I’m looking to buy a gas soldering iron for work as a kit. Would anyone possibly have any suggestions?

RDB85 said:

I’m looking to buy a gas soldering iron for work as a kit. Would anyone possibly have any suggestions?

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Why do you specifically want a gas soldering iron? I'd suggest you should go with an 18v electronic soldering iron that can run off a small powerbank.

Gas soldering irons were the bees knees before lithium batteries became a thing but they have a lot of disadvantages. They're often way too hot so they destroy the solder before you've finished the joint, some are adjustable but they have a tendancy to spit and splutter on the high and low settings and they also spit and stutter if they're over filled or getting low on gas. They're awful to use if there's even a slight breeze or little bit of air movement. The exhaust gasses have a tendancy to accidentally burn things in the general area and you often need a hot works permit for a butane gas iron on site but can often get away without one for a battery power version where there's no naked flames.

Marvo said:

Why do you specifically want a gas soldering iron? I'd suggest you should go with an 18v electronic soldering iron that can run off a small powerbank.

Gas soldering irons were the bees knees before lithium batteries became a thing but they have a lot of disadvantages. They're often way too hot so they destroy the solder before you've finished the joint, some are adjustable but they have a tendancy to spit and splutter on the high and low settings and they also spit and stutter if they're over filled or getting low on gas. They're awful to use if there's even a slight breeze or little bit of air movement. The exhaust gasses have a tendancy to accidentally burn things in the general area and you often need a hot works permit for a butane gas iron on site but can often get away without one for a battery power version where there's no naked flames.

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I've had a great number of gas soldering irons over the years, and it's only the cheap, nasty ones that suffer most of those problems.

Marvo said:

Why do you specifically want a gas soldering iron? I'd suggest you should go with an 18v electronic soldering iron that can run off a small powerbank.

Gas soldering irons were the bees knees before lithium batteries became a thing but they have a lot of disadvantages. They're often way too hot so they destroy the solder before you've finished the joint, some are adjustable but they have a tendancy to spit and splutter on the high and low settings and they also spit and stutter if they're over filled or getting low on gas. They're awful to use if there's even a slight breeze or little bit of air movement. The exhaust gasses have a tendancy to accidentally burn things in the general area and you often need a hot works permit for a butane gas iron on site but can often get away without one for a battery power version where there's no naked flames.

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Any suggestions for a battery one?

Marvo said:

Why do you specifically want a gas soldering iron?

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Because fire is fun and the answer to everything.

RDB85 said:

Any suggestions for a battery one?

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I have three that I personally own and use and it just happens that I brought them all home to clean all the tips this weekend so I can show you pictures.

My original was a TS100 which was one of the earliest battery powered electronic soldering iron offerings. It's a superb iron, it's customisable and it's been a very good workhorse for site use over the last 4 or 5 years. It will run on anything between 12-24VDC and I use it with a little 14.8V 1550mAh LiFePo battery which means it won't run at its full 65 watts power but it's very portable with the small battery and it's more than powerful enough for all my soldering needs at that voltage. As you can see from the photo it's taken a hiding from many weeks if not months of general site abuse over the years but it still works perfectly. It takes a barrel plug for power and there's a micro USB post for programming it with your own custom code if that's your thing.



My second battery iron is a Pinecil-BB2 which I use in our workshop. I don't need extreme portability with this application so I use it in conjunction with a 20000mah power bank that can handle PD3 / QC3 USBC and give a 100 watt output, it also has an option for a barrel plug for power as well. I've never properly tested the runtime but he iron runs at a full 65 watts on this powerbank for days. This iron doesn't get the same abuse as the TS100 and it's about 2 years old but it's been great to use and reliable. It was however cheaper than the TS100.



My third iron is a Fnirsi HS-01 which is only about a year old. It was also similar price to the Pinecil and considerably cheaper than the TS100 but I only bought it for occasional use at home. Again I use it with another 20000mah powerbank with a 100w USB-C output that has PD3/QC3 compliant power output negotiation but a barrel plug and battery can also be used. I've only used it probably half a dozen times for maybe 15-20 minutes per occasion so I can't really comment on long term reliability and durability. It works very well and I haven't found anything to complain about.

