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There are materials of an expendable nature other than wicks, flint and fuel that are required for a petrol lighter to function properly. I get questions often via email, in the comments under YouTube videos and the DependableFlame.com Facebook Group asking whether old petrol lighter wadding must be used again or what can be used to replace it? This article will answer these questions.
What Is The Purpose Of Petrol Lighter Wadding?
Most petrol lighters have absorbent wadding material packed inside the fuel tank. This wadding is interwoven with the unexposed portion of the wick and its purpose is to hold the fuel in the tank and to keep the wick saturated with fuel to facilitate the capillary action of the fuel vapors being carried to the top of the wick.
Zippo has traditionally used a few small rayon balls as wadding while Evans and Bowers were known to use sawdust in conjunction with other absorbent material and still other companies have used cotton balls or strands of similar fibers as wadding material. Even Scripto and other Vu-lighter manufacturers typically employed wadding in the upper fuel chamber of their designs.
The basic principle is to interweave the wick with the wadding as evenly as possible all the way to the bottom of the fuel tank, thus ensuring that proper fuel flow up to the top of the wick will be achieved. An improperly wadded petrol lighter may not function at optimal levels of fuel economy and may fail to light altogether.
Do I Have To Reuse The Old Wadding When Rewicking My Lighter?
There is no reason that the old wadding pulled out of a particular lighter in order to rewick it must be put back in for it to work properly. You will need to put some form of wadding back in the fuel tank and if the old wadding is in decent enough condition to retain fuel and is not contaminated or soiled then it can certainly be reused as well.
There are several factors to consider when deciding whether to put the old wadding back in and if the lighter doesn’t seem to get the same kind of fuel efficiency that it once did then replacing it may be warranted. Wadding that has obviously been compromised by the wrong fuel would be one example of material that should be replaced.
For lighters that employ sawdust as wadding material, I wouldn’t even try to put that back inside the tank of the lighter. It may be just as functional and I’m sure there were original, valid reasons for its use but there are better options available today that are not expensive and are much easier to manage than a bunch of loose sawdust.
What Can I Use To Replace The Old Wadding?
Just about any clean absorbent material will function fine as wadding, though some may perform better than others. In the past, when I didn’t have my normal materials available I have used old women’s underwear and t-shirt material as wadding. That was clean women’s underwear that had previously been worn, not the underwear of an old woman!
Cotton balls like many folks keep in the house to use with cosmetics or to apply certain medications to the skin will also work just fine for wadding in the majority of cases. Cotton balls are pretty small though and may be sort of difficult to retrieve from the closed style tanks of some lighters as each individual ball will not be connected to the others.
The best material that I have found to use is the Organic Cotton Coil that is available for purchase on Amazon. The Organic Cotton works great and can be peeled off the coil in long slender strips that can easily be fed through the fuel hole and also be retrieved more easily when rewicking again if kept in one long strand.
Where Can I Buy Wadding To Use When Rewicking My Lighter?
There are multiple options available to purchase wadding from both Amazon and Ebay, as well as replacement felt base pads for insert style lighters. Some come as kits that may include everything necessary to rewick and rewad a Zippo type insert style lighter and others contain only cotton and felt pad while some must be purchased as the materials themselves individually but will function the same nonetheless.
Cotton balls work just fine in Zippo type insert style lighters because it is not much of a chore to retrieve all the wadding from the big opening in the bottom of an insert. The Organic Cotton Coil may perform more thirstily though and is certainly a better option when rewicking a closed tank style lighter like most Ronson, Evans, Thorens and even Dunhill models.
Zippo Fanatic 77 Outdoors made a video a few yrs ago espousing the superior performance of “vape” cotton and specifically a product called Cotton Bacon. I have not used either of these products but can testify that many of his YouTube followers are devout users of them and swear they would use nothing else.
Let Us Hear From You!
Whatever you decide to use for a wadding replacement in your old petrol lighter, the important thing is that it be an absorbent material that you can interweave evenly with the wick in the fuel tank of your lighter. If multiple companies in the past used sawdust as wadding material without any negative effect then it’s hard to imagine that just about any old absorbent material will work well enough.
I recommend the Organic Cotton Coil though because it is relatively inexpensive for a roll that is forty feet in length which would probably be enough to rewick at least a hundred different lighters, it performs well for this intended purpose and is easily manageable in the coil form.
Please leave any comments, questions or suggestions that you may have in the comments section below this article. I would love to hear what you use to replace the wadding you pull out of your old lighters and any tricks or tips you may have developed over the course of your time in the cigarette lighter hobby to make these projects more simple or easy to accomplish.
If you would like to include a video or photo to illustrate your question, comment or suggestion then please consider posting on the DependableFlame.com Facebook Group where photos and videos are easily uploaded as opposed to the comment section here where they are not allowed.
I would also like to ask you to check out and subscribe to the DependableFlame.com YouTube channel where we regularly publish vintage petrol lighter show & tell and instructional repair demonstration videos and conduct the weekly live stream Vintage Coffee And Lighters Live! where we catch up with all of you over a cup of coffee and discussion of old lighters and whatever else may cross our minds.
Until next time…
Solid read on rewicking petrol lighters! No need to reuse old wadding, huh? And your replacement hacks – cotton balls to repurposed clean underwear – brilliant. But this ‘vape’ cotton or Cotton Bacon idea from Zippo Fanatic 77 Outdoors’ video? Intriguing. I’d love to delve deeper. Got more insights on these unconventional wadding replacements? Keep up the awesome work – who knew rewicking could be such a thrilling topic!
