Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNeeds help! But great once fixed.
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2014
Doesn't it just grate your grits when you have to alter what should be a perfectly good product to make it work properly when the manufacturer could have gotten it right so easily?! Especially such a simple thing as this hand warmer?! I mean, Zippo! Good grief!
My unit suffered from the same defects that other reviewers cited: if the unit got jiggled around, the poorly attached little burner cap would detach, effectively shutting the warmer off. The top cover (the part with the holes in it) fit poorly as well and kept slipping off if I wasn't using the little black pouch it came with. Relighting it served no purpose as it would simply fall apart again.
Here's a fix. Using a simple metal file, abrade the sides of the section of the warmer that the small burner unit slides over. Do it carefully because the chrome metal is pretty thin and you can puncture it if you get overly enthusiastic (I did!). Then use a needle nosed pliers to slightly crimp and squeeze together the sides of the little burner unit. The combination of abrasion and crimping creates friction between the burner and its base and helps them stay attached to each other. This minor mod seemed to work. You might also need to bend the sides of the top (the cover with the holes in it) together to make it fit tightly over the base. That seems to work without having to file anything on the body of the warmer that the cover fits over.
As far as difficulty lighting the unit, I experienced the same problem initially as others did. Here's a fix that works, for me at any rate.
Deep six the little plastic pitcher jobby that Zippo includes and, instead, fill the base of the unit directly from the lighter fluid bottle. The secret to this warmer seems to be to have it so saturated with fuel that the burner easily absorbs the fumes and is properly "primed" so that it will light. The amount of fuel indicated on the little plastic pitcher does not seem to be sufficient to generate enough fumes to make the unit easy to light. At least initially.
Again, if you're careful, you can saturate the material inside the warmer just to the point that it begins to overflow the top. It might take a minute or two to get that much fuel into it. It won't actually hurt anything if it does spill a bit. The overflow evaporates pretty quickly. Make certain that the material inside the base is TOTALLY saturated then give the unit a couple of minutes, with the burner unattached, to let the excess fuel evaporate off. Then, attach the burner, turn the warmer upside down or onto its side so some fluid from inside the warmer just "primes" the burner material. Then hold the unit over a flame source (a BIC lighter did the trick for me) for a minute or two. You might actually get the burner to ignite which is a clue that it's lit. The first couple of times you do this the unit might flare up a bit when you light it. Just let the excess burn off or, if the whole thing looks like it's about to engulf both it and you in flame, just blow it out, give it more time to evaporate, then light it again.
As others have noted, the more frequently you use the unit, the easier it seems to light.
Now, as to the plus – once you've got the warmer full of fuel and properly primed, it will heat FOREVER! Recently I filled and lit my warmer as described above. I put it in a pocket without using the little baggie that Zippo includes – ensuring that more oxygen got to the burner – and the warmer stayed lit and HOT (and I do mean HOT!) for almost 36 hours!!
Of course, you can control the amount of heat it generates and the length of time it heats by controlling the oxygen available to the burner by using the little included black pouch, if desired. You can also turn the unit off at any time by dislodging the burner unit from the base. After a couple of minutes, the warmer will cool down enough that you can put it into a plastic baggie or something to make it relatively airtight to prevent evaporation of the remaining fuel.
But, once fired up, this sucker burns like hell (to make a bad pun)! You could fry eggs on it! I think it's trying to overcompensate for being such a pain in the neck. So, be careful! Use a handkerchief or rag or something to handle it once it gets cooking or it will – cook your fingers, that is.
In any event, patience with this thing pays off. Good luck with your unit!
