The Island King.

THE ISLAND KING WAS REDESIGNED FOR THE 2009 SEASON, PLEASE SEE HERE FOR NOTES ON IT.

Was in WalMart at lunch yesterday.

See, I need more torches this year, and they have become rather pricey this year as opposed to previous years. SOME WalMart’s have some halfway decent priced ones, some don’t. I’m waiting for the clearance to hit (mid July, typically) and have been scouting out which WalMarts to look at. The one near home has em, one of the 2 near work does not, haven’t checked the other.

But, while checking this one near work at lunch, I ran across “The Island Kind” torch. It was in a box, not sitting out, but boasted a “huge flame” and “no mess refilling”. And the picture indeed had a large flame atop a rather large canister. I could not pass one of these up.

Getting to my car, and opening it up, I was greeted with an impressively sized canister, the top of which formed a funnel to make refilling easy, and to guard the wick that sat a full 1.5″ up from the bottom of the funnel, but Even with the top of it so as to not be seen once set up. Making it look like the bowl itself was on fire.

Filled it up to let the wick soak, and went off to Kyle’s Scout Pinewood Derby deal. Getting back, I assembled the pole.

Rather, I attempted to.

4 sections meant to screw together, along with the top meant to screw onto the pole. Half the sections would not screw properly and did not fit in any order whatsoever. And what should have been a simple job turned into a cursing nightmare, and my solution to most such problems of “get a bigger hammer” finally ended up resolving the situation (though some of those pieces will never come apart again).

Lighting the thing up next to a regular torch, I was thoroughly unimpressed. The flame was no wider, and only a little taller when measured from the top of the canister up (not counting the 2″ or so the funnel goes down).

So, we snuffed it out. The instructions having failed, time to modify. Breaking out the utility knife, I cut apart the support threads on the wick, and then fanned out the fiberglass strands to give more surface area. A trick I learned from observing my older torches giving off better flame when those support threads inevitably burn off before the fiberglass.

This yielded a much more impressive flame that nearly covered the entire bowl and reached well into the night air above. And yet, still, it could use some improvement, and will likely improve as the wick wears. I think it could use a LONGER wick as well, which would allow better coverage once fanned out and likely fill the entire bowl. I’ld say cotton wick would bear some thought, but would be worried about it burning up.

So, the Island King as packaged will produce a rather uninspired flame until either the wick wears and fans naturally, or you help it along. Then it’s a thing of beauty, but still could be improved upon. The pole it’s on sucks. Period. Plain and simple. And the burn time is a questionable 4 hours “for full flame effect” or 8 hours total (and sure to be chewing up your wick towards the end).

For our purposes, 4 hours is plenty of time for Halloween night, and the larger flame will help further distinguish the front from the back with 2 styles. Fewer sources of light also help the plans for the back yard, so fewer of these larger torches is becoming the plan here. I can fix the poles, reinforce with rebar, or replace if needed.

For nearly any other use, I’ld say you’ld be better off buying more smaller ones for the same price.

Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as possible.

Edit: I see a lot of folk searching for the Island King torch and ending up here. So, I’ve got the picture of it’s comparison to a regular torch here for you.

Left: Island King torch after my aforementioned modifications to the wick.

Right: A regular tiki torch