Believe me when I say, we WANT to repair your lighter. It’s what we do. We do it well and have been doing so since 1957. We know a thing or two about lighters and how to repair them. Imagine how frustrating it can be for us when we get a call or an email or a Facebook message asking about fixing dear ol’ Grandads lighter and we have to say it can’t be fixed? “Why can’t you repair my lighter?” is a bummer question for everyone involved, and here’s usually why that’s the case…
The Lighter Is Ancient
One of the most common reasons that we cannot repair a lighter is due to the fact that it is so old that repair parts have been used up. If new sources for parts are not available (closed shops, estate sales, etc…) then there’s nothing to be done. Sometimes it’s a lighter that was made in Europe before/during the Second World War. Those factories were bombed back to the stone age. Other times its the simple fact that production stopped for one reason or another. It happened so long ago that the repair parts were just all used up. We just can’t fix it.
The Lighter Is A Novelty
The novelty butane lighters are a class of lighters that were sometimes made to advertise or promote an event or product. Usually cigarettes or cigars but we’ve even seen advertising novelty lighters for things like chocolate milk and cars. Ironically, some of these non-butane lighters became highly collectible, called “Flat Advertisers”. Novelty lighters can also be flame-makers that were just made simply and sold inexpensively through gifts shops, drug stores or discounters–never having been meant to be repaired. No repair parts were made for them and if they broke, they broke and that was that. Lots of Chinese manufactured lighters with all kinds of configurations and even knock-offs of expensive lighters were created.
The Lighter Is Garbage
No one wants to think of their lighter as worthless garbage. This is included though because some lighters were made with a single eventual destination in mind–the trash can. Period. Despite some of them being refillable, others disposable, some lighters were made to such poor quality standards that it would be far more expensive to repair than simply dispose of and purchase a new one. Worth mentioning is the fact that we have also had people send us Bic disposable lighters for repair. I am completely serious.
High Production – Out Of Business
Sometimes a company will have an extremely popular brand of lighter. A perfect example is the Colibri Company. For many years Colibri made a name for itself selling quality, mid-priced smoking accessories including lighters. Then, almost out of nowhere, the company went out of business and subsequently had the name bought out by another company. When this happened, we purchased every repair part that they had stockpiled since their plan was to not produce lighters anymore. Those parts ran out (a few years ago) and that was the end of Colibri butane lighter repairs. If a high-production company goes out of business, a lot of people are left in the lurch when it comes to repairing their lighters. This has happened with a few companies as the years went on, but none so impactful as Colibri. We have been telling people that we cannot repair Colibri butane lighters for over five years now and we STILL get daily calls about them.
A Brief Word About Parts
Often times when we are forced to disappoint a customer regarding the lack of repair parts for their lighter. Often the response is “Maybe it doesn’t need parts.” or “Can you use the parts from another lighter?” We certainly understand the level of desperation that some feel when they want to get an old friend working again. The sad reality is the fact that we have to follow the philosophy of; “If we don’t have repair parts, we don’t touch the lighter.” This is necessary because lighters always need replacement parts–internal valves, seals, hinges, and items with names that wouldn’t make sense unless you were familiar with lighter terminology. There was never any such thing as “standardized parts” for lighters. A glimpse at our repair shop would present endless racks, shelves, and drawers full of thousands of different kinds of parts for hundreds of different kinds of lighters. And if you’re going to talk to me about “O-Rings”, we’re way ahead of you. It’s not just about the O-Ring, as O-rings are incorporated into existing replacement valve systems that corrode along with the rubber/plastic/metal o-rings.
All things considered, you have to understand that we WANT to repair your lighter. It’s how we stay in business, after all. You should not feel slighted in any way when we tell you that we can’t do so when we haven’t even seen what you have.