Piezo ignition, discuss

[Neo]

Pro:
You don't need a spark or lighter to set fire to gas.
Con:
You need a spare spark or lighter to set fire to gas if the piezo stops working.

[Neo]

So some of my experience. Had a boil over once, piezo stopped working. Carefully half disassembled it and cleaned, a drop of oil on the spring and all good. The trigger wasn't fully disengaging to reset.

Otherwise intermittent. Could it be the occasional use of the stove, thus corrosion on the flame surface and the piezo not arching?

Currently use a mini Bic (which I carry regardless so no probs, but no piezo)

[eggs]

Carry a fire stick

[Kickinghorse]

I carry one of those mozzie bite zappers in Summer and as a last resort will provide enough of a spark to light a gas stove. Imagine the zappers are just another form of Piezo.

Phil

[crollsurf]

Carry a fire stick

https://www.bunnings.com.au/our-range/brands/f/fatwood

[eggs]

The flint variety of fire stick. I have a piezo which is intermittent.
The flint produced sparks fills in those moments and it can be carried on planes.

[Huntsman247]

I find heavy moisture sometimes stops the peizo on my stove but I've found a bit of tp works well to dry it out. I generally don't bring a backup ignighter/lighter unless I'm by myself and going somewhere real cold. Can always use another stove to start it or I figure worst case senario, I'll just eat the food that doesn't need cooking if I have a more serious failure. If it happens once and I run out of food for a few days, I'll lose some weight. Not the end of the world.

[wildwanderer]

I have a piezo on my soto amicus stove. Works really well. I do carry a back up mini bic for camp fire lighting etc.

Similar to huntsman, only time it didn't work (until it dried) was in the rain.

Pro tip: Don't cook in the rain, you'll get wet, soggy food is not enjoyable and your stove ignition won't work.

[Lamont]

I tried a bic a while back (for when I carry a stove which is not often) as a back-up, then the one time I tried lighting the stove with the bic it was of course,
out of gas/blocked/stuffed/goodness knows what.
Nearly drove me up the wall trying to get the stove alight with the spark from the bic. I know some can do it well but I'm useless.
Now if I carry a stove and it's cold I'll carry a little scratchy 'steel' thingy. Weighs a few grams, takes no space and never fails. I've lit the gas stovem and etho burner from it and even an esbit type/firelighter block. If I wanted to light a fire-I could use the stove.
Where do you get a mini Bic? Are they refillable or disposable?

Last edited by Lamont on Mon 22 Mar, 2021 11:42 am, edited 2 times in total.

[Lamont]

..

[Neo]

Hi Lamont. You can get a mini Bic lighter where they sell tobacco, so supermarket service counter, tobacconist etc. Sometimes they only have the large/regular Bic so try another shop.

I once watched a YouTube video demonstrating the flint methods and thunders. In the background were a couple of ciggy lighters dunked in a glass of water. At the end of the demo he gets a wet lighter and it works fine

[Lamont]

Ta

Hi Lamont. You can get a mini Bic lighter where they sell tobacco, so supermarket service counter, tobacconist etc. Sometimes they only have the large/regular Bic so try another shop.

Yeah I have a few years back-no tobacco joints down here-I'll try again-wouldn't mind having one just in case.

At the end of the demo he gets a wet lighter and it works fine

As long as it's working (and you are not a flamin/gas coward like me ) -yep bingo
I think a steel does the same? Even wet it works-don't they? Never tried mine wet-will have to go do some testin' and learnin' .

Edit works. 18 gms. 4 years old and many left. Can't even remember where I bought it.
Same size as my lighter and weighs less than the empty lighter. Jim Morrison sang it best.....

Attachments

[wildwanderer]

I got my mini bics at Coles about 3 years ago. Were at the tobacco/refund desk, had to ask for them.

Not sure if they still stock em but worth a look.

Unfortunately they are even more fiddly to operate than the full size BICs. Those child safety features work as I struggle..lol

[Lamont]

I got my mini bics at Coles about 3 years ago. Were at the tobacco/refund desk, had to ask for them.
Not sure if they still stock em but worth a look.

Ta. Still wondering are they disposable or refillable?

[CraigVIC]

You would never do it of course, but the safety mechanism of a Bic lighter is easily removed. Just temporarily remove the silver windshield and it will pull off no problem.

[CraigVIC]

I'm pretty sure you can refill but they are thought of as disposable. They last a long time and as a bushwalkers compared to someone lighting 30-40 cigarettes a day you could get years out of one.

[Neo]

The flint eventually runs out. If you had spares and the spring didn't fly away it would be possible to replace.

[Lamont]

Goodonya Craig and WW.


But my fire steel has an inbuilt whistle so I reckon that's that.

Last edited by Lamont on Sun 28 Mar, 2021 8:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Kickinghorse]

Hah, whistle envy!
My Osprey day pack has a whistle incorporated into the breast strap. Lucky to hear it down the backyard let alone in the bush
Now if your talking a real whistle then this is what you need. Makes my ears ring! And kids can’t make the excuse they didn’t hear it when I’m on yard duty!

https://www.stormwhistles.com/

Phil

[ribuck]

whistle envy!

We all carry a whistle because it's what bushwalkers do. But when was the last time that a bushwalker got rescued because of their whistle?

