*IF I HAVE TO READ ANOTHER COMMENT ABOUT THE PLIERS ACTING AS A HEAT SINK I'LL PULL MY HAIR OUT!* 😂 I did film it without the pliers and it still didn't work. 🍺 *JOIN THE Alearmy Exclusive weekly live videos on Thursday* ruclips.net/user/plumberpartsjoin 🛠 *AMAZON STORE* www.amazon.co.uk/shop/plumberparts 📺 *VLOG CHANNEL:* ruclips.net/user/timeswithjames
I can’t see the sense in this at all . He talks about capiliry fillings.first why not have a clamp with a ridge which goes over the Yorkshire and not only clamps over but melts the solder
Idk about the pliers pulling heat. But I do know from years of soldering that the solder runs to the heat source. And you have the source above the fitting. It'd be the same as having your torch in the same location. It would take eventually but the solder wouldn't run into the fitting as easily as if it was being heated on the fitting itself.
I'm an American plumber. I got one of these years ago. I kept it on the van for a while but never used it for work. I tried it a couple times at home and admittedly I was impressed. Originally I wished it fit around the fitting, BUT that wouldn't always work because not all fittings are the same size. Once a touch of solder gets in the joint the heat transfers to the fitting much more quickly. I still use my torch everyday, but for someone with less flame control it's certainly preferable to burning a house down.
@@D_pawson Have you seen the cost of Propress fittings? I have almost as many Propress fittings on the van as sweat but I still choose to sweat a lot of stuff. When it's only a couple joints the time difference is minimal and the parts cost is more important. Sweat fittings are usually 1/2 to 1/4 the cost of Propress fittings. Also, they take up less space on the van.
I've got a set of these and they don't get a huge amount of use, but if I'm working in a confined space like a airing cupboard where it's super tight, they give me more peace of mind when I leave the job that the flame from my torch didn't do any damage or more importantly, leave anything smoldering away that I didn't or couldn't see. These days I'd probably use a push fit though.
I did another test that i didn't film and the grips helped loads. Just not the 'best' tool for that job. Would be miles better if they fit the outer of the fitting properly and not just the outside pipe diameter....might shave off some brass and see if that improves...
@@plumberparts I'd expect that you only need to get a couple of good points of contact onto the pipe/fitting given how good a conductor of heat that copper is. I'd agree that clamping the jaws onto the pipe is going to help, but a non-conductive clamp fitted over the plastic part of the jaws will avoid the grips sinking the heat away from the pipe/fitting.
To solve the problem. Buy that beast. Buy cheap inverter 600w. Build a small ish battery pack. Whatever your inverter work on. Buy a light dimmer. Put it all together. And you got yourself soldering station you can use on site. I wouldn't go more than 75% of a dimmer. That way it'll beat flame in every way.
Not only does the channel lock wrench acts as a heat sink pulling away heat from pipe, it also pulls current away from the two pipe jaws (ie. short circuiting). The PipeMaster soldering tool uses electrical conduction THROUGH the pipe to heat up the pipe. The metal channel lock wrench has its own conduction across the jaws short circuiting some of the current provided by the PipeMaster reducing the maximum heat delivered to the pipe.
Recommendation: Instead of applying a channel lock wrench to the jaws, use a locking clamp on the PipeMaster handle to increase the pressure of the jaws. The locking clamp on the handle has NO short circuit conduction divert heat or current away from the jaws. This should maximize the heat at the connection interface of the jaws. Another option is to use cable zip-ties on the handle to tighten the jaws. Downside: Cutting the zip-ties when done.
I have an Antex Pipemaster, I've twisted a hair band around the grips, this does keep the iron tight on a pipe. I plug in iron, prep all pipes, heat 15mm pipe for 30sec, add flux, heat sleeve for 20secs, solder. Same applies 22mm but add 10secs to heating as there is more copper to heat.
Hi just to let you know I am a fan of your videos you are so good at explaning things and just love your style. I think one of the reasons the solder did not melt as good on the bigger size was beacuse you had another pliers attached to it therefore talking the heat away from thr heating element. Sorry if I am wrong, just an idea.
