BIC Lighters

What BIC makes for campers and hunters

On this site, BIC covers lighters, and the grid above sorts them by type and pack size. The lineup splits into four groups:

• Pocket lighters: Classic, Maxi, Large and the Mini, in plain colors and printed designs
• Multi-purpose lighters: long-wand lighters with fixed, flexible or metal wands
• EZ Reach: a pocket-sized lighter with a short extended wand
• EZ Load: a reloadable multi-purpose shell that takes a Maxi pocket lighter

BIC's history page lists the milestones behind those groups: the first full-size pocket lighter in 1973, the Mini in 1985, multi-purpose lighters in 2002, the EZ Reach in the US in 2020 and the EZ Load in North America in 2024.

The grid changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the groups and what separates them. Most BIC listings give a pack count and not much else. The Maxi listings also say butane and non-refillable. Where a listing doesn't say, the grid shows a dash, and I'm not filling it in from the back of a package I remember from 1998.

Lineup notes: the BIC pocket lighter

Classic and Maxi

The Classic and Maxi pocket lighters are the full-size ones. In the grid they come in plain colors, in printed series (marble, neon, all black, assorted designs) and in packs from a few to trays of 50. The listings for several Maxi packs say butane and non-refillable, which matches BIC's FAQ: its pocket lighters are made to be disposable.

The printed series don't change what's inside. A neon lighter and an all-black lighter are the same lighter with different paint. Real talk: at deer camp, the bright ones get found and the black ones get lost in the leaves. I've seen it happen at the woodpile more than once.

Large and Classic Electronic

The Large Lighter shows up in a tray of 50, and the Classic Electronic Series in packs of 8. The listings don't add specs beyond the count, so read each listing for the ignition and size before you order.

The Mini

The Mini is the small one, in packs of 3 and 6. BIC dates it to 1985. It's the one for a small fire kit, a fishing vest pocket or the little zip bag that rides in your pack lid. Less fuel than a full-size lighter, so carry it as the backup, not the main event.

Lineup notes: the BIC multi-purpose lighter

Classic Edition, Flex Wand and Metal Wand

The multi-purpose lighters are the long ones. The grid shows:

• Classic Edition: a straight wand, alone or in mixed packs
• Flex Wand and Long Flex Wand: a wand that bends to reach around a grate or into a lantern
• Metal Wand: a metal wand, in a pack of 10
• Combos: Classic Edition and Flex Wand together, in packs up to 20

BIC's FAQ describes how its multi-purpose lighters work: depress the latch with your thumb, pull the trigger with your index finger, and the child-resistant mechanism resets after each use. It also says they're pre-filled and not made to be refilled or repaired.

The long wand is the point. It keeps your hand back from the grill, the camp stove burner or the base of a stacked fire. I have lit a charcoal chimney with a pocket lighter while a drawer full of the long ones sat ten feet away. They're always in the drawer. That's the only place they're never needed.

EZ Reach

The EZ Reach sits between a pocket lighter and a wand lighter: a pocket-sized body with a short extended wand. The grid has it in packs of 3, 6 and 40, in plain colors and design series, plus candle-lighter packs.

BIC's FAQ has two EZ Reach tips I didn't know until I read them: hold it at no more than a 45-degree angle, and press slowly so the fuel reaches the end of the wand. It also takes a bit of pressure, since it's child-resistant.

EZ Load

The EZ Load is BIC's first reloadable lighter, per its May 2024 release. It's a multi-purpose shell that takes a BIC Maxi pocket lighter inside. BIC says the shell reloads up to 10 times and gives up to 15,000 lights over those 10 reloads. The grid has it as a reloadable multi-purpose pack and a single listing.

If your camp already runs on Maxi pocket lighters, the EZ Load turns one of them into a wand lighter. If you came for a refillable butane lighter you fill from a can, that's a different type, on the refillable butane lighter page.

BIC and torch lighters

People search "BIC torch lighter" a lot. None of the BIC listings in this grid is sold as a torch lighter. They're pocket lighters, EZ Reach lighters and multi-purpose wand lighters.

