Electric Arc Lighter for a Wood Burner: 10-Second Limit

An electric arc lighter for a wood burner is a genuinely useful thing to own and it is not the thing most people think they are buying. It replaces the match or the long gas lighter. It does not replace the firelighter, and no amount of reading the marketing copy will change that, because the physics of a spark gap will not allow it. Get that straight first and an arc lighter becomes a small, permanent improvement to your evening routine. Buy one expecting to light a stove from cold with nothing else, and it will go in a drawer by February.

Here is what these things actually do, the specification that decides whether one works at a stove door, and the electric appliance that does replace firelighters if that is what you are really after.

What it is doing, and why it cannot light a log

A gas lighter burns butane and gives you a flame you can hold under something. An arc lighter has no fuel at all. It puts a high voltage across two small electrodes and jumps an electrical arc between them, and that arc is what ignites your tinder.

Two consequences follow, and they are the whole review:

The heat is in one tiny spot. The arc is a few millimetres across, sits between the electrodes rather than reaching out, and carries very little total energy. It will raise a fibre of paper or wood wool to ignition instantly. It will not warm up a lump of anything.

There is no flame to hold under a target. With a match you can keep a flame against a firelighter for ten or fifteen seconds and let the wax melt and catch. An arc lighter gives you a point contact. If the thing you are touching does not ignite in the first second or two, nothing is accumulating.

That is why an arc lighter is excellent at the top of a paper spill and hopeless at the face of a log, and why the reviews you read swing between “brilliant” and “useless” depending on what the reviewer was pointing it at.

The 10-second rule nobody mentions

Here is the specification that matters most at a stove, and it is buried in the instructions rather than the product page.

Zippo’s own knowledge base for its Rechargeable Candle Lighter states that the arc shuts off automatically after 10 seconds unless you release the button sooner. That is not a fault, it is standard across the category: the electronics and the battery would not survive continuous running, so the duty cycle is limited by design.

Ten seconds is plenty to light paper. It is not long enough to coax a reluctant wax cube. So the technique changes: instead of holding a flame on the firelighter, you light the finest thing in the stack first, let that carry the fire to the firelighter, and if you do go straight for a cube you accept two or three presses. The same document notes the battery is designed to operate between -4 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which is worth knowing if you keep your lighter in an unheated porch or out by the log store in January.

What it will and will not light in a stove

Based on how the arc behaves, and matched against the ignition aids we have looked at on this site:

If you have moved to natural firelighters, this matters: the wood wool designs are far easier to light with an arc than the compressed cubes, which is a point in their favour that has nothing to do with how they burn. Our natural firelighter roundup covers which is which.

The specification that decides it: reach

There are two shapes of arc lighter on the UK market and only one of them suits a stove.

Short, pocket or telescopic bodies. The Lifesystems Plasma Lighter is the representative one and Lifesystems publishes the figures: 118g, 94 x 34 x 15mm, a telescopic design, USB rechargeable, push-button ignition, and windproof, which it genuinely is because there is no flame to blow out. It was built for camping and it is excellent in a gale. At a stove door you are reaching past hot cast iron into a firebox with the back of your hand near the frame, and 94mm of body plus a short telescopic section is not much reach.

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Long flexible-neck bodies. Zippo’s rechargeable candle lighter is 10.2 inches tall, about 259mm, weighs 3.35oz and has a bendable neck, which is the format you want for a stove or an open fire. The neck lets you put the arc where the paper is without putting your knuckles where the fire will be. Zippo’s UK listing quotes a one-year warranty. Availability of the rechargeable models comes and goes, so check the current listing rather than assuming.

If you are choosing between an arc lighter and the traditional answer, our guide to long matches for wood burners makes the case for the thing an arc lighter is competing with, and it is a better case than you might expect.

