Handwarmers, maintenance, and rebuilding
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New Video: Handwarmer Gone Bad - Restoring a Zippo Empty New Video: Handwarmer Gone Bad - Restoring a Zippo

Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:59 pm
Spend some time looking through the posts in our Handwarmer Forum, and it becomes apparent that there is a fair degree of angst associated with the Zippo handwarmer. Our own experience is somewhat similar, but we've been puzzled as to why it seems to be so difficult to pin down the exact reason.

That is probably because there are many factors that could be improved on:
1: Thicker reservoir body and more thermal mass to lessen the effect of Cold Shock.
2: Wider reservoir neck (with no obstructions in it) to facilitate phase transition of the fuel from liquid to gas.
3: Thermal barrier straddling the shoulder of the reservoir to prevent the cotton packing from getting charred.
4: Larger catalyst head to allow for more energy release from the exothermic reaction.
5: Catalyst material containing pure platinum, and not a mixture of palladium and iron.

Replacement heads with catalyst material that does not have published specifications are prohibitive from an expense standpoint, and that discourages may users to upgrade their old Zippo's.

This video explores an experiment we did that is not only inexpensive to undertake, it seems to considerably improve the performance that can be expected from a new stock item. Using this procedure, the user does not need to have the original head that came on the handwarmer. It does require some DIY skills, and a few common tools to undertake.

If you have an old zippo that has been rescued from a drawer after languishing there for 20 years, or a relatively new one that has recently shit the bed, or you're having trouble sleeping, then the next 8 minutes may not be a total waste of your time.

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