How to refill your lighter
All our lighters are shipped empty for security reasons. To refill your lighter, please read and use the following instructions carefully:
1. Do not refill your lighter immediately after using it. You should allow enough time for the lighter to cool off.
2. The flame height adjuster on the bottom of the lighter should be set to minimum by turning CLOCKWISE with a small screw driver. The smaller, usually Phillips head, screw is for dismantling the lighter and should not be touched. The adjusting screw is a larger brass screw with a standard (slot) head. Some lighters come with a key to turn the adjusting screw. Some models have an adjusting wheel that requires no screwdriver. Please DO NOT FORCE the adjusting screw. If it is hard to turn in one direction this most likely means that the adjustment screw is already at the (-) or (+) limit. Try turning the other direction.
3. Push the refilling valve with a screwdriver to let out the air inside until no hissing sound is heard. Hold the lighter away from your face. Air inside the fuel tank prevents butane gas from being injected into the tank and causes the lighter to malfunction.
4. ALWAYS refill the lighter in an upside down position to avoid injecting air into the lighter.
5. Shake the butane gas refill can, press the stem of the refill can directly onto the refill valve on the bottom of the lighter. Keep them in a straight position and let the gas go into the lighter for about 5 seconds. Repeat for a shorter period if needed.
6. Allow 3-4 minutes to let gas and lighter components reach room temperature.
7. Turn the flame adjuster counter clockwise to reach the desired flame height.
8. Hold the lighter away from your face and body and ignite it carefully. If there is no flame, repeat the refilling process.
9. If you experience gas leakage with a hissing sound while refilling the lighter, either you are not holding the lighter and gas can in a straight position or the stem of the gas can is not suitable for the lighter. In this case you need to use an adaptor which is usually supplied with the gas can.
10. Premium butane is required to ensure optimum performance of your lighter. Lighters require the cleanest butane available at a pressure of 45 psi. Recommended premium butane brands (Colibri, Nibo, Prometheus, any triple refined butane) are packaged in 10-13 oz. cans with a metal fill tip nozzle. Non-premium butane (Clipper, Ronson, Sun) and brands with plastic fill tip nozzles are not recommended as they may cause inconsistent ignition and performance. Impurity of the gas can cause clogging of the burner valve or malfunctioning. Refill cans are available online, at your local tobacco shop or grocery store.
WARNING: PLEASE, ALWAYS KEEP YOUR LIGHTER AWAY FROM THE REACH OF CHILDREN. USE COMMON SENSE IN HANDLING YOUR LIGHTER.
Troubleshooting: If you are having problems with your lighter, make sure that:
- You are holding the lighter upside down while refilling. If you did not hold the lighter upside down, there will be air inside the butane tank. You will need to let the air out and try refilling again.
- The flame height is properly adjusted.
- You are not using cheap or incorrect fuel.
- There is no dirt or debris in the lighter. Try blowing forcefully into the top part of the unlit lighter.
