Review: 'Cold' Soldering Iron Easy to Use!

Dashken · 28th Nov 2004, 11:15 PM

Quote:

NEW YORK - If you're looking for a good holiday gift for a tinkerer you can hardly give away anything more inventive than the Cold Heat soldering iron. It redesigns something that's been virtually unchanged for decades and does so by combining high-school level science and cheap materials.

The idea is this: instead of running electric current through the tip of the iron to heat it up, the Cold Heat iron runs the current between the two prongs of its split tip, and thus through the solder. If you make a good connection, the solder is effectively electrocuted and melts in a second.

When the iron's split tip is removed from the solder, it cools down quickly, becoming safe to touch in a few seconds.

And unlike a regular soldering iron, the Cold Heat contains it's own power source, four AA batteries. No need to plug into a wall outlet.

It's not the first cordless soldering iron — there are butane-powered versions, but these cost twice as much as the $20 Cold Heat, take longer to cool and require butane cartridges.

Now you're thinking "Hmm ... I wonder if the Cold Heat works like a cattle prod too?" No, it doesn't.

Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...test_cold_heat

Viper007Bond · 29th Nov 2004, 04:02 AM

Yeah, those things are really cool, no pun intended.

zy · 29th Nov 2004, 02:23 PM

cold ? .. i just burned by thumb couple of dayz ago .. luckily i didnt touch the tip .. i touch the metal thing which surrounds it

Adrian Wong · 29th Nov 2004, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zy

cold ? .. i just burned by thumb couple of dayz ago .. luckily i didnt touch the tip .. i touch the metal thing which surrounds it

Err.. You have a Cold Heat soldering iron?

29th Nov 2004, 04:02 AM	#2 (permalink)
Viper007Bond Super Active Join Date: 12 Oct 2004 Location: Portland, OR, USA Posts: 1,605 Reputation: 152 Rep Power: 7	Yeah, those things are really cool, no pun intended. __________________ - Viper007Bond.com Pentium 4C 3.0GHz (I had OC'ed, but the easy OC screwed with my RAM timings) 2GB RAM (4 x 512MB) OCZ PC3200 DDR in dual channel mode (2.5-3-2-6) BFG Tech 256MB GeForce 6800 GT (usually at stock speeds) 74GB Raptor \| 400GB Seagate (thanks ARP!) \| 250GB Maxtor [all SATA] 550W Antec TruePower PSU \| ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe mobo

29th Nov 2004, 02:23 PM	#3 (permalink)
zy Dead Join Date: 16 Dec 2002 Location: Penang,Malaysia - Buffalo,New York Posts: 12,834 Reputation: 1998 Rep Power: 37	cold ? .. i just burned by thumb couple of dayz ago .. luckily i didnt touch the tip .. i touch the metal thing which surrounds it __________________ current: P4-3.2\|P4P800-Deluxe\|512x4-DDR\|NV6600 WD2500KS\|WD5000AAKS\|AD-7191A\|1860NX\|Z2300\|MP470 home (malaysia): P4C-2.6@3.1-StockHSF\|AI7\|256x2-BT-D43\|512x2-DT-D43\|A9600XT-VIVO WD1200JB\|2xWD2500KS\|DRU-800A\|DVD-E616P\|LTR-52327S\|152x\|V.S.4121\|iP1500 laptop: M1210\|T7200\|2GBDDR667\|160GB5K160\|GO7400