Vacation has been great. The Sierra Nevadas have been fun as always. Did a couple day hikes and had a great time. Also realized that I need to be in a lot better shape to hike at this altitude. I have had it easy hiking in TX where the air is nice and thick. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />. Anyway I did the altitude test with my Windmill lighter as promised in a previous and mostly unrelated thread.

I filled it up with fluid at around 500' then travelled to a peak around 8000' then back down the other side of the mountain to where I have been staying all week which is at exactly 6200'. After unpacking and getting settled I tested the lighter at 6200' and it would not light. Zero out of about thirty attemps yeilded not a single ignition. So I purged some air (and lost a lot of fuel in process) and gave it about thirty more tries. This time it lit twice. So I purged some more air (and this time just about the rest of the fuel with it) and it lit just fine every time. I got a bout thrity more quick lights out of the remaining fuel before running out completely. Out of those final thrity it lit every time. Then I refilled it at this same altitude (6200') and it lit and is still ighting with no problems 100% of the time.

In conclusion the lighter appears to work just fine when purged then refilled at the altitude in which it will be used, however, it does not respond well to drastically changing altitudes without purging and refilling before use.

Its a great little lighter and fine for most uses as long as you understand its limitations which seem to only be related to changing altitudes drastically with a full un-purged tank of fuel. Just the same I dont think it's for me. My ferrocerium rod was completely uneffected by altitude <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> so I'm sticking with it and selling the Windmill to try to get back some of what I paid for it ($50).

I'll probably start the Ebay auction at $25 (w/o the tin that it came in since it's my current PSK tin <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />) on Monday morning so if any ETS folks want it just let me know before then and you can have it for $25. Please PM me if interested though because I do not want this thread to be a "for sale" thread and therefore will not reply to any such inquiries in the thread itself. PM me and I'll reply right away. First PM gets it. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> It's the smokey/black color (as shown in the pic) that is still see-through enough to see how much fuel it has without having to use the tiny (and IMO irritating) fuel window.