Yep the handle of the tool needs a lock clamp to hold it tight, or around the neck of the heat rods, otherwise I would be very interest as a DIY person as all my tools around the house have been turn into electric, why because I have Solar on the roof, and a battery bank in the loft, since I moved into my house 4 years ago I've been using solar power for all my jobs, the last tool I have is the blow torch!!...thanks for the review. PS I agree with 'rikmoran' placing a pair of clamps around the hot end will act as a heat sink and take longer to do the job.
Very interesting review. As someone who does more electronics soldering, this looks similar to an iron. Looks like there are a lot of improvements that could be made to the tech from soldering irons like a temperature indicator, and a proper holder. Having its own ratchetibg/ clamping handle would really help to transfer the heat too, save using grips like James did. As a DIYr these do look interesting as my torch skills are crap, but these look like they would drive me a bit mad too.
Excellent review. Another advantage I can see is that the soldering process is less smelly than when using the open flame of a blowtorch. Many thanks. David
This would have helped me on a number of occasions where fire risk has been a real concern. On the other hand copper push fit fittings can be a life saver in such situations.
These are real handy in confined spaces where a flame could be a problem and they do generally work well. However in some situations they can be difficult to get into position for instance with a pipe against a wall where you need to come in from the side so they don't replace a torch completely. You want to get the more powerful 220w version for 22mm pipe heats up the joint much faster.
The golden rule when soldering is don't move the pipe or fitting until the solder has cooled down or the solder might crack, I can see that there is a lot of movement of the pipe and fittings , high risk of cracked solder with this system. And I think that you mean a solder ring fitting 👍
sorry I didn't look at the other comments. It looks like you have be well informed of the problem using the grips,. Sorry to be the one to hammer that home
On the big fitting where you had probs, I would advise you get the thing closer to the fitting and no clamp, don't worry about a bit of solder getting on the heater. You will only get a burn off it once, then you will become super aware of it.
Thats interesting… i was always under the school of thought that to get the tightest fitting you heat the fitting not the pipe, therefor the space between the fitting and pipe opens up a little more and more solder can run in, therefore when tje fitting cools there more solder material in the joint creating a tighter clamp when the joint cools to room temp… if you know what i mean.
Great vid' as usual, can you do one on how to de-solder a joint to use again, as I was in possision where I needed to split a joint as I was not able to cut the pipe as it would have left it too short to re-joint under the floor, thanks. Avid DIYer...
I have taken to crimping, been using this for awhile now, not had a failure yet, cost of the crimping tool can be a bit pricey though you can start low budget. Ideal if you are in a hazardous area with flammable or combustible materials about.
Cool stuff. When I first became an apprentice I was reading about plumbing and came across an article about a guy on his first day of plumbing who burned down some mansion. They gave him a torch and put him in the attic on his very first day. Oops! Bet he wishes he had one of these things. Do you guys use mapp gas? Or whatever the replacement for it is? I’ve almost never used propane for soldering.
As an electronics technician, we always tin the wire with a bit of solder to aid conduction, I'm certain this same method would work with the pipemaster, I came on here to say about the conduction of the molegrip but notice 175 comments already mention it, by the way if you was using the torch would you be heating the pipe or the t?
speaking as a world champion in making leaky joints, a couple of ideas. how about putting a spring between the handles to hold the grips tighter, also, a tube lined with heat resistant stuff as a holder so the hot bits are in a safe place when not in use ?
DIYer here. Thanks for the review, but I wouldn't have one. It in its current state it looks to me like version 0.1. The clamp parts need to fit more closely to the pipe OR the fitting and there should be some sort of clamp lock. The wattage should probably be higher as on 22mm it didn't have the guts required for good solder flow. 28mm - forget it. Now, I reckon "version 1.0" would be good for the pro, as I was told by a plumber the other day that on a building site he would have to stay for a couple of hours after the last blowtorch enabled joint. Superfire II all the way for me...
They've been around for YEARS I used one when I re-plumbed my house over 20 years ago but only for some joints in tricky locations, I used gas for the rest.