[Kickinghorse]

Rbuck wrote
when was the last time that a bushwalker got rescued because of their whistle?

Don’t know, you tell me. Why do we carry anything that might be of help when things go pear shaped? If you’re still not convinced check this advice from Bushwalk Search and Rescue Victoria.

https://www.bsar.org/?s=Whistles

[ChrisJHC]

Not bushwalking, but the crew of a yacht that sank off Port Fairy were rescued because a boat looking for them heard their whistles.

They didn’t see their lights or the reflective tape on their life jackets.

[Neo]

Well my windmaster piezo is sheet. Up for a good clean and service this month. A little sewing machine oil on the spring action.

[Ms_Mudd]

Have had no issues with my piezo igniter on my SOTO Amicus so far, although now that I have replied as such, am sure there will be issues!
I do carry a small Bic in my first aid kit always.
Last Mothers Day I did get a fire steel, it made for fun challenges during lock down to see who could start a fire the quickest. Heavier than a Bic to carry though.

On the whistle. I do have a Fox40 pealess whistle, I would hate to be in a situation that needed it in order to be rescued but the thing is LOUD and weighs next to nothing to carry.

[Lamont]

Some raw Mini Bic J25 POWER on the way to me as I type.




Five in fact.

[keithy]

I love my piezo igniter.

I had one on my early Firemaple FMS-105 stove, and then one on the D-Power stove I got back in 2015 mentioned here http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=20780

Sure they can stop working when they get wet like when you suffer a pot boil over. But a quick blow to clear out the water gets it working again. Mine on the Dpower stove worked well for 4 years regular usage.

A friend donated their non-working FMS117T to me for parts so I cobbled together a Titainum Dpower stove (using the titanium legs and pot struts from the FMS117T, but keeping the Dpower burner and stem, and the piezo igniter). This brought the weight of the stove down.

The weight of an original FMS 117T is about 98g. The Dpower piezo attachment is 10.5g. My franken-Dpower-Firemaple stove with piezo is 125g (vs the original 140g). So removing the piezo attachment brings my remote hose stove to 114.5g (much closer to the original FMS 117T weight).

The piezo on the stove worked well until late in 2019 when I hiked around the Caucasus mountains in Georgia. Outside Mestia I met a South Korean family who were doing an overland expedition trip from Korea to Paris (via China, Mongolia, over the Parmir pass, Russia, through the various "stan" countries into Georgia before going through Turkey and up the Balkans to Europe). Amazingly they did it in a Kia station wagon, with three kids under 8 years old.

Anyway, they saw me preparing my basic hiking food, and invited me to eat with them. One of their stoves wasn't working so I lent them my stove and gas. However this being a Korean family feast involved cooking for longer periods than I usually used my stove for. The Stove was used for almost an hour (with a larger pot being used than I typically use), and the heat was a little too much for the plastic pusher of the piezo igniter. It now still clicks but not consistently despite my efforts to shave some melted plastic off.

Keithy's Franken-Dpower-Firemaple stove with slightly melted piezo pusher.

FrankenTitaniumDpower

FrankenDpower.jpg (92.42 KiB) Viewed 35148 times

Keithy's repurposed piezo igniter

Years back I previously owned a Kovea Ki-1007 piezo igniter (I think this is rebadged as the MSR piezo igniter as well). That weighed around 12g. it didn't get much use with my remote stove, but when I got the FMS118T Fireblade 2 stove without a piezo, and the tiny BRS3000T for shorter and lighter trips I couldn't find my Kovea piezo igniter.

It looked like this:

Kovea Piezo

31IVuMpHDiL.jpg (14.25 KiB) Viewed 35148 times

So I scouted around the house to see what I had. I found I had an empty butane torch with piezo igniter. The refill valve was damaged so it was no longer refillable. I cracked it open, used a hot knife to cut off as much of the plastic as I could, covered the opening with gorilla tape, and how I have this small igniter that lives in my pot. Works well for gas stoves, and I have to hold it like this to not burn the hairs of my hands.

This now weighs around 18g and lives in my pot. I was going to take the cap and chain off (cap and chain are 1.3g each) so I could save another 2.6g, but the chain works, and cap keeps the igniter part dry.

DIY repurposed Piezo igniter

Repurposed Piezo Igniter.jpg (56.83 KiB) Viewed 35148 times

[Ms_Mudd]

Had my first piezo malfunction on the weekend!!! It still worked, but didnt 'click' first go a few times each use, it was very cold, does that affect it? I don't think my gas mix was great either

[Lizzy]

It only happened because you jinxed yourself Ms Mudd!! Arent you a nurse? You should be more superstitious….. it’s like saying the ‘Q’ word…. Lol

[Lamont]

It only happened because you jinxed yourself Ms Mudd!! Arent you a nurse? You should be more superstitious….. it’s like saying the ‘Q’ word…. Lol

Q
Piezo, got it
been waiting and waiting
Triple wink

[ribuck]

I gotta say, I'm a convert. When I had to replace my stove, I wasn't looking for one with piezo ignition, but the stove I bought had it anyway. The convenience of "screw on the canister and click for flame" has grown on me now, and it would be hard to go back to scrabbling around with matches, flint or lighter.