Zippo is popular all over the world, but not every owner can say with confidence that he owns an original and not a naturalistic copy. How to identify a real “zippo” from a fake, because Chinese “craftsmen” are so skilled in the art of churning out fake products that without special knowledge, the original and the analogue are practically indistinguishable.
Signs of an original Zippo lighter
- Marking. The branded bottom of the original is an embossed stamp on the metal of the case:
- Brand logo with a flame symbol instead of the letter "I" on all models produced since 1980. Exception of replica models of 1933, 1935, 1941.
- To the left of the logo is a letter mark from “A” to “L” (month of issue).
- On the right is a digital sign (year of manufacture).
- Manufacturer (Bradford.PA. Made in U.S.A.)
- Windscreen - with 8 holes, symmetrical when viewed from the side (top view - a perfect oval).
- The wheel has notches strictly at an angle of 30C.
- The lid clicks. A unique, patented sound that no manufacturer in the world can reproduce.
- Wick. A special polymer with a copper thread.
- Tactile properties. Heavy “solid” weight and pleasant to the touch body material.
- Insert. It is stamped, like the bottom of the case (a stamp, not an engraving!), it can be easily removed and put back in. Inside there is a felt lining with the inscription “Lift to fill”.
- Price. Recommended by the manufacturer (in the Russian Federation it varies depending on the dollar exchange rate).
Determining the originality of Zippo without opening the packaging
There is another way to check the authenticity of a Zippo - by the article number. Or rather, stickers with a barcode indicating the digital name and model number of the lighter. The paper label on the original packaging with the original must be glued (and nothing else!) on the bottom of the box, regardless of what material it is made of.
Modern original Zippo usually comes in black branded boxes standard size, but there may be other packaging if it is a limited or special series of iconic lighters.
Any trademark, which enjoys well-deserved popularity, sooner or later begins to suffer from counterfeits of its goods. Over more than a hundred years of history, the number of fake accessories is simply huge. And this is not surprising, because bask in the glory of the world famous brand Many dishonest businessmen want it. How to distinguish an original Zippo lighter from a fake?
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Distinctive features
A few nuances that you need to pay attention to when purchasing:
- “No gaps!” There are absolutely no gaps on the original Zippo. All components fit securely and tightly to each other. The loop that connects the lighter body to the lid is the first thing you should pay attention to. Manufacturers of pirated copies do not bother with such small details.
- We examine the bottom of the lighter. There is a special marking on it. There may be letters from A to L for the names of the months from January to December, respectively. If there are other letters on the product, then this should alert you. On the bottom of the lighter, after BRADFORD, PA, should be the inscription MADE IN USA.
- Zippo-Click. Based on this characteristic sound, an expert can easily identify a branded lighter. Of course, those who buy Zippo for the first time will find it difficult to recognize the patented click. But over time, the hearing will be trained.
- Wheel-chair. The surface of this part should have notches at an angle of 30 degrees. Even stripes of notches indicate that the product is fake, just like rivets yellow color on the wheel and cam.
- Windproof screen. All eight holes on it should be located symmetrically.
- Material of manufacture. In the original Zippo lighter, this element is made of a special polymer material braided with copper mesh. A fake wick will most likely be made from cheap raw materials.
- Appearance of the accessory. True connoisseurs of “eternal” lighters will identify the impostor even at a quick glance. The design of the original models is thought out to the smallest detail and looks holistic. The design of a “fake” Zippo will look clumsy and clumsy.
- Fastenings. The presence of even the slightest unreliability and looseness of a part indicates a fake.
- Quality and quantity of sparks. The original has much more sparks and they burn brighter than the fake.
- Hull felt white with the inscription "LIFT TO FILL". Fakes are most often equipped with gray felt.
- Insert. With the original product, the filler comes out of the body without much difficulty. If this is not so, then you have a fake in your hands. The surface of the insert must have the date of its manufacture.
If we are talking about buying a collectible lighter, then in this case its authenticity can be determined by examining the bottom stamp. Products manufactured since 2001 have standard markings, while previous accessories had individual markings. Its authenticity can be verified using a special catalogue.