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71 customer comments
I was having the most horrible time figuring this out. I went on youtube and found a few vids, and bought two new lighters. One was a cheap quality one from Walmart and the other from a local head shop. I didn't ask the owner how I just knew I needed a new lighter. I was have trouble until I Googled again how to refill my lighter and your website came up, with your video everything was a whole lot clearer. Your site's picture was on the side of the search result, I clicked it, it went straight to this article. Your video helped me alot, I even disassembled my old one, my first one for at least an hour, [I think I wasn't paying enough attention to the other videos? ;) ]. I successfully refilled my tank in my new one from the head shop. Thanks a bunch :). -Arla From Cali
A Neptune User · 11/13/2023Lotta inaccurate info here. I could say something about every point but I'll stick to a few main ones. First, you arent purging the "air" in your lighter when you push down on that valve. There should never be air in your tank. When the tank empties the liquid fuel isn't replaced by air, it's replaced by fuel gas that isn't at a high enough pressure to turn to liquid. Heat the lighter up, that'll increase the pressure, and like magic liquid with reappear. Exception would be when you bought the lighter new if it shipped without fuel in it. It didn't ship "empty". It's not a vacuum. Some are full of with nitrogen for shipping, but it could be anything. Often just dirty factory air. That should mostly be forced out in your first couple refuelings. But to avoid that you should purge it before you ever use it the first time using the same method they use to purge new propane tanks. There should never be air in it after it's been used and refueled a couple times, even if you never did the initial purge. If there is it's experienced catastrophic failure. What you're actually doing by releasing fuel gas before refueling is making the lighter's tank colder and dispersing the contents of the blend with the highest vapor pressure first, usually propane, which is in every can of butane lighter fluid. A colder lighter will have less pressure and will accept fuel from the room temp container more readily, since the pressure difference is now much greater. So it's not bad advice, but not for the reasons stated. Couple other things. Colibri was sold off a decade ago and a dozen companies use the name now. All of them outsource their butane production and it's not standardized. Not even Colibri can tell you what's in a can of Colibri. The Colibri I just bought in Canada uses butane from the UK and cans made in Turkey from recycled scrap metal from France. Still decent stuff though. Nibo was sold to a company in India and nobody has a clue what's in it anymore. It's not good stuff. Fill a lighter with a clear tank full of Nibo and you can see flecks of stuff floating around in the tank. Ronson and clipper are both still garbage, as they always have been, so you're correct there. And that's about the only spot. Never blow into the top of an unlit lighter, now you're just jamming whatever was stuck in there back in deeper. Never use a screwdriver to depress the valve, that'll damage it. Use something plastic, like the adapters on the can. The hissing sound you're hearing could be many things but it's probably a bad connection due to the damage you caused with that screwdriver.
A Neptune User · 06/25/2022Why do I need to adjust the flame to 0 before refilling?
A Neptune User · 09/16/2021Thanks for all your tips on butane lighters I will bookmark your site, and refer to it if I have problems.
A Neptune User · 08/16/2021very good
A Neptune User · 03/21/2021Thank you it was a lot of help
A Neptune User · 12/01/2020I am not sure where this guy learned about lighters but I use Butane lighters at altitudes well over 10,000ft and temps well below freezing. In Canada we use them all year winter and summer. If its below zero you just keep it on a lanyard around your neck inside your jacket and it works fine. We use them to light our stoves when climbing.
A Neptune User · 11/19/2020Love your tutorial !!
A Neptune User · 08/14/2020?
A Neptune User · 06/20/2020Explaining about the air in the tank needing to be released is what I was messing up with.....feel like a dummy for never considering that as an issue. ????? very helpful
A Neptune User · 06/17/2020Excellent and informative video, thanks
A Neptune User · 04/07/2020Very easyto understand and great tutorial
Samuel N. · 03/20/2020empty the old air and gas was the key. i had a lighter that never filled right. it was full of air.
A Neptune User · 12/04/2019thanks
A Neptune User · 11/09/2019exactly what i needed to know. Thank you.
A Neptune User · 09/09/2019Learned a lot. Excellent, easy to follow tutorial.
A Neptune User · 08/07/2019Very clear, concise instructions. Just refilled three lighters and learned more about them as a result of this! Thanks!!
A Neptune User · 07/26/2019good job explaining how to refill a butane lighter properly
A Neptune User · 06/03/2019Does the colibri use a flint if so where does it go
A Neptune User · 04/22/2019Saved me another canister after many failed attempts.
A Neptune User · 04/03/2019Very well done. Explained simply enough for any idiot to understand.
A Neptune User · 03/23/2019Very informative
A Neptune User · 03/16/2019Very helpful! I have never use a butane lighter before. The instructions that came with this one SUCKS!
A Neptune User · 03/02/2019Thanks! I never knew you could bleed the air. Could have saved me a few lighters over the years.