The honest case for and against

For:

• No butane, so nothing to run out of at the wrong moment and nothing to refill.
• Windproof in a way a flame never is, which matters at an open fire and in a draughty room.
• No smell on your hands, and no gas smell in a tightly sealed modern room.
• Rechargeable from any USB port, so it lives on the same cable as everything else.
• Nothing to buy repeatedly, which over a few winters is the actual saving.

Against:

• It needs charging, and it will be flat on the coldest evening of the year at least once.
• The 10-second cut-off makes it clumsy with wax cubes.
• The cheap end of the market is full of unbranded units with invented battery claims and no warranty route.
• It will not, on its own, let you stop buying firelighters.

If you actually want to stop buying firelighters

This is the product people are looking for when they search for an electric lighter, and it is a different machine altogether.

The Grenadier Electric Firelighter is a British-made hot air blower on a stand: a 1100W heating element with a 15W fan behind it, pushing concentrated hot air through a 30cm tube with a 2.9cm nozzle straight into the fuel bed. Grenadier’s own specification gives 2.5kg, a 2.0m fire-resistant cable, the BEAB Approved safety mark, and a 12-month warranty on materials and workmanship, and the company claims a fire lit in two minutes on wood, coal or smokeless fuel with no paper, kindling or chemical firelighters at all.

Two caveats before anyone gets excited. The tube sits a maximum of 31cm above the hearth on the standard stand, so if your stove’s fuel bed is higher than that you need the taller stand Grenadier sells as an accessory. And it is a mains appliance with a hot metal tube, so it wants somewhere to cool down and somewhere to live, which is a different proposition from a lighter in a drawer.

That one genuinely replaces kindling and firelighters. An arc lighter never will. Both can be the right purchase; they are just answers to different questions.

Verdict

Buy a long flexible-neck arc lighter if you light fires often, you are happy to keep using wood wool or natural firelighters, and you would rather not have a gas lighter in the house. Used that way it is a quietly excellent bit of kit, and the windproof arc earns its place at an open fire and outdoors.

Buy a short telescopic one like the Lifesystems if the same lighter also needs to go camping, and accept less reach at the stove.

Buy neither if what you want is to stop using firelighters. That is what the Grenadier, or a better lighting technique, is for. Our guide to the best firelighters for wood burners and the piece on making your own kindling between them get you further for less money.

Frequently asked questions

Can an electric arc lighter light a wood burner? Yes, in the sense that it will light the paper, wood wool or fine kindling that lights the fire. It cannot light a log or split kindling directly, because the arc is only a few millimetres across and carries very little energy. Treat it as a replacement for a match rather than for a firelighter.

How long does an arc lighter arc stay on? About 10 seconds. Zippo’s instructions for its rechargeable lighter state the arc shuts off automatically after 10 seconds unless released earlier, and a limited duty cycle is normal across the category to protect the battery and electronics.

Will an arc lighter light a wax firelighter cube? Usually, but expect two or three attempts. Aim the arc at an edge or a protruding fibre rather than a flat face, since there is no flame to hold against the wax while it melts. Wood wool firelighters are much easier to light with an arc.

Is an arc lighter better than a long gas lighter for a stove? It is better for wind, smell and running costs, and worse for reach and for stubborn targets. A long gas lighter gives you a flame you can hold under a firelighter for as long as you like. An arc lighter gives you ten seconds of point contact and needs charging.

What length of arc lighter do I need for a wood burner? Get one with a long or flexible neck, in the region of 250mm overall, so the arc reaches the base of the stack without your hand entering the firebox. Compact camping models such as the Lifesystems Plasma Lighter, at 94 x 34 x 15mm, are excellent outdoors but short for a stove door.

Is there an electric alternative that replaces firelighters entirely? Yes. A hot air electric firelighter such as the Grenadier, a 1100W element with a 15W fan blowing through a 30cm tube, is designed to ignite wood, coal and smokeless fuel without paper or kindling. It is a mains appliance rather than a pocket lighter, and it needs at least 31cm of clearance from hearth to fuel bed unless you add the taller stand.