Review: 'Cold' Soldering Iron Easy to Use!

[Dashken]

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]

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

[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

[Adrian Wong]

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?