A torch lighter throws a pressurized jet flame that stands up to wind better. If that's what you need on an October ridge, the torch lighter page and the best torch lighter list compare them by jets and fuel. If you'd rather skip fuel entirely, the electric lighter page covers rechargeable arc lighters.

How to choose within the BIC lineup

Pick the shape for the job

• Pocket carry and the fire kit: Classic, Maxi or Mini
• Grills, camp stoves and lanterns: a multi-purpose wand lighter
• Candles and short reaches: the EZ Reach
• One wand body, many reloads: the EZ Load with Maxi pocket lighters

Then the pack size

Pack counts in the grid run from a single lighter to trays of 50. A big tray makes sense for a camp that shares lighters, a fire kit in every vehicle and a spare in every coat. A small pack makes sense if you lose things. (I lose things. I buy the trays. The math works out the same.)

Match the lighter to where it lives

Every lighter at camp has a home, and the home decides the type. Here's how mine are set:

• The fire kit: two Minis or Maxis, in a zip bag with the tinder
• The cook box: a multi-purpose wand for the stove and the grill
• The cabin shelf: an EZ Reach for the candles and the woodstove
• Each coat: one pocket lighter, bright colored

The point isn't the count. It's that nobody has to walk to the truck in the dark to find one. (Renee calls this "the lighter grid." She has a spreadsheet joke ready, but Jess already owns that one.)

Then think about the cold

BIC's FAQ says butane vaporizes less in cold, thin air, so performance changes with temperature and altitude. It also says a multi-purpose lighter may fail from low fuel, a very cold lighter or wind. That's every November morning at Hemlock Run.

So keep the lighter you plan to use in an inside pocket, close to your body. Keep the backup in the fire kit. And carry a second way to start a fire, like a ferro rod or fire starter sticks; the fire starters page and the ferro rod page cover both.

Jess's take, delivered over the coffee pot: "A lighter is a fuel tank with a very small door. In the cold the door sticks." She drew a diagram. Nobody asked for the diagram.

Storage, care and safety for BIC lighters

Storage

BIC's FAQ says to store lighters at room temperature, upright if possible, away from direct sun and heat. Don't leave them in a hot car, on a windowsill or near a radiator. That includes the dashboard of the truck in August, which is where half the camp's lighters spend the off-season. Move them to a box in the cabin instead.

Use

For multi-purpose lighters, BIC says continuous burning isn't recommended; let the lighter cool between uses. For pocket lighters, it says one typically lasts weeks to months with intermittent use. Replace a lighter when the fuel is gone.

BIC encourages using a lighter until the fuel is gone before disposal, then putting the empty lighter in the trash. Its FAQ says lighters mix metals and plastics that are hard to separate for recycling.

Travel

BIC's FAQ says airline and security rules for lighters vary by country and carrier, and to check the current requirements with TSA and your airline before you fly.

Child resistance

BIC's FAQ says its child-resistant features add a small ignition force to reduce the chance that children under five can light one. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission's 1993 rule requires disposable lighters to resist 85 percent of children in a specified test, and its 2000 standard extended child resistance to multi-purpose lighters. The CPSC calls child resistance a second line of defense, not a guarantee.

My one opinion on this page: a lighter belongs in the fire kit or on you, not loose in a cup holder or a kid's jacket. The reason is right there in the CPSC rule: child-resistant isn't child-proof.

Fire and carbon monoxide

Never use a fuel-burning stove, heater or lantern inside a tent or closed space. The CDC says never to use a portable gas camp stove indoors and lists lanterns among sources of carbon monoxide. Light them outside, use them outside.

BIC facts

Here's what I could verify from BIC's own pages:

• Founded: 1944, by Marcel Bich and Édouard Buffard, making writing instrument parts
• First pocket lighter: 1973, a full-size pocket lighter with an adjustable flame
• Later lighters: the Mini in 1985, multi-purpose lighters in 2002, the EZ Reach in the US in 2020
• First reloadable: the EZ Load, launched in North America in 2024
• Factories: BIC's history page notes a lighter facility opened in China in 2013

BIC's pages I read don't say where each lighter in the grid was made, so check the package or the listing.

Count your lighters before the season, then put one in every coat. By December you'll know which coat you actually wear.