same amount of time compared to a Zippo.

Sure, a damaged seal or busted valve may lead to fuel loss at a faster rate, but this is rare.

Chances are at some point in the past or some point in the future you will have happened upon a Bic rolling around in the floorboard of your car or tossed in a drawer at your house.

Upon pulling it out to try experimentally don’t be surprised when it lights up on the first try!

But, let’s say you can’t just go get another Bic off the shelf. What if that Bic is all you have? You have no way to refuel the lighter from the factory. Furthermore, Bics only work with butane fuel.

The lighter is not designed with any serviceable parts, even the parts that you can service are typically held in place by metal stampings and not easy to repair without breaking things even more.

The bottom line is, if anything goes wrong with your Bic you’re supposed to just toss it out and get a new one. That’s probably still okay: you can get Bics by the barrel full.

Stretching Your Fuel

One simple trick will help your fuel last the longest in any lighter, but especially in a Zippo, is to seal it up. If the fuel cannot reach the open-air, it will vaporize far more slowly.

This can drastically increase the time needed between refuelings. A Bic lighter sealed up in a heavy-duty plastic bag will last for years.

One option for Zippos is to make use of a form-factor specific sealing case with a gasketed lid. While this makes the lighter a little bulkier it does keep it usable at a moment’s notice.

Additionally, you can keep the form factor and flippable lid of the Zippo and marry it to the best of modern lighter technology by removing the classic insert and replacing it with a butane one.

It goes without saying that if you’re carrying a Bic, you should be carrying three more in your pack. They’re so affordable there’s no reason not to.

If you carry a Zippo as part of your kit, you might want to consider keeping it empty, and taking along a small can of fuel. This will allow you to top off when you need it, and provide you a ready supply.

Conclusion

A properly functioning Zippo will only maintain its fuel load for a total of about two weeks in average conditions. A fully fueled Zippo will light around 200 times before it goes empty.

A Bic that is functioning correctly will keep its fuel load for a couple of years in most conditions and will reliably light around a thousand times before heading to the trash can.