Question - I have an electric water heater, and I just did my annual draining of the tank / refill. Water heater is only about 4 yrs. old. I did not do the pressurized flush method by keeping the incoming water valve open method. I just drained the tank the way the instruction manual said to do (water hose, open relief valve, close incoming water valve, etc.) and then refilled the tank. I checked the pressure relief valve to make sure it was good and then opened hot water faucets to check the stream of water and everything looked perfect. So, then I cut the breaker to the water heater on once it was refilled. After about 45 mins I went to the faucet and turned the hot water on and noticed that the temperature of the water was suddenly much higher than it was before I started the draining process. I did not make any changes to the temp settings, heating elements, etc. and suddenly the water is really hot. I know it's impossible to say what the problem is because it could be a few things but what do you think the problem is most likely? If it were a mineral clog, wouldn't that cause the temperature of outgoing water to drop instead of going higher? And I thought if it's the heating element it's kind of unlikely that it just happened to go bad immediately after refilling the tank.
Don't forget that if you use a metal tool to grip the soldering heads the iron has to heat the tool up as well as the joint. That can be a lot of metal (try using your blowtorch under water 😄).
You can also get an attachment for the blow lamp that is a metal sheet that clips onto the lamp and hooks around the pipe your soldering... or could just use press fit if you ever with the lottery to buy the fittings
You probably need to tin the Pipemaster and pipe so that there is a greater surface area that is in contact to increase the transfer of heat. This is the same principle used in soldering electronics.
Rather than metal clamp at the hot end, maybe a different bodge might work? cable tie loosely around both handles. Move cable tie as far as possible from pivot. Tighten cable tie when tool clamped on work . Place Dab of superglue in the cable tie's racheting mechanism to jam it. With luck will then able to slide the cable tie over the handles as and locking or release wanted.
Thanks for the video. But I think that the reason that the 28mm one hasn't worked well is because your grippers are working as a heat sink and effectively you are heating up the grips and this is debiting heat from the iron jaws.
I think these have a place in the tool box but to be honest I don't like using them. The weight of them tends to mean movement on the joints particularly vertical ones, the are safer than flames but just awkward.
Not seen these before. I can see these working for me as I work in a lot of places where I can’t get hot works permit I wonder if I’d get away with using one of these ?
The jaws need a changing radius along the circumference so you can choose where it seats best. You'll never get 100% contact, but should always find a sweet spot for good contact surface area over half the pipe. Unless the pipe or fitting is perfectly matched, these seem to rely on a few points of contact which is horribly inefficient.
Hey I used heavy rubber strapping to pull tight the handles, no issue with the heatsink issue. Too bad we can't use an induction heater to heat up copper but I see a problem at slipping the coil round pipe that it would become entrapped into the mess. Now if someone could come up with a split coil induction heater for copper it would be nice.
try out the - Rothenberger 3.6700 / 3.6701 Rotherm 2000 Electric Soft Soldering Unit 110 / 240 Volts Fast safe flame free soldering for copper tube and capillary fittings. 2000 watt. For use from 6 to 54mm diameter in any location. Supplied complete with soldering tongs with a 4 metre cable, soldering tongs and 2 metres of mains cable. instead of 120 watts
I bought one because I liked the idea for soldering in a very tight spot but as you show I thought exactly the same the clamp system doesn’t seem to hold the pipe properly which then takes longer to solder than it should
22mm tee joint, I suggest to start heating at first bottom joint as heat rises slowly, move heater up the joint and solder as you go, heating above tee first probably not effective as good percentage of heat travelling up the pipe.
careful putting grips on the soldering element, the pipe should be grounded and there should be insulation but if there are problems the tool handle rubber on a knipex normal tool is not rated for any voltage.. so I would advise that anyone that wants extra grip use a pair of electrically safe insulated pliers (1000V rated grips).
Hellor sir ! Can this soldering iron solder aluminium pipe ? Car air conditioning is using aluminium pipe only , so this tools can solder it or not ? Thanks
In sure other people mentioned this but clamping it with pliers is gonna make it take longer to heat up and even possibly make it too cool. Maybe try it again with out them jic?
