Ok. So the flint stopped working and just spins.
All in all much less than the advertised 500 strikes.
I emailed exotac and, while not quoting here they said ‘lol buy a flint replacement.’
I’d say this had about 50 strikes. Perhaps the alcohol sprayed on it while lighting things on fire (making a sweet fireball) contributed to the flint wearing down, or something.
As for the o-rings keeping the lighter fluid from drying out they did seem to work well.
Not a smoker, but I mentioned before, that I have a Windmill Quest/UST Trekker windproof jet lighter that's over a decade old, and still fires up on the first try.
It uses a piezoelectric igniter/spark. FWIW, my parents had an old gas stove when I was growing up, that didn't have a built-in igniter. You had to either light it with matches, or a lighter. We used one of those long neck BBQ lighters for the piezoelectric igniter, long after it ran out of fuel, just using the piezoelectric spark to light the stove several times a day, for years.
I was recently in a thread about lighters, and someone recommended the Windmill JP Turbo (same company. Smaller, all-metal lighter using the same tech). The Windmill company still makes their lighters, but for whatever reason, there are ZERO retailers/dealers in the USA (not since UST stopped selling their licensed version of the Windmill Quest, which they rebadged as the UST Trekker).
They're available (shipped from Japan) on eBay, though. I actually ended up ordering a Windmill Delta Turbo from an eBay seller in Japan, specifically for Winter coat pocket carry.
It's like a smaller version of the Windmill Quest/UST Trekker (Windproof jet lighter. Rubber armored. Supposedly waterproof/water resistant with an O-ringed cap that has 2 latching mechanisms to hold the cap shut. Someone mentioned that the guts of the Delta Turbo and JP Turbo are the same. It's the case that's different. The JP Turbo is all-metal without latches for the cap, i.e. it flips open like a Zippo).
Supposedly, the ONE caveat with these, is to never use them to light fireworks/fuses/gunpowder. These jet lighters have a coil of platinum(?) wire, that gets white hot, and is one of the features that makes the lighter windproof. Even if a gust of wind manages to blow out the flame, so long as the button is depressed, and the lighter is still releasing butane, that white hot coil instantly reignited the butane.
The issue with lighting fuses with it, is that the fuse spits carbon when ignited, and if the carbon gets on the coil of wire, it results in the wire burning out. The lighter will still ignite (as the piezoelectric igniter and the butane nozzle aren't affected), but you lose the windproof feature.
When the thread popped up on the other forum, these JP Turbos were listed at ~$7x USD on ebay. They're now listed at ~$109. Likewise, I found ONE retailer who somehow acquired a stash of the discontinued UST Trekker lighters, NIB, and ordered one as a spare. In less than 24 hours of posting the link, they were out of stock
on Kenetrek. They’re even comfy to climb power poles. Got a couple sets of Crispi Hikers which are performing well also.
