New Year Giveaway

Sweet

hubby would love this

I don’t like the Zippo Blu torch lighter. Everything about it feels loose, sloppy and cheap. The innovation of a flint-sparked butane lighter is great, but why does the mechanism have to sit so loosely in the case that even the instruction booklet has to reassure us that the “up-and-down movement of the assembly is normal”?

And, although I have no problems with a non-adjustable flame, why does the flame persist for a moment after the button is let go? Now, this is a Zippo. For all the millions of folk who use Zippo lighters, where does the thumb go when the flame has done its job and the cover’s to be snapped back in place? Over the chimney. Now there’s a very hot blue flame in the way of the thumb instinctively doing what thumbs have always done with Zippos.

Then there’s the size. I don’t like the size of the Blu. The curvy shape is fine, it sets this lighter apart from all other Zippos, but why does it have to be bigger? The effect has been literally to change the Zippo’s tune. The solid ringing clunk of a Zippo opening and shutting (familiar worldwide, by the way – a trademark sound, if ever there was such a thing) is turned into a tinny little clink.

It must be entirely a matter of the dimensions of the case, not the materials, which of course are of Zippo’s familiar nature and quality.

Given this size, however, the window on the side of the case could be at least twice as big, so that actually seeing the fuel level would be possible.

(I sent this letter to the Zippo company, asking them to redesign the lighter and send me one as a token of appreciation for this invaluable feedback, but they have not got back to me.)