No Combustion from Butane Torch Lighter

Just a thought, butane, I think goes into your lighter in liquid form. It might be that you are over filling it and not leaving enough room for the liquid to turn to gas before it hits the spark. Try only filling it partially and see if that works.

In the same thought be sure that you are filling it with liquid. Not just gas from the can. Butane can be held in liquid form at very low pressure. The liquid as it evaporates maintains that pressure. If you do not have pressure you may not be getting a high enough concentration for combustion.

Might be the wrong type of butane . . . comes in different grades . . . if the vapor point of the butane is not correct then insuffiicent gas can be vaporized to provide the required concentration to combust. Might try warming the contiainer . . . global cooling is have a profound impact on a lot of things these days.

Sounds to me like you are not filling your lighter with butane. I know the refill can says "butane", but if a lit candle won't ignite the gas then it certainly is not butane coming out. You either have an accidentally mis-filled can, or you are the victim of a counterfeit.

Strip it and clean the tiny little filter just under the valve. It is difficult to know that it is a filter as it is part of the dip tube.

If the gas will not light via the (lit) candle - it's not flammable - not butane or propane.

That you had a small flame may be the dregs of the last fill.

But if it's not lighting at all since, it's some other gas or just compressed air.

Many such things are sold in cans of similar appearance.

I'd vote mislabeled (as said above) and as your candle flame is showing a flow, I would not suspect a blockage, nor at the other extreme, that it is too 'rich' to combust.

You may have trapped "air" in your lighter. You said you depressurized it. When you refilled it did you have the nozzle on the butane container pointing down? If it was pointing up you just filled the lighter with gas instead of liquid butane. Some of the gas in butane refill cans is not butane but a compressing agent. Try using a flat toothpick to press in the fill point of your lighter to release the excess gas pressure and then refilling it with the butane nozzle pointing down during the refill process allowing liquid to go into your lighter instead of compression gas. I have one lighter that always has to be depressurized before refilling.

"Some of the gas in butane refill cans is not butane but a compressing agent."

Really, what do they use?

I have no idea. I just know from experience that if you use the refill canister pointing up you get a gas that does not burn.

All good educated guesses...

...but dollars to donuts, the correct answer is:

The fuel hose has become detached. This may have happened if you left the fuel 'on while filling the torch, or perhaps if you dropped the torch. Fuel is being released into the body of the torch, this is the reason for the weird buring behaviour.

Unscrew the body. You will probably need tweezers and a magnifying glass. the hose is typically clear. It takes some finess, but it can be reattached.

Benbenben

I have three of these mini torches. Upon refill all worked as you described. I think its a pressure problem as when I heat the torch up it produces a solid flame and you can hear the Gas come out under pressure. At room temp., this is not the case. All of the tips here are good but miss what I think is the real problem, poor pressurization at refill.

Anyone know how to remedy that?

I'm using a Butane torch. When it runs low on fuel it's not hot enough for what I'm doing. I refill it upsidedown, with the fresh gas pointing down, as shown in the manual, and I have not had any problem with my refills. They said to shake the butane a little before the refill, and that supplies pressure for the fill.