I definitely needed this last week. I cut the hutch on the floor to do some soldering n lots of spider webs 🕸 as soon as the torch lit the webs start to burn away. I was shitting myself. I thought the whole house would burn down. 😟
It looks like it’s a decent idea for areas when a blowtorch may be a risk but it looks like a redesign is due on it as that design is years old. A battery version would possibly be ideal or a catalytic converter type without the big flame .
I have seen it done with hot air heat gun and semi circular deflector plate aroun the back of the pipe so you don't even need a heat mat but you slow down the process
Just a matter of time until there is a no open flame policy on building sites and your insurance tells you that if you use gas flame then you pay a lot more. The grips do need to have a timer so they don't get left on by accident and jaws that self grip
Maybe heat the pipe near the fitting then apply your solder?, This would ensure a perfect wrap around and heat distribution, And put the element on the centre of the capillary fitting to do both sides in one stroke, Just a thought..
Nice concept. Obviously this is marketed towards non-professionals (i.e. home owners) as I can't see professional tradesmen using it since time is money and some job sites may not have power outlets within reach; even using extension cords.
From a homeowner point of view, the price of one of these buys a fair pile of pushfit or compression fittings. I'm struggling to figure out the niche for this, maybe installation of gas piping in inaccessible high fire-risk areas (IIRC in the UK compression joints aren't allowed on inaccessible gas pipes).
Never heard a solder joint referred to as being "sublime"! It would be nice if the jaws were spring loaded so you could just clamp it on and let go while it heats the fitting.
Bought these so didnt set fire to close flamable stuff even with heat mat for scorching. The promo I saw a while back shows heating pipe to side of joint. Dont think they are a speed item like you say more get you out of trouble spot. Oh and the pliers are heat sink 🤣.
That’s actually pretty cool, obviously I’m no plumber but I imagine it’s a tool that would only come out in places a blow torch is a bit overly risky ? Seems a lot of faffing about, you’d have a joint done before I even plugged that in 😂
If the clamp bits were bored out to fit the outside of the female fitting, I think that would solve most of the problems. I think they should fit the fitting quite will to work as intended. Thanks for the vid!
Would be better if it had some kind of ratchet build in, so it actually clamped, without requiring constant grip pressure on them. Without any kind of heat protection on the outer edges, and I can see many injuries, as you mention in the video, bumping into them, or potentially knocking them over.
How long do you heat up the fitting with a torch before soldering for comparison? Perhaps a good idea to leave them resting over a mat if you're worried about the stand.
Depends on how hot you have your torch. me personally, I set my torch to but pretty low, just below being able to hear the hiss of the torch burning and for that level a 15mm or 1/2 pipe takes about 10 seconds to heat up.
"I don't want the heat on the pipe I want it on the fitting" Exactly, in an ideal world your heat should be where you want your solder to go and your pipe and fitting should both be heated. Holding the clamps on just the 3/4" copper tube and not the fitting isn't as good as if you could apply the heat directly where you want it.
@@mfx1That makes sense in theory because the solder comes attached to the fitting already but I have never used a capillary fitting like what's shown. I've never even seen a capillary fitting before this video. I havn't seen any in local plumbing supply or hardware stores like Wosley, Crane, Emco, Bird Stairs, Home Depot, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, Frasier's, etc. Not a useful tool for me at least.
@@krakenthrottle2199 Solder ring capillary fittings probably aren't a thing in the US but then neither is the pipemaster I suspect given it'll likely struggle to get hot enough with 110v outlets.
*IF I HAVE TO READ ANOTHER COMMENT ABOUT THE PLIERS ACTING AS A HEAT SINK I'LL PULL MY HAIR OUT!* 😂 I did film it without the pliers and it still didn't work.
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Good bit of kit for a trade who solders occasionally but doesn't want the extra cost to their insurance that comes with working with flames.
I can’t see the sense in this at all .
He talks about capiliry fillings.first why not have a clamp with a ridge which goes over the Yorkshire and not only clamps over but melts the solder
Aonde eu encontro este equipamento ?
Idk about the pliers pulling heat. But I do know from years of soldering that the solder runs to the heat source. And you have the source above the fitting. It'd be the same as having your torch in the same location. It would take eventually but the solder wouldn't run into the fitting as easily as if it was being heated on the fitting itself.
