Are lighters perishable

[TommyBB]

I received this e-mail over the weekend from Prometheus/Fuente.

Are lighters perishable? If you do not maintain your store inventory of lighters properly, your lighters will not function correctly even though they have never been sold.

First, if a lighter is unused for a long period of time, the Rubber O-Ring (A) around the Refill Inlet Valve ( will start to degrade. The Rubber O-Ring hardens and the gas tank will leak from the Refill Inlet Valve.

Furthermore, the Molt Pran (C), that controls the flame height, will also lose its effectiveness. The Molt Pran is made out of a material similar to sponge and is inserted between the Flame Height Adjuster (D) and Gas Nozzle (E), which is connected to the Burner Cylinder (F). Depending on the setting of the Flame Height Adjuster, the Molt Pran is squeezed with different levels of pressure and controls how much gas goes up through the Gas Nozzle.

If the lighter is not used for a long period of time, the Molt Pran hardens. If this happens, you can no longer adjust the flame height. Furthermore, the hardened Molt Pran blocks the gas from going up through the Gas Nozzle. If the lighter is used regularly, all the lighter parts will maintain their effectiveness.

In order to prevent the above from happening, we strongly recommend you to periodically (once every three months) perform the following, simple maintenance:

1) Drain and refill the gas tank to prevent the Rubber O-Ring from hardening.

2) After draining and refilling the gas tank, ignite the flame several times at the different settings of the Flame Height Adjuster. This will prevent the Molt Pran from hardening.

3) Lastly, we highly recommend our dealers to sell the Prometheus lighters within 12 months from their purchase date.

The gift-giving holiday season is right around the corner. This is when you have the most brisk lighter sales. Please check all your lighters to make sure that they are functioning properly. Please drain butane gas from all your lighters, refill them and check whether they ignite properly. Also, adjust the flame setting so that the flame height is not too high or low.

Have a great holiday season!