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Reviews For: Cold Heat Cordless Soldering Tool

Category: Tools & Test Equipment for the amateur radio work bench

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Review Summary For : Cold Heat Cordless Soldering Tool
Reviews: 49MSRP: 19.99
Description:
Use this Cordless Soldering Tool for safer and quicker soldering virtually anywhere. By using patented Cold Heat™ technology, the tip, and only the tip, heats up instantly, saving you valuable time. And, as soon as you're finished applying the solder, the tip almost immediately cools off, helping to reduce the risk of burns. Catalog #: 64-2102
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.radioshack.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00491.1
KD8DEY Rating: 2011-09-20
Dont even want to buy the Tee Shirt Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Almost worthless as a soldering tool. The tip
Works Great as a power source to test that junk box full of L.E.D's
KA7OEI Rating: 2011-06-09
It works - but it's tricky to use... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
If you try to use one of these, forget everything you thought you knew about soldering!

A few years ago I was given one of these and at first I thought it didn't work at all - but then I remembered that it was a "resistance-type" device and not a "heat-type" and adjusting the strategy appropriately, was able to get it to work - even solder on RF connectors fairly quickly by applying very localized heat at the point where soldering was taking place.

The trick is that in order for there to be any heat, one must bridge a conductor so that the carbon tip will get hot and transfer the heat to the object being soldered - and *then* you can start to solder. The tip, being carbon, is fairly fragile and does wear rather quickly.

Once you get the hang of that, it's not so bad - but it does have its limitations - namely, you don't have any "thermal inertia" to more-rapidly get large object hot quickly.

Just for laughs, I did hand this, without explanation, to someone else whom I know can solder well - but they were completely unable to do anything with it until being shown the "trick" - that is, allow the device to heat up the piece being soldered and to NOT try to apply any solder to the tip!

That being said, I much prefer a butane cordless iron over one of these - and if power and practicality permit, my temperature controlled soldering station over that!
AC7EW Rating: 2011-05-22
OK for the right use Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I got one as a gift several years ago. I was skeptical at best but have tried it in several situations. It only works on small connections and you have to hold it so one side of the tip touches one side of the connection and the other side of the tip touches the other side of the connection. You then use the solder to bridge the gap and it melts and flows. It works OK but for field use I like my butane iron much better. It's more of a novelty than a tool.
SV1ENS Rating: 2009-04-02
A waste of money ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It's totally worthless... Just doesn't work...
W6KRU Rating: 2008-11-05
Junk Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was lucky enough to have a friend hand me one of these when I asked for a soldering iron. Do not waste money on this junk. Save your money for a Wahl if you need something small and portable.
KC0RBX Rating: 2008-06-27
Right tool for the job Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
O.K. Now I know this tool is not a typical soldering IRON or a butane iron or torch. It won't solder a Amphenol pl-259 to RG-8. It won't solder a car battery connector to a car battery cable. BUT, if you want to solder something pretty small it will work pretty slick. It is not intended to solder the big stuff or wires with a lot of length which would sink the heat away too quickly. I have used it on very small pads or joints with great success. I only gave this unit a 4 because the replacement tips are fragile and EXPENSIVE! I would not recommend this as a primary soldering tool. But in certain situations it does work great. Spend your money on other irons first then buy this as another tool for "special situations". Or buy one and give it an honest try on small stuff for the fun of it.
WB8MWG Rating: 2008-06-26
JUNK Time Owned: more than 12 months.
JUNK, never did get it to work.
a 20.00 dollor lesson.
I bought it for a mobile use.
well ,first time I needed it,under the dash of my truck,I found out it did not work.
Back to the propane Iron.
COLD HEAT IS TOTAL JUNK!

KC9GUZ Rating: 2007-11-11
F&^**!)% POS!! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
WoW!!!!! I cant help but imagine how many people have purchased one of these then threw it out or retuned it!!! What a Freaking JOKE! My company purchased one of these and VERY QUICKLY found out how much of a joke it was to use!!! It ranks up there with the new Dremel cordless drill/routing tool..... JUNK!!!!!!!!!!!
N4ATS Rating: 2007-09-06
Looks good though.. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought one , put some good batteries in it , tried it , trashed it...

This thing is about as worthless as they get.

The only reason I even took the time to write this ? It looks good , thats about it...

If the tip fibers were closer together , it may work but to get the heat started , you must short out at least two fibers (+ and -) then hurry and puddle the solder around it.

KE5MHZ Rating: 2007-09-06
A Rock Would Work Better Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was skeptical when I bought the Cold-Heat iron because I doubted that 4 AA batteries could supply enough current to make a good solder joint, but curiosity got the best of me.

I was right, it is totally non-functional as a soldering iron. Resistance soldering is a old proven technology and it works if you have the right equipment. The only way this thing is going to melt solder is if you connect a car battery in place of the AA batteries or connect it to a transformer designed for resistance soldering. I suppose you could heat the tip with a torch, but it probably would cool off before you got the tip on the joint. (Just kidding don’t' try these solutions at home. The results could be dangerous.)

If you are desperate, the iron could be used as a very poor flashlight otherwise; it is worth no more than the value of the four batteries (not included).

The people who market this device (not a soldering iron) received an award in 2007 for innovative devices and they now have a Cold-Heat Pro which takes five batteries. See http://www.coldheat.com. There was a recent article about the Cold-Heat in QST. I wrote the author and QST to complain, but they never responded. The author has a non-working E-mail…I wonder why.

It takes heat to melt solder. Cold won't do it.

Conclusion: Cold-Heat is a soldering iron (not), POS (yes)
They need to stick to making dog beds.