Do you need to Light a Candle and Don’t have a Lighter?
Today we’re going to learn how to light a candle without a lighter. There are a few reasons why this is such an important skill to learn. First of all, candles are a necessity in the case of a power outage. Without them, you’re going to be living in the dark. And if you’re not a smoker and you don’t have a lighter handy, and if you don’t have electricity to light candles using an electric stove, you might be in for some trouble.
But don’t worry. There are a few surefire ways that you can light a candle without using a lighter. Some of them involve electricity, and some of them are handy for an emergency situation when you don’t have much available in the way of supplies – or any electricity!
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Using a Heating Element
The most obvious way to light a candle without a lighter is by using a heating element. The preferred method for this is a stovetop. The stoves in a lot of houses don’t actually use electricity, they use natural gas. This means that you can still use the stove when the power goes out. All you have to do is wait for the element to get hot and then touch the wick to the element. It will instantly ignite.
Of course, you can use anything for this method. You can try to use a room heater or a toaster, but for those, you might need electricity. Just keep in mind that anything that glows red hot has the ability to light your candle for you.
Starting a Fire
This may seem obvious, but if you don’t have a lighter, you can always start a fire to make a flame and then light your candle off of that. For this, you can use a flint and some scraps of paper, you can use a fire starter, or you can even use a magnifying glass or a lens.
Even if all you have is a pair of binoculars or a transparent light bulb, you can hold the reflective part between the sun and a dry piece of paper or tissue until it ignites. This works by focusing on the power of the sun into a ray of hot light! Then simply touch the wick of your candle to the flame. Be sure to do this inside of a pot so that the fire doesn’t spread.
Tin Foil Battery
This is arguably the most ingenious way to light your candle without a lighter. All you need for this is a battery, some tin foil, and a pair of scissors. Cut a strip of tinfoil roughly twice as long as your battery, then fold it in half and shape the folded end into a point. You’re then going to want to hold one end of the tin foil to one end of the battery, and the other end to the other.
Then, the narrow strip in the middle of your tinfoil will get hot enough that you can light the candle wick directly. Basically, you’re making a complete circuit using tin foil.
For this method, you can use a AAA battery, a AA battery, a C cell, or a D cell.
The Dorito Method
Believe it or not, Doritos make for great kindling. You can use Doritos or dry spaghetti noodles on a hot stove to catch them on fire. Once the Doritos are burning, simply light your candle with the flame. But of course, this is just a more complex method of lighting your candle using the stovetop.
Use the Microwave
If you’re interested in taking a hands-free approach, and assuming you have electricity to operate it, you can use a microwave to light a candle. This is actually one of the simplest ways to do it. It’s also very fast. To light your candle using a microwave, simply place your candle inside of a dish, stick it in the microwave, turn the microwave on, and wait until you see the bright flash. Immediately stop the microwave and take your candle out, and you will see that the wick is lit and you have a flame.
Things to Keep in Mind
When you’re trying to light a candle without a lighter, there are a few key things to keep in mind. First of all, if you’re using an electric stove, there’s a pretty good chance that if it’s a newer stove it won’t be able to actually light the wick. This is because newer stoves don’t use the same type of elements as you get with older gas stoves. Plus, an electric stove won’t work in the case of a power outage anyway.
If you do use a gas stove or the oven to light your candle, always remember to turn it off immediately after the candle is lit. And if you can’t use the stove at all and are forced to start a fire inside of a pot, be sure that you put the fire out immediately so that you don’t forget about it. And if you’re planning to try the reflective fire-starting method using a glass light bulb, be sure you fill it with some water first.
To avoid this awkward situation altogether, you want to have a few survival supplies handy around your house.
This means you should always have a box or two of backup matches hidden somewhere dry so that you can always start a fire. You should also have flint or a fire starter inside a drawer somewhere. Believe it or not, a simple flint can be the difference between light and darkness in an unexpected scenario.
And of course, keeping a few lighters handy in kitchen drawers and scattered throughout the house – assuming you don’t have small children that could get ahold of them – is always the best solution. If all else fails, you can always ask your neighbour for a bit of flame.