I'm an American plumber.
I got one of these years ago. I kept it on the van for a while but never used it for work. I tried it a couple times at home and admittedly I was impressed. Originally I wished it fit around the fitting, BUT that wouldn't always work because not all fittings are the same size. Once a touch of solder gets in the joint the heat transfers to the fitting much more quickly.
I still use my torch everyday, but for someone with less flame control it's certainly preferable to burning a house down.
I think the American spelling is propress🤣
@@D_pawson Have you seen the cost of Propress fittings? I have almost as many Propress fittings on the van as sweat but I still choose to sweat a lot of stuff. When it's only a couple joints the time difference is minimal and the parts cost is more important.
Sweat fittings are usually 1/2 to 1/4 the cost of Propress fittings. Also, they take up less space on the van.
@@D_pawson The Propress is also much larger than the tip of a torch so you can't Propress everything simply due to space constraints.
Yeah, maybe it would be ok for amateurs but I'll stick to my MAPP gas torch. I haven't burnt anyone's house down so far. 🤞
I've got a set of these and they don't get a huge amount of use, but if I'm working in a confined space like a airing cupboard where it's super tight, they give me more peace of mind when I leave the job that the flame from my torch didn't do any damage or more importantly, leave anything smoldering away that I didn't or couldn't see. These days I'd probably use a push fit though.
Doesn't look like they "hold tight". Good review James
Yeah, sometimes needed...but not intentionally!
You shouldn’t use metal grips to grab the heating elements as it diverts the heat away from the pipe. That’s why the 22mm took longer.
I did another test that i didn't film and the grips helped loads. Just not the 'best' tool for that job. Would be miles better if they fit the outer of the fitting properly and not just the outside pipe diameter....might shave off some brass and see if that improves...
@@plumberparts I'd expect that you only need to get a couple of good points of contact onto the pipe/fitting given how good a conductor of heat that copper is. I'd agree that clamping the jaws onto the pipe is going to help, but a non-conductive clamp fitted over the plastic part of the jaws will avoid the grips sinking the heat away from the pipe/fitting.
To solve the problem. Buy that beast. Buy cheap inverter 600w. Build a small ish battery pack. Whatever your inverter work on. Buy a light dimmer. Put it all together. And you got yourself soldering station you can use on site. I wouldn't go more than 75% of a dimmer. That way it'll beat flame in every way.
Not only does the channel lock wrench acts as a heat sink pulling away heat from pipe, it also pulls current away from the two pipe jaws (ie. short circuiting).
The PipeMaster soldering tool uses electrical conduction THROUGH the pipe to heat up the pipe. The metal channel lock wrench has its own conduction across the jaws short circuiting some of the current provided by the PipeMaster reducing the maximum heat delivered to the pipe.
Recommendation: Instead of applying a channel lock wrench to the jaws, use a locking clamp on the PipeMaster handle to increase the pressure of the jaws. The locking clamp on the handle has NO short circuit conduction divert heat or current away from the jaws. This should maximize the heat at the connection interface of the jaws.
Another option is to use cable zip-ties on the handle to tighten the jaws. Downside: Cutting the zip-ties when done.
Very well done fella. I do believe the word is Master Plumber which comes to mind.
I have an Antex Pipemaster, I've twisted a hair band around the grips, this does keep the iron tight on a pipe.
I plug in iron, prep all pipes, heat 15mm pipe for 30sec, add flux, heat sleeve for 20secs, solder.
Same applies 22mm but add 10secs to heating as there is more copper to heat.
Excellent advice. Will try that.
@@happydavid13 I forgot to mention, try not to get flux on the 15-22mm heads, the internal diameter increases with corrosion and 15mm becomes 16mm.
Hi just to let you know I am a fan of your videos you are so good at explaning things and just love your style. I think one of the reasons the solder did not melt as good on the bigger size was beacuse you had another pliers attached to it therefore talking the heat away from thr heating element. Sorry if I am wrong, just an idea.
