Rockwell Quad Torch Lighter Review
Verdict: Wouldn't Buy... and I never have, which is kind of the point. Every one of these I own showed up free... promo throw-ins with five-packs and orders from various cigar companies and dealers. As a freebie, it's a perfectly decent little torch that works every time. As a $23.50 MSRP purchase? No. I wouldn't pay ten bucks for it, and I own a drawer of lighters that explain why.
The Setup
- What it is: a small, almost-all-plastic quad-jet pocket torch... auto-opening cap, good-size button, adjustment dial on the bottom, small punch cutter underneath, clear fuel tank
- Street price: $23.50 MSRP at the big retailers... realistically this is a $10-15 lighter, and it's constantly floating around as free promo swag
- What I paid: nothing, ever. These come as throw-ins with cigar orders... I think I've got one or two more still in unopened packages
- In service: long enough to know exactly what it is
What It Gets Right
It works. Every time. Full credit: I have never had this lighter fail to fire. For free swag, that already beats expectations.
The auto-opening cap is legitimately nice. Push the button and the cap flips itself open as it lights... no fumbling a lid out of the way first. It's a convenience some more expensive lighters should steal.
The basics are all there. Good-size button, easily adjustable dial taking up about a third of the bottom, decent jets for a cheap quad, a clear tank so you can see your fuel, and a small punch on the bottom if punches are your thing... they're not mine, so for me it adds nothing, but it's there and out of the way.
What Sinks It
The button gets hot. This is the big one. I lit a normal-size torpedo with it... one cigar, toast and light... and by the time I was done, the thumb button was uncomfortable enough that I had to set the lighter down and let it cool before touching it up. Not warm. Hot. A lighter whose ignition you can't comfortably hold through a single large-cigar light has a real design problem.
It drinks fuel like a much bigger lighter. Four jets in a small body with a not-large tank. I had about a penny's width of fuel showing at the bottom and burned through all of it just getting one cigar toasted, lit, and settled. The tank isn't tiny, but the math doesn't work... quad flame, small reservoir, constant top-offs.
So Who's It For?
Here's the thing... I keep these. On purpose. They're exactly what you want to hand a buddy who just started smoking cigars and doesn't own a torch yet, or to stash as a loaner. It does the job, it costs nothing when it arrives free, and if it walks off in someone's pocket, who cares. That's a genuinely useful role... it's just not a role you should pay $23.50 for. Or $10.
Bottom Line
A decent cheap torch with one honest superpower (it always lights, cap opens itself) and two honest problems (a button that gets uncomfortably hot on bigger cigars, and a fuel appetite its tank can't back up). If one lands in your order box as swag, keep it... loaner lighters are a real category. Just don't confuse "worth keeping for free" with "worth buying."
Would I buy it again? I've never bought it once, and that's my answer. If I'm spending real money... even ten bucks... it's going toward something that doesn't cook my thumb. My money goes to a nicer single jet every time.
Best for: the new smoker who doesn't own a torch yet, the loaner drawer, the glovebox. Free is this lighter's correct price.
Gear gets the same one-question treatment as the cigars... would I spend my own money on this again? This one's a no... it's a keeper only when it's a freebie.
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