Looft Lighter X review: Super handy, with one important flaw you need to know about

If you’re a barbeque lover or someone who ends up starting a lot of charcoal grills, you’re most likely looking for something to make that task easier and quicker. Who wouldn’t want to get the fire going and not worry about babying it while it catches? You have better things to do, and the Looft Lighter X is designed to give you that time back.

Looft Lighter X review

Looft Lighter X is a battery-powered, portable firelighter about the size of a small leafblower or a very large curling iron. It uses a fan to superheat the air near your charcoal, helping it catch quickly and easily. Let’s check it out and see how it works. In this review we’ll take a look at what Looft Lighter X does, how well it works, and if I can recommend it for you.

What’s in the Box?

Looft Lighter X comes with the lighter unit itself, a battery pack, the charging base (AC Powered), and the operating manual. The Looft Lighter X weighs 2 lbs on its own and three with the battery pack installed. When it comes to the dimensions, it’s big, and bigger than the original Looft Lighter, measuring about and is 17×4 inches or 43x10x10 cm.

It doesn’t come with a carry case, but you can purchase one separately or keep it in its box.

How do you set up Looft Lighter X?

The Looft Lighter X is pretty simple to operate. Charge up the battery pack first, then clip it into the base of the lighter.

I can say it was a bit awkward to seat the battery pack and get it locked into place… I’m not sure if that’s a design flaw or my inexperience with it.

There’s a power button on the underside of the handle; push the power button for 3 seconds to activate. Then touch the tip of the Looft Lighter X to your charcoal or wood and press the Burn Mode button. The Looft Light X heats up, and the Automatic Ignition Program in the device will keep it hot for two minutes and will gradually increase the fan speed for more airflow. The heat from the tip will start to warm the charcoal and begin to ignite it.

Looft recommends moving the lighter back once sparks or glowing embers appear, and keeping the Looft Lighter X pointed at the same sport for around 60 seconds.

Once you have a flame going, you can use the Boost button which will turn the fan up to high, and kill the heating element, helping spread your fire.

How hot does Looft Lighter X get?

Looft claims the device can hit temperatures up to 1200 degrees F. The aluminum shield at the front may become damaged if you hold it too close to the fire for too long.

How long does Looft Lighter X battery last?

The Battery in the Looft Lighter X is a 36-volt Li-IOn battery, 2000mAh, 72 WH. Looft makes no guarantees about how long the battery will last saying it only delivers “multiple uses” on a single charge. But keep reading, because I found out exactly how long the battery truly lasts, and some of you might be surprised.

Looft says the lighter takes about two hours to reach full charge in the AC-powered dock and then can be used about ten times before needing to be recharged. The Looft Lighter X will also turn itself back off after two minutes of inactivity and will also do so if you don’t activate either the Burn mode or Air mode within ten seconds of powering up.

What can I use Looft Lighter X for?

The Looft Lighter X takes the place of whatever you were using to light your fire, whether that’s paper, firestarter cubes, a chimney or lighter fluid. Looft recommends it for grills, Kamado ovens, smokers, pizza ovens, and even fire pits, campfires and fireplaces.

With no chemicals or gasses, there’s no smell to using Looft Lighter X; and there’s no dangerous lighter fluid or gas to deal with,. Besides cleaning the end that comes into contact with the charcoal, it’s mess-free.

Many people love the idea of smoking or grilling the backyard but quickly tire of dealing with the lengthy process of lighting the coals. Looft lighter gets things going in a few minutes.

In my use with Looft Lighter X, I was able to get my coals going in about 5 minutes.

Battery ONLY lasts about 12 minutes: your mileage may vary

Notice I said about 5 minutes… We actually need to talk about this: While Looft markets this device as ‘starting your grill in 60 seconds’ my coals took longer to light than just one minute. About 5 minutes was the average. A basic fire might catch quicker.

So I was surprised when on my third use I went to use it and it wouldn’t work; the lights just flashed which means the battery is dead.

I decided to test it and run the battery out to see how long you actually get. I ran it for three minutes at a time, and much to my surprise I was only able to get about 12 minutes on a single battery charge. After that it was drained and needed a recharge.

Now for the most part online Looft doesn’t make any guarantees about how many uses you get, and fair ball since every fire situation is different. The manual though leads you to believe it could be 10.

Whatever you’ve read, just know that your mileage on this firestarter may vary…

How does Looft Lighter X compare to original Looft Lighter?

When it comes to the original Looft Lighter, is the X version different or better? The original version is corded and AC powered and you need to use it plugged in. Not ideal if you’re camping or at a distance from any plug. The battery power in Looft Lighter X means it can go literally anywhere.

Even so Looft Lighter X is a lot larger and heavier than the original, but it’s not unweildy or labouious. And you will need to keep the battery pack charged up, and its base station does need to be plugged in.

While original Looft can be had for about 60-100US, the new version is pricier at about $300USD.

Overall Review: Looft Lighter X

While the Looft Lighter X might seem like a niche item, it’s the kind of item that solves a specific  problem quickly and effectively. It works well and honestly saves you about 15-25 minutes of fussing with other methods. So it saves time, avoids chemical aftertastes like from lighter fluid and it works in any situation where you need fire.

Downsides? The unit is huge and it’s a bit heavier than the original. And with 10 uses in the battery, it’s hard to say if that’s enough or not for some users. Some users may also find it costly. It sells for about $299USD.

And in my testing I was only able to get about 2-3 uses or 12 minutes of power on a single charge, so my advice would be to recharge after every use. This also makes it a bit less portable than you might think unless you’ve got somewhere to re-juice it. Some users may also find it costly.

If you know about the limited battery life, and you think you can make it work, this gadget is quite handy.

I can recommend this for you or for a gift for the barbecue chef, campfire enthusiast or pizza oven owner in your life. I personally think I’ll wait for the next iteration which I hope will have a bit of a longer lifespan. Learn more from Looft’s website.

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