this is the greatest little device i've found for maintaining a quality butane lighter. it has a built in screwdriver for adjusting the flame that will not let you strip the screw and a little prong for bleeding the valve.
http://www.butanescrewthing.com/

So....

It's been over 2 weeks and after 3 emails, no response from TurboFlame...

TURBOFLAME ARC, JRAted:

10 for design
0 for quality of lighter (does not light at all)
0 for customer service = 10/30

= 3.3/10 ...

Pretty crap - don't buy one. 60 bucks i'll never see again.

Cheers,

JBArk

Have you tried taking it apart yet? Sounds like at this point you have nothing to lose.

I was very disappointed with mine (low max. flame) until I took it apart and managed to fix it. When it’s working as intended, it’s great!


edit: Have you tried lighting it manually? (Get gas flowing, then light with another flame.) Maybe there's something clogging it that can be burned off.

I have not taken it apart yet. I am going to try contacting the vendor instead of the manufacturer before voiding my warranty . I tried your (great) suggestion of lighting it manually, and, strangely, it worked the first few times, then not at all... the jet coming out of the Arc is so strong it almost extinguishes the BIC flame!


Then I emptied it, and filled it up for the 4th time... still no luck.

So, strong jet of butane and workable spark, but no flame...

I'll keep you posted.

JBArk

i guess its just broken. you send it back as it has inherent fault and they will give you new working one free of charge. do not open it cos you will void warranty. you can not loose money on this one dont worry. you should not be out of pocket at all they will have to pay the postage as well.

did you buy it from us or uk company ?

From a UK company, smokerx; i don't think you can order it stateside, can you?

I just heard back today from both the shop I ordered from AND their distributor (who may or may not be turboflame - hard to tell). They recommend using a better fuel than ronsonol, but I don't know if that will solve the problem; besides, I have no idea where to get butane lighter refill that is not ronsonol.

I will try that and keep you posted, as there is still no flame in my dud ARC...

Cheers,

JBArk

what do you mean by order stateside? dont understand that one ...



for me this is very clear case mate. i live in uk so i know the customer rights here. you just have to contact the company you bought it from cos thats the company you have contract with. thay have no right to send you to manufactur they have to deal with it. it is very clear that this item you bought does not fir for purpouse and therefore its faulty. so you contact them tell them what i just taled you and ask them to send you replacement. they may ask you to send your lighter back first. make sure you make it clear to them that you are not going to be out of pocket on this and you expecting them to pay for postage both ways it menas the p&p you have to pay to send it back.these are the dstance selling regulation in uk. if you cant reason with them i can make call for you as well if you wish so. if it comes to sending the item back to them do not forget to send it recorded so you have prove just in case.

I went through the same troubles many of you guys did. My beautiful Arc lighter came in the mail and I couldn't have been more excited to blast into hyperspace. It worked great for about two weeks, then became inconsistent, then completely stopped working.

As I was browsing this thread looking for a substitute for the Arc, my strangely gifted buddy who is blessed with the attributes of an engineer, but cursed with the inability to sit through a class, took apart my Arc. I wasn't the slightest bit worried for two reasons:

1) the lighter had stopped working for three days
2) this buddy had fixed many different things of mine in the past. I swear to God that if I made it deep enough into hyperspace to grab a space toy from one of the elves, brought it back, and broke it.... he'd have it working in no time.

So he did the following:
- took it apart
- dropped a few small pieces on the ground
- picked the pieces back up and put them back together
- turned the flame level to high and now.....

WORKS LIKE A DREAM!!

I'd say rip that baby apart and play with it a bit, but I understand if you don't want to void your warranty. I'm in the states and didn't feel like waiting

Good luck, peace, and happy journeys! (hopefully, with your functioning Arc lighter)

I was just out shopping for a torch lighter yesterday and I spoke to one bloke in a shop who said he had had his own (brand unknown) for 15 years or something, which he used for cooking. I said mine always seem to break quite easily, the advice he gave me was to

1) spend more money (not relevant with the Arc, is expensive!)
2) Clean the head with petrol (naphtha?) and a cotton wool bud (Q-Tip) to remove carbon build up.

I haven’t tested this but may be worth a try…

Angus M. !

dlb: Isn't there something about carbon removal in the Arc brochure ?

Shaolin– must admit I haven’t looked at the Arc site, I haven’t owned one myself. I have however had maybe 3 of various brands that have died on me within a few weeks or months!

After a bit of a hunt with Google a few bits of info on jet/torch lighter maintenance, people seem to say contradictory things, and I haven’t found anyone advising cleaning with naphtha yet.

Prometheus - Torch Maintenance
Torch Lighter Maintenance
Cigar Lighter Maintenance


Thread

GOOD NEWS!

My TF Arc lights every time now.

I decided to follow the manufacturer's advice, against my better judgment, and found a cigar shop that sold "double or triple refined or near zero impurity" butane. I brought the lighter along, and the fellow in the shop took a look at it and noticed the spark generator thingy (sorry, not familiar with lighter lingo!) was both loose and pointed too far away from the butane flow, so it was sparking upwards, using the top edge of the lighter as the closest metal bit for that sparkling little strand of electrons.

Between the two of us, we bent the spark generator thingy toward the butane flow and managed to push the ceramic holder down on it to prevent it moving around and ending up too far from where the spark should be destined.

And VOILA!! Lights every time, even with the allegedly inferior Ronson fuel, which the manufacturer erroneously claimed was the problem - strange claim, given that it doesn't take an expert to understand that impurities gather over time, and that it is pretty unlikely/nearly immpossible that a slightly less pure poduct would clog the mechanism after only a few short bursts... I will however buy a can of "superior" fuel once this can runs out, to prevent potential long term clogging.

I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else, but should it, you now know what to do!

I will write the manufacturer and let them know, so at least they will be aware that some of their products ship this way...

Cheers,
JBArk

Yay! Bark’s got a spark for his Arc!

-- or --

Finally, Bark's Arc sparks!

Now yer sparkin me linguage!!!

JBArk the ARC 'n ARCin' the JBArk

Glad your TF Arcs a-working JBark;I would hate to have pointed you in the direction of a piece of crap.

Now you can appreciate why the tool has such good feedback!

wow and it only took 5 weeks to get it working

im glad to hear its working now

Couldn’t resist:

Hark! Hark! Bark’s Arc sparks!

I have to say that so far I second this lighter that deamsterphile suggested.
http://www.bernzomatic.c...24/xmfid/3/Default.aspx
I found the flame too hot on even the smaller torch lighters, as well as that the turbulence would blow out the flame. It was too easy for me to end up burning the product.
The flame on this one is not a pin blue flame, but a diffused yellow flame that is still directional (you can point it down).
It also uses a coil element to help it from blowing out.

Not to mention it is easy to find in large hardware stores.
The only downside is the size, though I think it would fit in the case (I didn't get one)

May be too intense of a flame, but for $2.88 and free shipping, it would almost be worth the loss.

http://www.dealextreme.c...0-c-butane-lighter-1320

Muad'dib

My relationship with my Arc lighter has had its ups and downs. One minute its ushering me into dimensions of immense beauty and ecstasy... the next its giving me hyperspace blue balls as it proceeds to stop working right as the portal opens.

However, yesterday my buddy and I took it apart again and discovered that the problem was that the hose transferring the butane from the storage tank to the the ignition point was kinked. We pushed the hose slightly to the other side and put the lighter back together. Now it works like a dream once again.

Who knows if the hose will stay in the proper place, but at least it's working correctly now. I hope this may be of some assistance to anyone else out there struggling with a fickle Arc.

Peace and Happy Journeys