Piezo Electric Gas Lighter

[Jim Jackson]

Recently bought a CK Classic Piezo Electric Gas Lighter for lighting our gas rings on the cooker. Worked like a charm for a couple of weeks then it has, twice now, stopped working and after 24 or so hours starts working again.

When it's not working it feels like the lever you press isn't squeezing the piezo material - there is no "friction" feel. At first I thought something had slipped inside, but was loath to take apart as I might need to return it as faulty. I'm baffled by the erratic behaviour.

Anyone got any insights into what these devices do? Could it be damp/water etc affecting the workings?

Jim

[Chris Hogg]

I used to have one that lived in a shed, for lighting a gas kiln. Except that it never worked out there, whereas it did work indoors. I assumed it was damp out there. Kept it indoors, eventually. But I can't remember if it 'felt' different to use.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Jim Jackson wrote on 15/10/2020 :

As you squeeze the trigger, it should feel very springy, then the tension should suddenly release with a loud click. Piezo generates high voltage when it is distorted, which basically what happens when struck suddenly by a tiny hammer - that is the click.

If it doesn't click every time, it is faulty, many are. Damp can short out the high voltage, but it would still give a sharp click even if it didn't generate the voltage and spark.

[Chris Hogg]

Now you mention it, when mine was kept outside in the shed, it didn't click, but when kept inside, it did. Perhaps the higher humidity affects the springiness of the spring, but I don't know why it should.

[John Rumm]

I have had some which seemed to have some kind of pneumatic linkage from a wedge shaped lever on the side - so rather than there being a single click and spark, it generated a succession of multiple sparks on both push and release.

The most reliable one we had seemed to be a Junkers pistol shaped one, that gave a loud single click each time you pulled the trigger. Like:

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Normally they work a bit like a toggle switch, IE putting a sudden compression on the crystal, so you get a sharp pulse to the step up device. Two things, either its not doing that sharp pulse or damp is getting into the transformer. I prefer the invertors driven ones. OK you need a battery, but they keep on sparking as you hold your finger on the button. I used to hate those filament ones on the top of a giant 1.5v cell, what a was of time they were!

Brian who nowadays has no gas!

[Jim Jackson]

This behaves as you describe. When it is not working there is no click, when it works there is a click and spark. I'm beginning to think that damp/humidity is affecting the operation. I'm now keeping it well away from damp/humidity. Will see if it behaves itself better.

Happy to hear more experiences of these things.

cheers and thanks Jim

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Brian Gaff (Sofa) brought next idea :

Brian, there isn't any transformer in a piezo igniter. They are just a piezo crystal, which generate a pulse of high voltage when suddenly distorted. The sudden distortion is provided by a tiny hammer like mechanism, fired by a spring, as you hear the click on squeezing the trigger.

[The Natural Philosopher]

[Jethro_uk]

No real advice, but just to say that pizeo fired cigarette lighters behave the same. You either get a firm resistance-snap-spark cycle, or a low resistance-squeeze-no spark cycle.

A quick succession of presses seems to "cure" things though.

[polygonum_on_google]

I've got a Dremel gas soldering iron. The most incredibly good lighting mechanism - seems to always work.

Yes - I do use it in the kitchen. But for lighting puddings at Christmas. (Induction, not gas, so no need.)