Clipper Couch Potatoes Lighter, Soft Flame

Most cheap lighters are thrown away when the gas runs out or the flint wears down. A Clipper lighter is built so that neither has to be the end of it. This one comes from the Couch Potatoes series: potato characters printed on the round nylon Clipper body.

The Couch Potatoes designs

Other retailers list four designs in the series, among them a geek, a stoner and a beer drinker. One lighter carries one of these prints.

What makes a Clipper lighter different

Two parts can be renewed. The tank refills with Clipper lighter gas, and the flint can be replaced when the spark gets weak. Clipper states a full tank holds about 4 grams of gas, rated at up to 3,000 lights. The flame is a soft flame with a fixed height; Clipper gives 50 mm as the maximum. If you want an adjustable flame or a jet flame, this is not the lighter for you.

The flint pin and the tilted flame

The spark wheel and flint sit in a pin that pulls out of the lighter. It is there so you can change the flint, but many people use it to pack hand-rolled cigarettes, and Clipper lists it as a packing tool for rolling tobacco.

Hold the lighter tilted sideways and downwards and you get a larger flame than when it is upright. Pipe users value this. It is said to work best when the lighter is at pocket temperature.

What owners say

• The spark wheel is angular. Clipper says this shape is part of the child-resistant mechanism; still, keep the lighter away from children. One reviewer found the same wheel rough on the fingers.
• One forum user describes changing the flint as awkward, and one author complains that the flint wears quickly. Clipper sells replacement flints separately.
• Another forum user reported a lighter that clogged after one or two refills with a different brand of butane, and bought Clipper gas for the next one.

Where it comes from

Clipper's parent company, Flamagas, started in Barcelona in 1959. Credit for the cylinder shape goes to designer Enric Sardà. Sales began in the early 1970s, and the brand calls that model the first refillable plastic lighter. Wikipedia estimates today's output at about 450 million lighters a year.

Express Highs ships in plain, discreet packaging.