Yep the handle of the tool needs a lock clamp to hold it tight, or around the neck of the heat rods, otherwise I would be very interest as a DIY person as all my tools around the house have been turn into electric, why because I have Solar on the roof, and a battery bank in the loft, since I moved into my house 4 years ago I've been using solar power for all my jobs, the last tool I have is the blow torch!!...thanks for the review. PS I agree with 'rikmoran' placing a pair of clamps around the hot end will act as a heat sink and take longer to do the job.
Very interesting review. As someone who does more electronics soldering, this looks similar to an iron. Looks like there are a lot of improvements that could be made to the tech from soldering irons like a temperature indicator, and a proper holder. Having its own ratchetibg/ clamping handle would really help to transfer the heat too, save using grips like James did. As a DIYr these do look interesting as my torch skills are crap, but these look like they would drive me a bit mad too.
They are made by Antex after all, so the resemblance shouldn't be surprising
Excellent review. Another advantage I can see is that the soldering process is less smelly than when using the open flame of a blowtorch.
Many thanks. David
This would have helped me on a number of occasions where fire risk has been a real concern. On the other hand copper push fit fittings can be a life saver in such situations.
Shark bites is where it’s at
I use the Ridgid RT 175 and it’s little brother. Once it gets going it’s fast but be careful of burning yourself
These are real handy in confined spaces where a flame could be a problem and they do generally work well. However in some situations they can be difficult to get into position for instance with a pipe against a wall where you need to come in from the side so they don't replace a torch completely. You want to get the more powerful 220w version for 22mm pipe heats up the joint much faster.
The golden rule when soldering is don't move the pipe or fitting until the solder has cooled down or the solder might crack, I can see that there is a lot of movement of the pipe and fittings , high risk of cracked solder with this system. And I think that you mean a solder ring fitting 👍
sorry I didn't look at the other comments. It looks like you have be well informed of the problem using the grips,. Sorry to be the one to hammer that home
My first soldering iron three decades ago was an Antex. I hope it is still a British company. Good review!
On the big fitting where you had probs, I would advise you get the thing closer to the fitting and no clamp, don't worry about a bit of solder getting on the heater. You will only get a burn off it once, then you will become super aware of it.
Thats interesting… i was always under the school of thought that to get the tightest fitting you heat the fitting not the pipe, therefor the space between the fitting and pipe opens up a little more and more solder can run in, therefore when tje fitting cools there more solder material in the joint creating a tighter clamp when the joint cools to room temp… if you know what i mean.
Good Saturday morning to you sir and your family
Great vid' as usual, can you do one on how to de-solder a joint to use again, as I was in possision where I needed to split a joint as I was not able to cut the pipe as it would have left it too short to re-joint under the floor, thanks.
Avid DIYer...
I have taken to crimping, been using this for awhile now, not had a failure yet, cost of the crimping tool can be a bit pricey though you can start low budget. Ideal if you are in a hazardous area with flammable or combustible materials about.
Cool stuff. When I first became an apprentice I was reading about plumbing and came across an article about a guy on his first day of plumbing who burned down some mansion. They gave him a torch and put him in the attic on his very first day. Oops! Bet he wishes he had one of these things.
Do you guys use mapp gas? Or whatever the replacement for it is? I’ve almost never used propane for soldering.
I have the pipe master and it works great
As an electronics technician, we always tin the wire with a bit of solder to aid conduction, I'm certain this same method would work with the pipemaster, I came on here to say about the conduction of the molegrip but notice 175 comments already mention it, by the way if you was using the torch would you be heating the pipe or the t?
For the cost of them, have you considered just getting two and having one each already set up for 15mm and 22mm?
Hi James, the rothenberger or REMs units are much better. Maybe see if they will loan one for you to demonstrate. They heat the pipe in seconds.
I'll just buy one. Don't have anything to do with tool manufacturers apart from the bosch massive.
@@plumberparts Looking forward to it's review! It means no more gas!
@@plumberparts , get the rothenberger rotherm 2000, it's impressive.
Yea I was actually looking into buying the rems version, would be nice to see it in action
Is that the induction heating one?
Could it be that on the 22mm pipe when you held the clamp on with the grips a bit of the heat dissipation went fractionally into the grips.?