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Package
Product packaging also plays a big role. Zippo lighters are sold in plastic, cardboard or wooden boxes, which are united by exceptional accuracy of execution. The original packaging must have a barcode and detailed instructions manual. Fake accessories are usually sold in stamped and hastily printed packaging. The weight of the original product is quite noticeable for such a small thing. The thing is that solid brass or steel is used in the manufacture of the case. Chinese fakes are made from ordinary tin. Using all these tips, you can easily distinguish a fake from an original product.
The main characteristic features of real lighters, insignia and protection, developed by the manufacturer precisely in order to minimize the possibility of counterfeiting.
Let's agree that a “fake Zippo” is a lighter that is not made by Zippo, but has “Zippo” written on it. There are a lot of similar Zippo lighters from other brands, which we would not call fakes.
So, what separates a real Zippo from a fake?
1. Labeling. For decades now, the stamp on the bottom has been proof of the authenticity of a Zippo windproof lighter.
The bottom of the original lighter should have a stamp stamped on its metal body. In the middle is the logo " Zippo"(note in the letter "i" there is a flame instead of a dot), and on the left side of the logo the numbers from A (January) to L (December) indicate in which month the product was manufactured. Accordingly, the number on the right indicates the year of manufacture. At the bottom of the original is the inscription “BRADFORD. PA. MADE IN U.S.A.", which means that the product was manufactured in the USA, in Bradford, Pennsylvania. This marking is on most modern models. On special series models ( Armor™, Vintage™, Replica™, Bottomz Up®) marking may be of a slightly different type. The original Zippos are produced for the entire world market in a single factory in Bradford.
2. Lighter weight and tactile sensations. A real lighter should be heavy, a fake is usually lighter and made sloppily, with unevenness and parts not joining together visible. Come into our store and feel how cool and comfortable a real Zippo lies in your hand! You will definitely remember this difference.
3. The sound of the lid opening! This sound is very bright and sonorous. If you once hear it, you will never again be faced with the question of whether this lighter is a real lighter or a cheap fake! This incredible sound is even patented by the corporation and no third-party manufacturer can fake it!
4. The windscreen on the original classic ZIppo has 8 symmetrical holes on each side. If you look at it from above, you will see a perfect oval; fakes often fail to create such an ideal shape. The Zippo Blu Gas Lighter has holes arranged in a Z shape. The Zippo 1941 Replica™ Lighter has 7 holes on each side of the windscreen. Instead of a windproof screen, the ZIPPO Pipe Lighter (pipe lighter) has a built-in mechanism for igniting pipes.
5. The insides of the lighter (insert) should be removed and put back without much effort. Also, the inside should have stamped inscriptions, such as in the photo.
The metal from which the insert is made should not raise any doubts. The inscriptions on the surface, as well as the markings on the bottom of the case, are stamped rather than engraved. All inscriptions must be clear, even, and without errors. Their translation sounds approximately like this: on the one hand - “Keep away from children. After refilling, dry the lighter and hands before use. The lighter will not go out on its own, close the lid to extinguish”, on the other hand - “For best results, use flints and ZIPPO fuel”, as well as the date of manufacture of the insert (year and month from A to L). Don’t worry if it doesn’t coincide with the release date of the lighter body; a difference of a couple of months is quite normal phenomenon. Quite often, you can find fake wheel and cam rivets on inserts made of brass. On the original inserts, the rivets are either steel or through.
Inside the body of the insert there is felt, on which there should be an inscription - “LIFT TO FILL”.
6. Wheel-chair. In the original Zippo lighter, the notches are arranged crosswise at an angle of 30 degrees, while on fakes the wheel most often has straight notches.
7. The lighter must be packed in a branded box. Most modern models are packaged in a branded standard black box made from environmentally friendly materials. The box may differ if, for example, the series of lighters is limited or a special edition.
The packaging must contain the manufacturer's barcode, the lighter's article number and the place of manufacture of the lighter, indicating the manufacturer's company.
