• CD Moderators: Thomas Davie | Darksidesam | Madness
  • Cannabis Discussion Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules

"Safety" of using a flint-based or "bic" lighter with a VaporGenie?

Viper2026

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
35
"Safety" of using a flint-based or "bic" lighter with a VaporGenie?

Many people are probably familiar with the vaporgenie

I've had mine for about a year now and I've just been using a bic lighter almost exclusively with mine for most of that time. It is thought that the rare earth metals used for flint in lighters are toxic:
http://grande.nal.usda.gov/ibids/index.php?mode2=detail&origin=ibids_references&therow=244218 (some of these metals are present in the flint dust from a typical flint lighter)

That said...is using a bic with a vg especially "unsafe"? I've been using a plain old bic for a while and I let it burn for a few seconds until the flame stops sparking and whatnot. But...if you hold the flame like a foot under your nose you can still smell it giving off some sort of odor as it burns...

Also if I hit the vg, empty, with a bic, it has a definite taste that is not present if I just suck on it without any heat applied (it tastes like metal and I am pretty sure it is not resin of past smokes that I taste).

Additionally, if I smell the inside of the top part where I apply the flame when inhaling, it seems to have sort of a butane-y smell that can kind of be removed by wiping it out with some paper towels...but then the paper towels will smell as well.

I'm going to invest in a torch lighter one of these days, but I cannot help but wonder if the bic flame isn't actually burning as clean as one might like to think?
 
Last edited:
Am moving this to Cannabis Discussion. Mods, is it at home there?

Cheers
 
I always use a bic with my vapor geine. Just make shure you have a long flame and partialy put it in the opening without touching the flame to the filter; that may be why your geting that odor from it.
 
i've been wondering about this too. the way they talk about it in that link makes it seem like using a bic lighter is bad period, whether it's with their vaporizer or with a joint.
 
when lighting a bic, you should let the lighter burn for a second or two before smoking,

on the site it mentions when you see smoke rising, and well, that goes away after you light it,

i fucking hate electricly lit lighters, fuckpisses me off they always stop working, and then you can never fix them, at least with a fucking zippo ffuck, you can replace the fucking filters
 
I made a startling discovery today...

I've had my VG about a year, and it's been used pretty heavily over that time period. I'm usually super-diligent about trying to not get any dust from the flint of the lighter (or anything else) into my vg, but apparently...waiting a few seconds after lighting the lighter before applying the flame is NOT sufficient.

Today I was cleaning the top part a bit (the filter), because sometimes resin cakes up on the underside of the top part, below the filter-thing but above the bottom of the metal rim that screws into the bowl. I was working in direct sunlight, and happened to notice that despite my best efforts, the top of the filter had a reddish-brown color to it, which is apparently indicative of flint dust contamination.

(This is the first time I have attempted to perform any kind of serious maintenance on the filter part since purchasing my VG about 1 year ago. Also, something to try some time: near sunset with the sun behind you, light a flint/bic lighter and the sun should show you just how much stuff is given off each time you light the damn thing)

I recalled reading on the VG site that you can put the filter part next to a vacuum and apply flame to remedy this situation.

I was near my stove...so I had an idea...
I don't have a torch lighter at present, but I have an open-flame gas burner stove. I grabbed a vacuum, stuck the top of my vg to the end of it, turned the vacuum on, and brought it close to the open flame....and the filter started sparking (fairly violently).

Forgive the shitty paint drawing, but it looked kind of like this:
(top down view of one of the older style hand carved models; the black is the filter, the red is the dust, and the orange are the sparks)
58mSu.png


It was sparking just like when you flick the flint of a lighter...and was very startling. I figured maybe it was just the top part, so I flipped it over thinking this wouldn't happen if I applied flame to the bottom (there was no visible flint dust on the bottom). Much to my dismay, the bottom sparked WORSE than the top, and it was making a strange popping and whistling sound as this was happening. (the whisling may have been due to my entire apparatus heating up, but I'm pretty sure the popping was due to combustion of whatever was causing the sparks)

I alternated top and bottom several times over the course of a few minutes, but I stopped because the vacuum tube was getting very hot from all of this; the sparking didn't really seem to subside or die down very much despite a few minutes of me applying flame to both sides.

This concerns me very much, and I will probably make a video of this as soon as I am able to find my video camera; I think that all vaporgenie owners who have used a bic lighter should see (and hear) this...but in the meantime I guess be very wary of using a flint lighter :downs:


I should also note that this method failed to clear the flint dust from the top of the filter and it was still visible. I tried pouring some hot water through the filter and it is drying now, but honestly it does not look like this either has successfully removed the red coloration to the filter, and I fear I may have to purchase a new top piece.
 
Top