How to Unclog Butane Lighters
- 1). Clean the flint wheel and the nozzle by brushing them with a small, specially designed stiff-bristled brush.
- 2). Push the end of a wooden match against the filler valve on the base of the lighter to purge it. You'll hear a hissing noise as the gas escapes. Repeat until the lighter is empty.
- 3). Press the plastic nozzle extension tube attached to a can of compressed air against the lighter gas outlet valve. Hold the canister plunger down for one or two seconds. Move the extension tube back an inch or two to blow remaining residue from the lighter recess. Refill the lighter with triple-refined butane gas, and test.
- 4). Unwind a strand from a piece of fine fishing tracer wire. Poke the end of the fine strand into the lighter nozzle if blasting with compressed air fails. Do not apply sideways pressure or work the hardened steel wire back and forth; this will ream out and deform the nozzle outlet. Apply a second blast from the compressed air canister. Retest.