All original modern models, which are sold on the Russian market must have international instructions inside the box, including translations in Russian.
Depending on the previous series of lighters released, they could be packaged in other boxes: from small plastic boxes to solid wooden boxes.
Modern boxes with lighters must have an article sticker - a piece of paper with a barcode, name and model number. If it is not there, then this is not yet a sign of a fake, but still it should be there. If there is one, it must be glued on! If it is printed directly on the box, this is a sign of 100% fake. All photos show the original boxes.
In the USA, in Bradford in Zippo's homeland, the English system of measures is used (inches, etc.), which differ slightly in size. If you remove the screw that holds the flint spring from an original Zippo lighter, the thread will be different. This differs from fakes made in Asia, where the metric system of measures is used and threads are measured in millimeters. Therefore, an Asian screw will not screw into an American thread and vice versa. The photographs show parts from original lighters. Excellent quality is visible to the naked eye.
8. Price. Retail prices for original lighters in the store are the recommended retail prices by the official Zippo supplier in Russia. Prices are constantly changing and this depends primarily on the dollar exchange rate (all lighters are made in the USA) and the time of manufacture and purchase of lighters. If you see a suspiciously cheap price for a Zippo lighter in a store or online store, then this may be a reason to think about the roots of the production of this product.
9. Our store works only with the official distributor of Zippo in Russia. This company has been successfully representing the products of Zippo and other leading global manufacturers of metal goods, gifts and accessories on the Russian market since 1994. Also works for every Zippo lighter
How to distinguish a genuine one ZIPPO lighter from fake?
1. When spelled ZIPPO, the letter i must have a flame instead of a dot (a registered logo, which is confirmed by a clearly engraved R in a circle).
2. At the bottom of the lighter, after BRADFORD, PA, there should be the inscription MADE IN USA. To the left of the inscription ZIPPO, a letter of the Latin alphabet from A to L, indicating the month of manufacture, and to the right, a Roman numeral indicating the year of manufacture of the lighter.
3. The windscreen has eight symmetrically located holes. The screen itself, when viewed from above, has a perfect oval shape, which cannot be said about a fake.
4. The wheel has clear symmetrical notches intersecting at an angle of 30 degrees to the horizontal.
5. Ideal shape The flag fascinates with its plasticity, unlike fakes. When the flag hits the lid, it makes a characteristic, unique click, patented like the lighter itself, in which the patented plate helps it.
6. On the inner body there are inscriptions in the finest font, translated into Russian meaning: on the one hand - “For best results, use ZIPPO silicon and fuel”, then the inscription from the bottom of the lighter is repeated; on the other hand - “Keep away from children. After refilling, wipe the lighter and hands before use. The lighter does not go out by itself, close the lid to extinguish.” Counterfeiters usually have thicker letters, spelling sometimes suffers, or there is no inscription at all.
7. The ZIPPO wick is made of a special polymer material with a metal thread woven into it.
8. ZIPPO silicon stacked in original packaging 6 or 12 pieces each, they answer you with a sheaf of sparks, and not with pitiful decay, as in a fake.
9. Refill the lighter - to maintain long-term performance, it is recommended to use special ZIPPO gasoline - purified, high-octane fuel with a catalyst.
All drawings, engravings and emblems of the outer case are made with perfect clarity at a high artistic level, only possible using ZIPPO MFG technology. CO, developed over the years.
The body of the lighter allows you to apply any images on it using various methods, which many companies use to make souvenirs.
10. The packaging of lighters is very diverse, from plastic boxes to kits with accessories. Each is accompanied by instructions in English (since July 1998 - instructions in Russian and English languages), a label indicating the model number, according to the ZIPPO catalog, and the name of this model.
11. Price. A zippo cannot cost 250 rubles. This must always be remembered.
12. Pay attention to the text on the pad that covers the bottom of the insert. The following text should be placed there: “LIFT TO FILL” and nothing else.
13. A distinctive feature is the wide silicon stand (the original is always wider than the fakes).
Please note that the stamp on the bottom of the lighter and the stamp on the insert may not match the date of manufacture. This is fine.