A Neptune User · 02/28/2019Shaking can is a no go
A Neptune User · 02/08/2019Great info it really helped thanks.
A Neptune User · 12/22/2018OMG I had no idea lol
A Neptune User · 10/15/2018Good but shaking the can is a BIG nono. Puts more of the propellant in with the butane because of bubbles.
A Neptune User · 07/24/2018You know guys I'm 54yrs old and I hated to ask how to fill butane lighter but I never could get it right. I'm glad to say now I can. I wasn't bleeding off enough air or gas or whatever but it does great now. Thanks
A Neptune User · 07/15/2018Excellent, straight forward simple.
A Neptune User · 07/08/2018Awesome video
A Neptune User · 04/14/2018Excellent tutorial on how to refill a gas lighter. Well appreciated! johnbendi
A Neptune User · 04/12/2018Thank-you so much . No wonder I couldn't get fuel in my lighter. I was doing it all wrong.
A Neptune User · 02/25/2018The 101s are useful indeed.
Rob P. · 01/24/2018Excellently? done ?. I had a fantastic learning experience regarding cigars. I am most grateful for this?? P€AC€ 01/14/18
A Neptune User · 01/15/2018great vid
A Neptune User · 12/08/2017Most Excellent
A Neptune User · 10/08/2017Very helpful. Thanks!
A Neptune User · 09/18/2017thankyouuuuuu
A Neptune User · 08/18/2017Great instruction,Thanks
A Neptune User · 08/16/2017nothing about choosing the proper tip....
A Neptune User · 08/02/2017Wow! Thank you for the refilling advice. My lighter now works beautiful, as I was refilling totally wrong.
A Neptune User · 07/11/2017Works for me!
A Neptune User · 12/28/2016I appreciate you covering what for many cigar smokers is a "stupid" question... how to refill our jet lighters. YES, it makes sense in the cold Midwest that a cold lighter (you know, on the outside table next to ashtray) will make the lighter fail. Duh! I'm keeping my lighter in my pocket now, so when I need to relight, lighter works just fine.
A Neptune User · 11/25/2016Awesome, thank you. thought my lighter was broken, but i was just filling it wrong haha!
A Neptune User · 08/04/2014Helped me alot! Out comes the 2year old lighter that I only managed to use when it was new! Many thanks
A Neptune User · 05/14/2014**** Good tip regarding bleeding air from lighter. Also do it upside down. I didn't do this to start, which is probably why air entered the lighter. It does not say if clockwise is toward +. It is on my lighter but is this universal. Didn't reaaly see a difference in flame size. But i now see a flame! Thanks.
A Neptune User · 12/22/2012Your tutorials are awesome guys! Thanks!
David T. · 04/21/2012This was really helpful! I was able to get out all my old neglected butane lighters and refill them. I forgot how cool some of them are. Out of all of them, unfortunately, there was one that kept hissing/leaking after I filled it and does not work. It's a really neat one too. Any tips on taking it apart/fixing it that you didn't mention here?
A Neptune User · 07/09/2011THANK YOU ! Lighter low on fuel and did not save original pkg. to see how to re-fill !
A Neptune User · 02/25/2011Thank you. I never knew this. Genius.
A Neptune User · 10/09/2010this was very informative! I never knew I had to hold the lighter upside down!
A Neptune User · 05/25/2010And I thought refilling a butane lighter was SO simple. This article opened my eyes to things I'd not thought about. NOW my lighter works the way it did when NEW! THANKS.
A Neptune User · 12/11/2009first time refilling a lighter and jacked it all up. Never thought to look it up on the internet but the second time around I googled and got your dite after a few duds. Thanks! Went well and now I don't feel like a dummy who can't figure out how to refill a simple lighter!! :) AE
A Neptune User · 03/30/2009Absolutely excellent answer.
A Neptune User · 01/06/2009great
A Neptune User · 11/22/2008great
A Neptune User · 11/01/2008