Electric lighters are the future. No fossil fuels like butane need to be re-purchased, the environment benefits. The customer saves money in the long run and the average powerbank acts as a fuel supply. Starting a fire is easier, cheaper and faster than ever before. At least that’s what the manufacturers and enthusiasts of these seemingly magic devices claim. They are found on Ebay and Amazon, they become bestsellers in no time and they find use in edc-loadouts from many survivalists. Today we are taking a look at the „Plazmatic X” by, well, Plazmatic. It gets its name from the crossing plasma beams by the way.
Let’s start with the most obvious factor first: Price. The Plazmatic X, just like all products by the company, the most expensive alternative to your standard china-made electronic lighter which you would find on any Internet marketplace.The only way to buy this gadget officially is through the official website, we couldn’t find any authorized resellers at the time of this writing. About 60 US-Dollar plus potential shipping, that’s quite the price tag for a lighter. Note that Plazmatic has been doing a lot of sales over the past six months, which bring down the price to somewhere around 45 dollars per piece, you can get them even cheaper if you buy more than one at a time.
One of the most interesting features of the X is Plazmatics so called “Whisper Quiet Light” technology, which eliminates the extreme bleep of other lighters like this and replaces it with a subtle sough. The lighter got a little button on the side for activation. No need to rub it along your pants like you would when trying to use a Zippo onehanded.
According to the manufacturer, the battery lasts between fifty and over a hundred uses, in our own experience we were able to carry it for about a week without charging, your results may vary. The beams reach temperatures around 900 Fahrenheit, which translates to around 480 degrees Celsius. The X also got a build-in child lock, which prevents the coils from activation after pressing the button three times in quick succession. It can be deactivated with the same method. Under the button are two LEDs which indicate how much juice the thing got when charging or pressing the button. A micro-USB port for charging is found on the bottom. The entire lighter is built very well, I bet it will last several drops and scratches, thought the print may be a bit vulnerable. The spring used to assist opening and closing the lid whilst also holding it in place can be adjusted in strength using a screw next to the charging port. The button itself is easy to push down and the travel distance is very low, making for a comfortable and quick lighting experience.
The X doesn’t produce as much light or heat as a regular lighter would. It might be obvious, considering the flameless-ness of this device, but in practice this could have dire consequences. For example, you will not be able to heat your hands or food with the X, since the it doesn’t generate heat all around the beams, instead this heat immediately vanishes straight upwards and if you try to hold your hand above the beams you might burns yourself easily. Also, the light from the LEDs is brighter than the beams themselves. Now, all of this may be a huge positive or an extreme negative, depending on your situation and needs, you be the judge.
We have pointed out a couple of advantages to this lighter already, including the very fast ignition of flammable substances. But herein lies the by far biggest flaw of the Plazmatic X. The space between the coils is really tight. So tight, that I needed to light a piece of paper to then ignite certain things. And the overall design of the protective lid at the top isn’t helping, whilst trying to light a candle in a glass, I couldn’t reach it. Again, I used a piece of paper to reach it. In a case like this, you should go for the Plazmatic “Veo”, which is a rod lighter using the same technology. It’s designed to make it easier to light candles (and bongs), unfortunately we don’t own one of these yet, so we cannot test it and compare it as of now.
Another possible disadvantage is the charging time. When using a Zippo, you can simply exchange the inner parts and keep going. If you forget to charge your X however youll better have a powerbank on hand. Charging times range between one and two hours for us, so no complaints there.
Let’s get to the verdict, shall we?
As the title suggests, we love the Plazmatic X. Once you got it, you will never have to buy fuel, you can use it to light most things in an instant, and a lot of the designs look awesome. Even though some of the negative aspects might way it down in the eyes of skeptics, it’s definitely a gadget you should pick up!
One thing to note: On newer models appearing in the store we noticed a completely different build, it seems Plazmatic has changed to a different manufacturer for their newer products. Watch out for that, because the quality is really bad in our (limited) experience.
Feel free to ask questions in the comments and have a nice day, thanks for reading!