How to Refill a Bic Lighter: 5 Easy Steps

BIC lighters are some of the most common and accessible lighters on the market today. Many of them are small enough to fit in your pocket and others are designed for multiple purposes, such as lighting cigarettes or lighting candles.

But what happens when your Bic lighter runs out of fluid? Can you refill a Bic lighter? Let’s answer this question and more in detail.

Can You Refill a Bic Lighter?

Yes and no.

According to Bic themselves, their lighters (both the pocket models and the multipurpose models) are non-refillable. Bic wants you to purchase a new lighter each time your current one runs out of lighter fluid.

That said, just because Bic doesn’t make the lighters refillable by default doesn’t mean you can’t get around this limitation. In fact, you can refill your Bic in many cases by following the steps below.

Step 1

This tutorial assumes that you have a standard, thumb-activated Bic lighter.

To begin, gather materials including:

• A pushpin
• Some butane lighter fluid
• 3 rubber grommets
• A file and pair of clippers

The butane and grommets can be purchased at the majority of hardware or grocery stores.

Step 2

Next, take the pushpin and insert it into the valve found at the bottom of your Bic lighter. This should look like a small circular indentation on the lighter’s bottom. When you do this, the bottom of the lighter should open up.

Double-check that the lighter is totally empty before refilling it with fresh butane lighter fluid. To refill the lighter, take the lid off the butane container and use the rubber grommets by placing them over the butane container’s nozzle. Any commercial butane container will have a nozzle by default. The grommets help by preventing extra butane from spilling all over when you refill your Bic lighter.

Step 3

Then fill the lighter with butane by holding it upside down and placing the nozzle of the butane container at the hole you opened with the pushpin. Push on the butane container and wait for about five seconds or so. It shouldn’t take long for the lighter to completely refill.

Step 4

Then remove the butane container and cover the valve using your thumb or a cloth. This will prevent extra butane from spewing out. Put the pushpin back into the valve hole to keep the butane contained. The factory seal for your Bic lighter can’t be replaced, so the pushpin has to do the same job.

Step 5

Now all you have to do is cut off the top of your pushpin with the clippers and file, though this is optional. This will just make the lighter look a bit more streamlined and smooth.

Wrap Up

As you can see, you can refill a Bic lighter using a few common materials and some smarts. Using the above method, you can keep using the same lighter for years to come so long as you always get new butane fluid to refill it when necessary.

Joel Jefferson

Joel is one of the original founders of SurvivalCache.com. After college, he joined the USMC where he served as an (0302) Marine Infantry Officer. Joel is an avid outdoorsman and spends much of his free time in the mountains. Joel’s hobby is researching survival gear & weapons as well as prepping. Read his full interview here.