The Pinecil and the Fnirsi are basically knock-off copies of the TS100 which was the original iron of this type. There's a few differences between them but nothing that would be a deal breaker or even a decider unless you have very specific requirements. They're all accurately temperarure controllable to within a couple of degrees, they're all extremely fast warm-up time; they reach 380c in about 20 seconds and they're all powerful enough to solder at least 10mm CSA stranded wires for example. Finally they all come with a good wide range of tips available. It's probably worth mentioning that the TS100 and the Pinecil use the same tips but the Fnirsi tips are slightly different design so I wouldn't recommend trying to use them in the other two irons. The TS100 has also had several upgrades since I bought mine so please do some of your own homework and check the lastest specs. Incidentally I have a Hakko hot air rework and solder station in my workshop and the Hakko soldering iron tips are also interchangeable with the TS100 and the Pinecil so if you want to get high quality tips for one of these soldering irons the Hakko T12 tips, whilst being a bit longer could be a good option.

EDIT I forgot to mention all three of the irons can take a barrel type power plug, the fnirsi only has a USB-C socket on it but it comes with a small adaptor cable to allow a barrel plug, the Pinecil and TS100 can accept a barrel plug directly into them so with a bit of jiggerypokery and some kinda Amazon adapter you can also run them off your 18 volt cordless power tool batteries.

I've also got a graveyard of old gas soldering irons dating back to the 1980's including Portasol Beha and Weller versions, I was raised with these things but I wouldn't go back to one having now used these electronic soldering irons.

I have got the dremel gas soldering kit, it comes with a various different tips and can be used as a mini blow torch.
Most of the things I've used it for have been relatively chunky and robust which it has been good for, if your working on small cables and connections I could see it being a bit overpowered.

I also have a dremel gas soldering kit, it came in a nice tin box which you don't see very often nowadays. I only use it if I've got tons of heatshrink to do, it's handy for that. I definately wouldn't try to use the dremel gas iron on LED strips or electronics.

Marvo said:

I also have a dremel gas soldering kit, it came in a nice tin box which you don't see very often nowadays. I only use it if I've got tons of heatshrink to do, it's handy for that. I definately wouldn't try to use the dremel gas iron on LED strips or electronics.

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Sounds like the same one.

Definitely not for LED strip or electronics! I've found it fine for cables in the range of about 0.75mm up to about 4mm

The Dremel here too, in a nice box. The variety of tips is useful, there's a curved flame-guard thingy which comes in handy but the tip I use most is the "hot-air" one where there is no exposed flame and it's very good for heat-shrink.

I’ve decided as due to hot work permits on sites. I am going to look at a Battery one. I’ve seen Milwaukee an M12 one with a battery and charger. Which is possibly best. Expensive, but saves carrying gas on the work car.

What kinda soldering do you do on site? How many hours a day are you soldering for? How often do you have jobs where you need to solder? Also what price point / what's your budget?

If you're looking at the milwaukee there's a similar option from Aldi or Lidl... can't remember which that's Parkside branded. It's considerably cheaper with similar functionality. Never tried either of them so I can't say how good they are but the Parkside seems to get a thumbs up from all the reviews I've seen.

Marvo said:

What kinda soldering do you do on site? How many hours a day are you soldering for? How often do you have jobs where you need to solder? Also what price point / what's your budget?

If you're looking at the milwaukee there's a similar option from Aldi or Lidl... can't remember which that's Parkside branded. It's considerably cheaper with similar functionality. Never tried either of them so I can't say how good they are but the Parkside seems to get a thumbs up from all the reviews I've seen.

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It’s basically for soldering 8 core stranded alarm cable. It’s not something we do very often. Sometimes you have to join cables.

The Milwaukee is excellent, fast heat up long battery life, it should be all you need for soldering cables and LED strip!