One of the most frequently asked questions A problem that Zippo lovers have to face is the question of the authenticity of lighters. Filling this gap, in this article I will try to talk about the authenticity of Zippo, about fakes, their varieties and how to find out if your lighter is fake.
Let's agree that a “fake Zippo” is a lighter that is not made by Zippo, but has “Zippo” written on it. There are a lot of lighters from other brands similar to Zippo, which I would not call fakes - about them in another article.
Unfortunately for you and me, counterfeiters do not stand still and often make very high-quality imitations. Therefore, you can never be 100% sure if you have even the slightest doubt about the authenticity of a lighter. Even I make mistakes sometimes (although I have passed through hundreds of Zippos from almost all eras), and it is especially difficult to determine a fake from just a photograph. You can be more or less confident only if you very carefully examine the lighter “live”.
To begin with, here is a brief instruction on how you can, with some probability, distinguish a fake.
What you need to pay attention to if you doubt the authenticity of Zippo:
- Accuracy of execution. On real Zippo There will never be sharp corners, burrs, sloppily glued emblems, etc.
- The tightness of the parts. On a real Zippo there will never be any gaps where the loop, wheel, etc. are attached.
- The stamp on the bottom should be neat and stamped, not engraved! And, of course, coincide with . Pay special attention to small details such as the placement of the ® symbol or the distance between stripes or dots.
- The same applies to the inscriptions on the insert: they must be printed, not engraved, and coincide with something from.
- The body of a real Zippo should leave a pleasant impression in your hands. Many fake Zippos feel like a cheap, low-quality item to the touch; sometimes there are even very low-quality cast or tin cases.
- The same applies to the quality of the insert. In addition, it must be freely removed from the housing.
- The sound of a Zippo opening is unmistakable. Only a real Zippo will give a characteristic juicy and sonorous CLICK (or CLICK, if emblems are glued to the body).
- What is depicted on the lighter should not go beyond what is reasonable :) Ask yourself: could Zippo have released such a lighter? Of course, there cannot be any pornography, Nazi symbols or anything ridiculous/obscene on real Zippo (unless, of course, it is homemade or trench-art). There are also no grammatical or factual errors on real Zippos.
- Zippo sales location and price. You can’t buy a real Zippo in a subway passage or a tobacco kiosk for 150 rubles! In Russia, prices for new Zippo start from 600-700 rubles for the cheapest models.
- The box with the lighter must have an article sticker - a piece of paper with a barcode and the name and model number. If it is not there, then this is not a sign of a fake. But if he is, he should have been pasted! If it is printed directly on the box, this is a sign of 100% fake.
Otherwise, you can definitely distinguish a fake from a real one only by studying Zippo, holding various lighters in your hands and imagining what kind of Zippo there are. Telling you everything about Zippo is one of the main goals of our site :)
Now some illustrations about fake Zippos.
A very common item on Vietnam War era Zippos is an engraved stamp:
Compare - a fake stamp on top, a real one on the bottom:
Another stamp, pay attention to what numbers are used in the inscription “2517191″ - this font was never used on real Zippos:
Engraved insert of amazingly shitty quality! This fake is immediately recognizable to the naked eye:
This Zippo was bought by our reader in Penza for 4,000 rubles. It was a pity to upset her regarding the authenticity of the lighter (or rather, its fakeness):
Of course, Zippo simply could not, out of common logic, release such a terrible Harley :) The stamp itself at first glance seems real, but the letter ® is in the wrong place. The real 2006 stamp should look like this:
For comparison, look at what the same Zippo model looks like in its original version:
It's a fake lid hinge! Such sloppiness and gaps simply cannot exist on a real Zippo:
Fake Mickey Mouse:
Fake Michael Jackson, R.I.P. (such an instance should immediately alert you, especially if it went on sale at a high price and quite quickly after the character’s death):
A fairly common Chinese fake with the ridiculous inscription “FAME VEHICLE” (I can’t even translate it). To the touch, it looks like a cheap remnant made by casting (as it actually is):
Another low-quality casting, they didn’t even bother to put the letter of the month:
Another type of Chinese casting is “CENTURY EAGLE”. This copy was found at a flea market. One can only envy the ingenuity of the unknown master who made such an amusing imitation of a military lighter! In fact, this is still the same cast Chinese craft.
