I recently bought an Arc Turboflame lighter but sent it back because I could get a Zico T-38 (which looks identical) for much cheaper instead.

Unfortunately the flame of my Zico T-38 always goes out after a while and has trouble coming on again. I mailed the shop about this and they told me the Zico lighter is not made to support a flame for longer than 20 seconds, and that that is why the flame keeps going out after a while. I was given the advice to adjust the flame a bit larger and try again if this happens and also told that if I hold the flame for too long, the internal parts may be damaged.

Can someone corroborate this? Anyone else have the same thing with their Zico?

And what about the Arc Turboflame? Is it built to hold flames for longer than 20 seconds? I was under the impression that the Zico is just an unbranded Arc Turboflame? Perhaps there is a quality difference after all?

Sounds like poor quality.
I have used my Zico M-22 for a long time. I have never timed it, but I have used it to torch stainless steel mesh - a least a minute or two.

we have a had a Zico T-38 and it worked well for a year and a half or so, then it fell down and the gas switch (some plastic part inside?) broke. This could have happened to the arc as well.
Perhaps turboflame produces in China, and they give certain specs, those lighters that do not meet those specs are then rebranded as zico and sold? Now we use this lighter (its pretty good)

crazycatguy, I bought an Arc Turbo Flame lighter and it was a bad bargain. The lighter did not work at all. I considered it a bad luck.

Because so many folks here keep telling that this lighter is one of the best to get, I bought another one. Believe it or not, it also did not function well. For me this lighter is a piece of shit.

Now I use a Vapman butane lighter. It is a better one, but also gives problems once in a while. Some of my attempts to smoke DMT were ruined due to this lighter. The flames just vanished after a few seconds or there is no flame at all even after pressing the button several times.

Yes, it is hard to find a good and reliable lighter.

There was a lot of posts made about them, initially a lot of glory but after a while anomalies began to show for some (not all). Like failing to flame after a refill IIRC.

I've been using mine for a while now and it works great. At first it seemed kind of dodgy because the flame length would fluctuate a lot, but after adjusting the flame further than what it was supposed to it came good. I've been using it for months with no problems

I had one to start off with but it never worked very well from the start. The spark didn't seem to light the butane reliably every time, you had to definitely be sucking on the pipe before putting the flame near it else the flame often went out and really it's not designed very well for holding it to the bowl of a VG for a long time.

I eventually came across this one for flaming creme caramels in a cash and carry. German make, cost just a few bucks, has a fierce flame and is easy to hold at right angles to the pipe.