Abstract: In order to improving the pass rate and stability of test results for cigarette ignition propensity tests, the effects of heat transfer process and burn retardant band positions on the test results were analyzed via calculating the effective contact area between the burning cone and substrate filter paper, adopting the software Comsol Multiphysics to describe the heat transfer model and subsequent experimental verification. The results showed that: 1) Due to the larger heat transfer within the first 6 mm contact between the burning cone and the substrate filter paper, the probability of extinguishment was higher. If there was a part of the burn retardant band in that contact area, the full length burn (FLB) would not happen generally, and the extinguishment was easier to occur. In general, the low ignition propensity cigarette displaying a FLB behavior had no burn retardant band in that area. 2) When the cigarette smoldered on the surface of the filter paper, a space was created between the lower part of the burning cone and the filter paper due to the upward bending of the burning cone. That space promoted the continuous smoldering of the cigarette and made the detected cigarette ignition ability larger than the actual one, which affected the stability of the test results of ISO 12863 method to a certain extent. 3) Through rapidly rotating the test cigarette by 180 degrees at a regular interval, the excessive bending of the burning cone during smoldering on the filter paper surface could be effectively avoided.