Lighters are like cars, rather think of them as little machines. If you use cheap fuel with lower pressure or dirty fuel the tendency is to say the lighter is defective when what in reality is happened is user error.
When jet flame lighters produce a momentary flame and go out they 1) need to be turned up or 2) need to be turned down if you can hear the gas shooting out of the burner.
If the internal flame limiter is set too low, you can reset it to a higher setting to get a higher range of settings. If you look closely at any lighter you will see what I mean.
With all the talk in different forums about brands of lighters, 80% of the lighters mentioned are made by 1 of 5 factories in China, so the Xikar and the Porsche and the Colibri are likely all made by the same factory or factories.
Not to say any lighter may not have been set incorrectly at the factory or distributor, but with a small amount of knowledge you can fix any lighter to perform as expected. (Unless of course it's blocked or the piezo-electric igniter has failed) which is why you have a service department.
The most critical part of any jet flame lighter is the diffuser plate, which is a small disk in the fuel tube, this is how they get the high velocity gas by reducing the butane stream to a pinpoint to speed up the gas flow(remember high school physics?). If you use cheap fuel how long do you think it takes to clog a hole 1/4 the diameter of a normal human hair?
With most lighter distributors now offering free straight replacements of lighters the consumers return I think they cover pretty much all that can happen to a lighter in the consumers hands.