Pay attention to the characteristic casting texture, which you will never see on a real Zippo:
For some reason, Chinese counterfeits are much more likely than others to have the numbers XII or XIII on the stamp. At the same time, the very shape of the stamped design is distinguished by deliberate angularity, “squareness” and sharp edges, which are not characteristic of real lighters:
Zippos with Soviet symbols are usually made on the basis of cheap Chinese counterfeits, otherwise they would cost too much and it would be unprofitable to produce them for foreign tourists. Of course, the Zippo company itself could not produce this:
Fake Harley Davidson, photos sent to me by Robert Moon from California. Note the very sloppy lid hinge and the same sloppy emblem, uncharacteristic of Zippo:
This is a stamp from a fake Harley Zippo. Very similar to the real thing, only the depth of stamping and the absence of the ® sign give away the fake:
For comparison, this is a real stamp from 1996:
The shape varies slightly, especially the upper part. Also, the two recesses at the top and bottom of the loop are larger and more pressed in:
On the fake, the Zippo inscription is thinner and the flame is smaller. Bradford, PA font. Made in U.S.A. - different, but similar. On the real one there is a comma after the word Bradford, on the fake there is a period. Barely noticeable, but you can make it out:
Felt bottom at the insert. The fake has much larger letters LIFT TO FILL, and the screw is smaller and has no notches on the end:
Stamp on insert. On the fake there is the inscription ZIPPO MFG without a space:
The end of a brass flint tube is noticeable at same. Please note that on a fake lighter the notches on the wheel are horizontal, on a genuine lighter they are angled:
A fairly common occurrence that can be found on fake inserts is rivets on the wheel and cam made of brass. Sometimes this is the only thing that allows us to say with sufficient confidence about the authenticity of the insert, since the inscriptions on the insert itself - a fake - can sometimes be made quite accurately and believably:
On the original inserts, the rivets are either steel or through:
Stamps on the bottom of fakes can also be very neat and misleading, as on these two examples.
BUT! Let's remember what the letter to the left of the Zippo inscription means. I think everyone remembers very well - the month of production. And what we see on these stamps is the letter Z. There are only twelve months in a year, respectively A - January, L - December, then the letter L, following English alphabet, no letters should appear on the Zippo stamp.
Sometimes, it is very useful to know the history of Zippo lighters, or at least know where to turn in case of great doubts about authenticity. The stamp of this Zippo is made quite believably, no mistakes, no crooked inscriptions, nothing that could say with certainty that it is a fake.
But the inscription aluminum should make those who are a little familiar with the history of Zippo doubt, since the Zippo Mfg Company did not produce any aluminum lighters in 2002. Aluminum Zippos never went into mass production; experts and collectors only know of the existence of rare test examples from the 1950s. Therefore, the conclusion is: this lighter is a fake. This is a very rare case in the world of Zippo collecting, but if you succumb to deception, you can part with a considerable amount of money for a fake. Several gullible and deceived buyers on Ebay paid 200 - 300 dollars for each similar copy.
It turns out that not only the lighter itself or its insert can be counterfeited. You can even fake a branded warranty card, which states that Zippo lighters have a lifetime warranty - business card and the main credo of Zippo Mfg Company.
Here is one of the fake Zippo warranty cards:
Firstly, the Zippo inscription in large letters is poorly made and does not particularly inspire confidence. Secondly, this applies to those who are familiar with English; in the text of the guarantee you can find elementary spelling and grammatical errors. IN in this case(underlined in red line) it is written - a cant for therepair of a Zippo (not a cent for repairing Zippo). The word cent is spelled incorrectly in the original cent, not cant, word repair written together with the article the. For clarity, here is an example of an original warranty:
