Why does my refillable lighter go out when turned upside down?

Why does my refillable lighter go out when turned upside down?

If you've tried turning the refillable lighter upside down in order to light something from above, you may have noticed that the lighter will go out when completely inverted. This is because, while the butane fuel inside the lighter is in liquid form, the lighter actually burns gaseous butane. When the lighter is completely inverted, there is no way for butane gas to reach the ignition port – it's only getting liquid butane, which it can't burn.

Fortunately, there's a pretty easy workaround. If the body/handle of the lighter is even a few degrees off vertical, it should work fine. So you can bend the flexible "neck" of the lighter so that the tip of it will be vertical while the handle of the lighter is a little bit slanted, and you should find that it works perfectly well like that.