I Skyped with my good friend L last night and he brought up something that he has told me before, in relation to my exploding BBQ lighter last night. It’s something that I’ve known for years and which he has shown and demonstrated to me, but which has never stuck. And it bothers me because I could have saved myself a lot of money over the years and also prevented yesterday’s accident.

His words of wisdom?

You don’t need fire to light a fire.

He’s, of course, right. To light propane, all you need is a spark.

I have friends who light their RV stoves with flint spark torch igniters.

I haven’t had much luck with them for propane stoves. They are great for lighting a soldering torch because you can bring the tip of the torch right over the sparking surface, but with a round propane burner, you just can’t get in close enough. It takes me too long to light the stove with one of these and I have a mini explosion each time because the propane has time to build up.

So you need the opposite scenario, a flint that creates a concentrated spark. Guess where you can get one of those? A BBQ lighter.

Which brings me back to my friend L. He has been lighting his RV stove with a depleted BBQ lighter for years.

So guess how I lit my stove the four or five times I lit it today? Yup, with a spark from my now depleting BBQ lighter. It works great and I start the stove on the first snick of the lighter, rather than clicking it several times to get a flame going.

I feel like a complete moron, but I plan to cook with gas for the rest of my life, so I have plenty of time to make up for years of stupidity!