Hey Ryan, thank you for your insights. The Cotton Bacon is a specific product that ZF77 had done a video on that was very popular but I couldn’t find it in stock at the time I wrote the article. I think it was basically the same as the vape cotton though just marketed under a catchier name. There are plenty of options to use for petrol lighter wadding though as I detailed in the article that there were companies back in the day who employed sawdust for these purposes, it is hard to believe that just about any absorbent material will not work sufficiently enough.
Thank you for sharing this informative article about the purpose of petrol lighter wadding. It’s interesting to learn how the wadding helps with fuel flow and the capillary action of the wick. It’s good to know that when rewicking a lighter, the old wadding can be reused if it’s in decent condition, but there are other options available as well. The Organic Cotton Coil you mentioned seems like a practical and affordable choice. It’s great to have different materials to choose from based on personal preference and the type of lighter being rewicked.
Thank you Jason, I really appreciate you stopping by to share your insights into the article. Wadding is essential to the proper function of just about any petrol lighter but I don’t believe the material used as wadding is especially critical because we have seen such a wide array of material be used for wadding by the manufacturers themselves over the years. I do believe the Organic Cotton Coil is probably the most convenient material for lighter enthusiasts who perform these tasks often and I have had good results from the way it performs.
Thanks for such an informative post. I love things vintage, and if they can still be serviceable, it makes them more worthwhile. I personally enjoy using things from a century or two ago, as I have several vintage items in my possession. It never ceases to amaze me how some of these things outlive their original owners, and are still in working condition.
Thank you Carolyn, I appreciate your kind words and am glad you found the article informative. Using old products like lighters, ashtrays, smoking implements and tools are what this website is all about so I agree with you one hundred percent. There is a particular satisfaction that is found in taking an old mechanism that has been rendered useless by time and putting it back into good working order and employing it back for its original intended purpose.
Wau i neadet this informacion i have a zippo gift with to memory wadding is essential to the funsion I belive in organic cotton maby is the better material for light and beter function .Than you for share this
You bet Aida, I know that many people like to switch out the wadding in there Zippo just to make sure that it is running at its optimal level and so that they will get the best fuel efficiency possible. The organic cotton coil that is available on Amazon is the best replacement that I have found and certainly less expensive than the specific kits that are sold by Zippo.
Definitely an interesting topic to read about. You packed a lot of useful information into your article but also made it easy to read and understand. It’s really interesting to think about a lighter being full of sawdust for the wadding material. I personally have never had a zippo or any other similar brand of lighter as all the lighters in my collection are bics. It probably would be easier to use a different material than sawdust to replace the wadding in a lighter. Sawdust just seems like it would be a big mess and hard to get in the lighter. Thank you for an interesting read and lot of information.
You bet Liz, thank you for stopping by to check out the article and also for leaving your insights here. The sawdust is definitely something that most people will want to replace if they ever have to deal with it for the exact reason you bring up, it is prone to make a mess anytime you have to pull it out to replace your wick and could even fall out of some tanks when you are fueling it, especially if caution is not taken. Some of it seems more like ground up wine cork material and not something you just want loose all over your work area.
The choice of wadding material for petrol lighters is an interesting topic and can greatly affect a lighter’s performance and fuel efficiency. It’s impressive how different manufacturers traditionally used a range of materials, from rayon balls to sawdust, cotton balls, and strands of fibers. It’s crucial that whatever material is used, it must be interwoven with the wick effectively to ensure optimal fuel flow.
I found it fascinating how one can repurpose various household items as wadding, such as clean, used women’s underwear or t-shirt material, demonstrating the material’s primary requirement of absorbency. Your suggestion of organic cotton coil as the best option, particularly due to its manageable form, is also noteworthy.
I’m curious about the experiences of those who have tried non-traditional materials like vape cotton or Cotton Bacon. These might offer new possibilities for petrol lighter wadding replacements. It’s clear that experimentation with different materials can open up new avenues for maintaining and enhancing the performance of petrol lighters. I’d be keen to hear from others on this topic!
Thanks John, I really appreciate you checking out the article and leaving such a detailed comment with your insights. You really can use just about any absorbent material as wadding though some obviously may be suited for the job than others. I haven’t had any problems using the organic cotton coil and I think this is about the same product just in a slightly altered form as the vape cotton. You should consider hanging out in the DependableFlame YouTube live stream some time as well if you are looking for more of this kind of discussion!
Hey there! First off, thanks for the incredibly comprehensive article on petrol lighter wadding. I really appreciate the level of detail and practical advice you’ve provided for folks like me who enjoy preserving and maintaining their vintage lighters.
Your use of various materials, like old t-shirt or underwear fabric, as wadding is a nice reminder that, in a pinch, we can get creative with what we have on hand. Though I’ve not tried using clothes as wadding before, it’s an intriguing idea!
Hey Anoth, so thankful that you continue to frequent the site and check out these articles and also glad that you thought there were helpful suggestions contained within. Obviously there are some materials that are more suited to use as petrol wadding than others but any clean, absorbent material should work about as good as any other for the purposes of holding the fuel in the tank and providing capillary action in order to carry the fumes up to the top of the wick.