The Dude reviews: Alec Bradley "The Burner"

[Dude Here]

I had been looking for a new lighter to replace my cheapy Jetline I've been using. The Burner popped up on Cigar Monster and I pulled the trigger. Arrived today:



First impressions: It's a lot smaller than I originally thought it was going to be. Most of the product photos make it seem much larger than it actually is. Not a bad thing really, I use a small patio table for my smoking station so I really didn't need a huge lighter taking up space. Here it is compared to my wife's iPhone.



Construction seems solid. I gave it a shake and didn't feel or hear any loose parts. The polished "kettle" reservoir looks pretty nice as well. Ignition switch is comfortable and requires just the right amount of pressure to spark. Fill port on the bottom is easily accessible and there's a nice rubber ring that keeps the lighter from sliding around on whatever surface you place it on.



Let's crank up the gas and light 'er up!



The picture above is with the unit on full blast. It produces a nice wide flame about an inch and a half high. Lots of heat up to about two inches away. The gas control valve turns easily, but also produces my first complaints. First, the valve turns like a water hose; you crank it to the off position and the flame goes out. However, on more than one occasion I would still hear gas hissing out of the lighter even with the valve turned all the way to off. The only way to stop it was to re-open the valve and then turn it back to off. A minor annoyance, but it coincides with my second complaint; which is that the cap on the valve stem doesn't feel all that strong, and I worry that it may break from cranking it too hard to shut off the gas. I feel this could have been corrected by having the valve "click" off instead of just tightening until you can't turn it anymore. Another thing I found odd is that you can go from off to full blast in one full turn of the valve, but the valve can be turned three or four times after that with no effect to the flame. Again, just a minor annoyance but it seems like something that could have been tightened up to start with.

One thing I found really nice though was that I could turn the gas down low and produce a natural flame which looks perfect for touch ups and a slow toasting.



Gonna go take this bad boy for a test drive with tonight's cigar, and I'll be back for part two of the review.