It’s great to see another Hot Devil torch make its way into our Tradie Tough Tests with the Trade Map Twin Torch Kit. The combination of the Pencil flame burner tube (suited to electricians for specific and accurate heat placement) with the Turbo burner tube (suited to soldering and plumbers, which wraps the flame in a circular motion around a broader surface area) is ideal for pretty much any Hot Devil requirements you may have.
Now is the time I tell you all the specific tradie tasks you can complete with this Hot Devil Kit, such as soft soldering, silver soldering, thawing frozen pipes and locks, loosening rusted nuts, bolts and screws, brazing copper, mild steel or aluminium, heatshrinking and general heating applications.
But it’s all the other uses on weekends that genuinely make me value the versatility of this product so much. I’ve had more than one instance where we’ve come in from a two-hour surf in winter, are freezing cold and dripping wet, and found the fire had gone out. With a fresh mound of kindling and a single squeeze of the Auto Ignition start, the Hot Devil had us warming up in front of a roaring fire within minutes.
Another epic Hot Devil favourite is when the BBQ just isn’t quite getting the steaks crispy enough on its own. Simply hit the mediumrare steak with the Hot Devil Torch while it’s on the hotplate to get it perfectly crispy on those fatty edges. MAP gas burns at 2050ºC while butane’s burn temperature is 1980ºC, and that’s why top chefs around the world use MAP gas in just the way I’ve described. Enough food antics. Let’s look at some tradie uses – like soldering.
TEST #1: SOLDERING
For a plumber on the go looking to complete a few quick copper solders, the ease and speed of the Hot Devil system are ideal. I called on all-time legend plumber Josh Newton to lend his decades of experience to really see what the Hot Devil Torch could do for seasoned tradies.
“Most torches are capable of producing decent copper soft solders on ¼” pipe,” said Josh, “but it’s when you step up to ¾” sections, or move over to silver solder, that you really test the abilities of a professional torch.
“I was pleasantly surprised by the power and heat from the Hot Devil. I used the Turbo head, which is more suited for plumbing, whereas the Pencil head is more suited to sparkies. The Torch produced clean and tidy results with the ease and speed of a tradiequality portable system.
“I was most impressed by its performance when using the silver solder. I was pleasantly surprised to see just how well it managed this task.”
TEST #2: THAWING
To test thawing capabilities, I submerged a padlock and some soldered sections of copper pipe and then put them in the freezer to really see what the Hot Devil could do. I used the swirl flame action of the Turbo burner tube as it transfers heat up to 40% faster. The Torch head absolutely obliterated the 15mm-20mm tray of ice our padlock was sitting in, and we had the tray and lock thawed and open in minutes.
It was an impressive performance.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
The Hot Devil Trade Map Twin Torch Kit is built tough with solid-brass internals, has a brass adjustable burner tube and a hardened ABS handle for heat and impact resistance. I did drop it off the workbench outside onto the concrete, and it just bounced with no damage at all.
With both the Turbo burner tube, Pencil burner tube, torch head and trade MAP gas cylinder included in this kit, you have everything you need to tackle serious work and make sure steaks are cooked to perfection.
Bon appetite!
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