I went through the same troubles many of you guys did. My beautiful Arc lighter came in the mail and I couldn't have been more excited to blast into hyperspace. It worked great for about two weeks, then became inconsistent, then completely stopped working.

As I was browsing this thread looking for a substitute for the Arc, my strangely gifted buddy who is blessed with the attributes of an engineer, but cursed with the inability to sit through a class, took apart my Arc. I wasn't the slightest bit worried for two reasons:

1) the lighter had stopped working for three days

2) this buddy had fixed many different things of mine in the past. I swear to God that if I made it deep enough into hyperspace to grab a space toy from one of the elves, brought it back, and broke it.... he'd have it working in no time.

So he did the following:

- took it apart

- dropped a few small pieces on the ground

- picked the pieces back up and put them back together

- turned the flame level to high and now.....

WORKS LIKE A DREAM!!

I'd say rip that baby apart and play with it a bit, but I understand if you don't want to void your warranty. I'm in the states and didn't feel like waiting

Good luck, peace, and happy journeys! (hopefully, with your functioning Arc lighter)