Ozark Trail WindResistant Lighter – Fail!

Normally I don’t bother commenting on gear malfunctions because it does occasionally happen with gear from any manufacturer, but this Ozark Trail WindResistant lighter has to be reviewed because it not only failed me but failed other people too, and could have left us without cooked food or fire in the Adirondacks for several days.  And if you look around the Internet you’ll find a few positive reviews on this lighter, but they are reviews that occurred indoors and were based on coolness factors. 

This lighter works perfectly for me indoors but fails in the outdoors where it’s actually intended for use.

So when I packed the lighter for a recent canoe camping  trip it worked fine, and it worked fine for me the first few uses at camp but malfunctioned on me the second night I tried to use it to light my stove. This was a total fail due to a jammed trigger.  But luckily another camper had a Scripto Outdoor lighter that we used for the entire four day camping trip, otherwise we might have been without food because of a disposable lighter malfunction. 

And when I returned home from my trip I threw the lighter on the desk and forgot about it for a few days and when I picked it up the thing worked again. I admit that I bought it because it was cheap, and I should have known better. This lighter is useful for lighting candles in the home and maybe a tiki torch on the deck but probably not much more.

Don’t take this lighter camping.