It makes complete sense to me, that the heat will disperse to the clamp
My uncle Kenny once used a blow torch to solder a live gas pipe....may he RIP
He and my dad would have been great friends
I can see uses for plumbing embedded in spray in insulation (flammable). I would still keep that fire extinguisher near at hand though.
Cracking review Jimmy - grips defo acting as a heat sink though bud! T-shirt arrived the other day - oh yeah 😎
Top man!
Amigo onde compro essa máquina?
speaking as a world champion in making leaky joints, a couple of ideas.
how about putting a spring between the handles to hold the grips tighter, also, a tube lined with heat resistant stuff as a holder so the hot bits are in a safe place when not in use ?
Definitely a diyers tool with Yorkshire fittings would be really good for every now and again use.
DIYer here. Thanks for the review, but I wouldn't have one. It in its current state it looks to me like version 0.1. The clamp parts need to fit more closely to the pipe OR the fitting and there should be some sort of clamp lock. The wattage should probably be higher as on 22mm it didn't have the guts required for good solder flow. 28mm - forget it.
Now, I reckon "version 1.0" would be good for the pro, as I was told by a plumber the other day that on a building site he would have to stay for a couple of hours after the last blowtorch enabled joint.
Superfire II all the way for me...
Probably not version 0.1 - I had a 25-30 year old set of these (Antex, but yellow) which I finally took to the skip a few weeks ago, unused.
They've been around for YEARS I used one when I re-plumbed my house over 20 years ago but only for some joints in tricky locations, I used gas for the rest.
Question - I have an electric water heater, and I just did my annual draining of the tank / refill. Water heater is only about 4 yrs. old. I did not do the pressurized flush method by keeping the incoming water valve open method. I just drained the tank the way the instruction manual said to do (water hose, open relief valve, close incoming water valve, etc.) and then refilled the tank. I checked the pressure relief valve to make sure it was good and then opened hot water faucets to check the stream of water and everything looked perfect. So, then I cut the breaker to the water heater on once it was refilled. After about 45 mins I went to the faucet and turned the hot water on and noticed that the temperature of the water was suddenly much higher than it was before I started the draining process. I did not make any changes to the temp settings, heating elements, etc. and suddenly the water is really hot. I know it's impossible to say what the problem is because it could be a few things but what do you think the problem is most likely? If it were a mineral clog, wouldn't that cause the temperature of outgoing water to drop instead of going higher? And I thought if it's the heating element it's kind of unlikely that it just happened to go bad immediately after refilling the tank.
Don't forget that if you use a metal tool to grip the soldering heads the iron has to heat the tool up as well as the joint. That can be a lot of metal (try using your blowtorch under water 😄).
If it were a soldering iron for electronics you would "wet" the tip with some solder to make better contact with the copper, might be worth trying?
You can also get an attachment for the blow lamp that is a metal sheet that clips onto the lamp and hooks around the pipe your soldering... or could just use press fit if you ever with the lottery to buy the fittings
Great invention , no risk of fire in wooden structures...
You probably need to tin the Pipemaster and pipe so that there is a greater surface area that is in contact to increase the transfer of heat. This is the same principle used in soldering electronics.
Rather than metal clamp at the hot end, maybe a different bodge might work?
cable tie loosely around both handles. Move cable tie as far as possible from pivot. Tighten cable tie when tool clamped on work . Place Dab of superglue in the cable tie's racheting mechanism to jam it.
With luck will then able to slide the cable tie over the handles as and locking or release wanted.
Thanks for the video. But I think that the reason that the 28mm one hasn't worked well is because your grippers are working as a heat sink and effectively you are heating up the grips and this is debiting heat from the iron jaws.
James, you've got the emissivity set incorrectly on your thermal camera if you want to look at the temperature of metal objects!
I think these have a place in the tool box but to be honest I don't like using them. The weight of them tends to mean movement on the joints particularly vertical ones, the are safer than flames but just awkward.
Agree!
So is it conduction, or induction? Ive seen it advertised both ways...
YEEESSSSSS YOU'RE REVIEWING THIS THING
Not seen these before. I can see these working for me as I work in a lot of places where I can’t get hot works permit I wonder if I’d get away with using one of these ?
