This isn't a shower thought. You're clearly in your car!
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
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LMFAO!
I left the car window open through the car wash, does that count?
Wash the car and have a bath all at once haha
Are you me? I just noticed your pants have a wear rip where my pants usually have a wear rip. Also the dashboard background looks awfully familiar.
😂🤣
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I've had one of these for years and it hasn't failed. But it also isn't exactly useful for lighting anything but a cigarette due to how the electrodes actually are placed and function. It doesn't work very well trying to smoke weed from a pipe/bong and I am skeptical how I might use it to start a campfire even though it's supposed to be a camping tool.
My sister uses a variation of this closer to a traditional lighter with a long neck to light her candles. It's rechargeable, and she's been using the same one for over a decade.
Interesting. I can only guess that candle wax vapor must not conduct electricity as much as other things like nicotine or THC.. 🤷
Well, awesome for her, glad she's getting long life use out of her device 👍
Meh, aside from cigarettes and such, they can also be useful survival equipment tools, if you got a pack of toothpicks or even just some thin dry twigs available. Easy rechargeable fire starter ya know..
But yeah, I've had nothing but a pain in the ass with this thing, I've had to disassemble it to clean it every couple weeks or so, and have also had to replace 2 electrodes and resolder the lid safety switch twice and the charger port once.
I've probably serviced this thing like ~40 times since I got it. You'll know you got a problem when the lid safety switch gets too much crud in it and gets stuck in the ON position, and the damn thing starts lighting up on its own in your pocket.. 💀
I modified mine to where if that should ever happen again, I can literally snatch it apart and snatch the battery out in less than 2 seconds without tools.
You can use it to light kindling for a campfire
For bongs, may i recommend hemp wick
Lol, the idea what a battery powered device is a camping to for starting fires is just funny to me. Of all the ways we have to start fires one that requires a battery is the last thing I'm wasting weight and space on when camping.
Makes it a helluva lot easier to "refuel" it when you have a car and can just plug it in as opposed to a disposable BIC or a zippo. It also keeps a charge for a very long time. And it's faster than rubbing sticks together.
Flint and steel... Matches... No battery required.
Those are also comsumable and need to be replaced when you run out of matches or wear away all the flint, which costs more money than charging a battery.
You know what else isn't consumable? A credit card sized Freznel Lens magnifier, I keep one in my wallet, and they're stupid cheap by the dozen..
Yeah, if there's a need to start a fire, I'll find a way... 🔥
My concern isn't money, it's the reliability. If you store those things correctly they will always light. If you store a batter powered device correctly, no matter what it must be recharged even if it hasn't been used. I don't want to have to think about whether I charged my firestarter. The checklist is long enough when you are going camping. It's just one more thing to forget.
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Bleh, I got a modded almost pocket sized solar panel that'll recharge it from empty to full within about 5 hours. And that gives me anywhere from ~20 to 30 uses or so before it needs recharge.
Sure I usually just use a wall wart USB charger, but its nice to have the backup solar panel as well.
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I tried one and I could not deal with it because it created a high pitched buzz which only me and cats seemed to be able to hear. Glad to know I am not the only one to dislike them.
Oh, I definitely hear that sound too, I'm pretty sure many people do. It doesn't bother me though, its only like 3 to 5 seconds, not like the sound is on repeat.
Now as far as your cats... 😺
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I've been using my cheap $5 electric candle lighter for like 5 years now. It's saved probably 10 butane candle lighters from the trash.
I'm going add another anecdote to the rest. I have one of the long versions that we use for lighting candles. We've had it for seven years. Still works great.
Edit: I checked and it's actually been nine years since we bought it.
That's awesome! 👍
Going by other comments here, apparently candle wax vapor/deposits aren't nearly as electrically conductive as nicotine/tar/ash buildup, so basically everyone saying they use theirs to light candles has indeed reported these sort of lighters work for many years with no problems.
Things get a lot dirtier a lot quicker and end up eventually shorting out when used to light a pack of cigarettes a day. Yeah, bad habit I know, but at least I know how to clean and maintain mine when it starts acting up.
But that’s exactly what these lighters do, literally light things on fire, which of course generates smoke and dirties the electrodes, up until the point they start shorting out, if not other issues first.
Do people not clean them? My cheapo Chinese one has lasted 5 years and all I've done is wipe with with a paper towel every now and then.
The instructions for these things literally say to not ever clean them. Well, I'm not exactly one to follow all instructions.
I end up fully disassembling mine every couple or few weeks, to thoroughly clean the ceramic insulator and electrodes with rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, and even a toothbrush.
Note: Remove the ceramic insulator from the device before attempting to clean it this way, as practically everyone should know already, rubbing alcohol is flammable..
Better yet, just have an experienced electronics tech do it for you if you're not 100% sure how to fully clean it yourself.
I went on a date with a guy who used these. Problem is, I use a metal mesh filter on my piece. When he went to light my pipe, the metal reacted to the electric charge and popped out, scattering burning weed around the floor.
Yeah, no, I'll stick to regular lighters, thanks.
I used to use those mesh ones but now I get a little glass honeycomb. Way better and I think I got like 20 for $4 a few years ago and still using them. If you're careful theylast a while and can be cleaned
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Oof ⚡
Yeah I hear you there, even without a metal mesh screen, they're not all that great for lighting pipes or bongs, that's still best left to a good old trusty Bic lighter.
But, and hear me out here, it's also wicked cool.
Ours is more stick-shaped though, and really only good for candle wicks. If we smoked, you might be able to get a cigarette into the arc. It'd probably also work well if your grill's or gas stove's spark igniter was broken.
My mom got a 4-pack of some of these that look kinda like long kitchen lighters. She gave me one, and I've used it a few times for lighting my bowls when I smoke, but you can't beat an actual flame. The arc on those things isn't big enough so you have to put it right on there. We still have them, but we use them for candles.
That's cool.
According to some other comments here, others tell me those sort of long electric arc lighters tend to last a lot longer, when used for lighting candles or gas stoves or such.
But using arc lighters for cigarettes or weed, it'll likely start acting up within a couple months or less..
At least I know how to service mine, but that's not for the inexperienced or the faint of heart.
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That's actually cool as fuck though. I don't smoke, so I don't have that kind of lighter. But that X in the middle really makes it look like it's from the future!
Pretty close, had one for a brief while, mostly used for incense till something got screwy and apparently connected the electrode to the casing to zap the hell out of me.
EXACTLY!
Some folks have better, longer lasting luck out of these things, others don't, but yeah you totally get that these things can (and often will) eventually short out, one way or another.
I happen to have enough electronics knowledge and experience to keep mine properly cleaned and maintained, but I don't think that 99% of people would even be able to do that, at least not safely..
Thousands of volts? Really?
Yes, really. Pretty much any time you can visibly see an arc through the air it's in the thousands of volts range. If you walk around in socks and zap something and you can feel a shock from your fingertips it's probably 2-3 kV at least, can be up to 15+ kV, but very low current
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Kapton tape is a good high Voltage insulator that is also cheap and available.
And I have 3 rolls of the stuff, 1cm wide, partly used to fix it. Honestly I've used more heatshrink (ThermalFit) and solder than Kapton tape, but yeah...
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This makes me wonder if you could have one with a capacitor and a fly wheel or something and maybe even work somewhat like a self winding watch.
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I work in a teaching lab and we use candle lighter versions of these for students to light their Bunsen burners. They're pretty reliable for that purpose. Way better than the flint and steel strikers that my previous position used.
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