It All Depends on The Battery
Let me try to take care of them one by one. The instructions warn not to hold the button longer than 5 seconds. (Probably because they’re worried about the electronics inside.) This is quite a long time unless one is trying to light a good-sized cigar. I would say, then, that one can’t really properly or easily light a cigar with it. It does make a noise. I would call it kind of a soft sizzling or hissing sound. Picture a sparkler the size of a paper clip.
This is actually the spark breaking through the air and heating it up. It’s in no way loud or annoying to me. The electrodes are close together, probably to minimize the voltage needed to make the spark jump the gap; not a problem. The cover only opens so much, but it isn’t a problem either. It’s really very easy to light a cigarette with it. Like most people, I had to try a piece of paper towel; it lit that INSTANTLY.
One could VERY easily start a camp fire with it by starting small. The flameless lighter DOES last at least a week on a charge (It’s been a week today.) The big question will be how long the rechargeable battery lasts (how many cycles) before it can no longer take a charge. If it lasts a year, it will already have beaten all the piece of junk refillable butane lighters I have thrown away. Keep in mind, there’s no piezoelectric spark mechanism to break.
All there is is a push button switch that I can’t really picture breaking – it has a much easier job than the hammer and mechanism needed to hit the piezoelectric crystal to make it spark. Then there are some electronics with no moving parts, that should last a really long time if it’s well designed and it seems to be. The ceramic insulators around the electrodes are very sturdy, thick, and well-made. Thumbs up if only the battery lasts!!
I am not going to do this until there’s a reason to, but there is a small phillips screw on the bottom and I’m sure that if I removed it, the whole guts would lift out of the case. I guarantee I will do that if the battery dies, and try to replace the non-user-replacable battery. I am using a small charging cube that plugs into the wall and has a USB port, to charge it and it works fine. (Cable comes with the lighter.) All in all, it will have to break quite quickly before I’m dissatisfied and, from the way it’s made, I don’t think it will!! I like it!!