The jaws need a changing radius along the circumference so you can choose where it seats best. You'll never get 100% contact, but should always find a sweet spot for good contact surface area over half the pipe.
Unless the pipe or fitting is perfectly matched, these seem to rely on a few points of contact which is horribly inefficient.
Putting a pair of grips on the heat source takes the heat out of the elements, your're heating the grips.
glad someone mentioned it.
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Pinned comment.
Hi James.Does it work for refrigeration copper pipe?
Hey I used heavy rubber strapping to pull tight the handles, no issue with the heatsink issue. Too bad we can't use an induction heater to heat up copper but I see a problem at slipping the coil round pipe that it would become entrapped into the mess. Now if someone could come up with a split coil induction heater for copper it would be nice.
try out the -
Rothenberger 3.6700 / 3.6701 Rotherm 2000 Electric Soft Soldering Unit 110 / 240 Volts
Fast safe flame free soldering for copper tube and capillary fittings.
2000 watt.
For use from 6 to 54mm diameter in any location.
Supplied complete with soldering tongs with a 4 metre cable, soldering tongs and 2 metres of mains cable.
instead of 120 watts
Try the Rotherm 2000 from rothenberger. Looks a little more robust.
I bought one because I liked the idea for soldering in a very tight spot but as you show I thought exactly the same the clamp system doesn’t seem to hold the pipe properly which then takes longer to solder than it should
How are you bro, I have a question, can I use it for hvac tube too?
22mm tee joint, I suggest to start heating at first bottom joint as heat rises slowly, move heater up the joint and solder as you go, heating above tee first probably not effective as good percentage of heat travelling up the pipe.
Could this be used to desolder a fitting and remove it from a pipe...say, a valve for a bathroom sink?
careful putting grips on the soldering element, the pipe should be grounded and there should be insulation but if there are problems the tool handle rubber on a knipex normal tool is not rated for any voltage.. so I would advise that anyone that wants extra grip use a pair of electrically safe insulated pliers (1000V rated grips).
great videos, what's your thoughts on press fit? just seen a video, never knew it was a thing
Hi guys this machine can use with copper wilding rods? using with high pressure.
Hellor sir ! Can this soldering iron solder aluminium pipe ?
Car air conditioning is using aluminium pipe only , so this tools can solder it or not ? Thanks
And what is that tool he used to apply the flux? So cool
Hello do you know where we can buy this tolls
Think this would be useful doing pipes in a cabinet for example. You could get a bag that people use for hair straightness to keep them in
Good News,and Thank you
In sure other people mentioned this but clamping it with pliers is gonna make it take longer to heat up and even possibly make it too cool. Maybe try it again with out them jic?
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I definitely needed this last week. I cut the hutch on the floor to do some soldering n lots of spider webs 🕸 as soon as the torch lit the webs start to burn away. I was shitting myself. I thought the whole house would burn down. 😟
It looks like it’s a decent idea for areas when a blowtorch may be a risk but it looks like a redesign is due on it as that design is years old. A battery version would possibly be ideal or a catalytic converter type without the big flame .
will it be clamping the tool with grips will act as heat sink sucking the heat away??
On the 22mm perhaps the use of the grips is acting as a heat sync?
Where are you located
How much does this item cost ?Is it something that anyone can find useful or is it for the professional only ?
Perfect for Branding Emily
I have seen it done with hot air heat gun and semi circular deflector plate aroun the back of the pipe so you don't even need a heat mat but you slow down the process
Just a matter of time until there is a no open flame policy on building sites and your insurance tells you that if you use gas flame then you pay a lot more.
The grips do need to have a timer so they don't get left on by accident and jaws that self grip
Would the 22mm die fit better around the 15mm fittings ?
Will wait for V2
Very good equipment!!
Does it work on AC linesets?
Maybe heat the pipe near the fitting then apply your solder?, This would ensure a perfect wrap around and heat distribution, And put the element on the centre of the capillary fitting to do both sides in one stroke, Just a thought..
Do you think that these would work with HVAC fittings which are an off size and 15% silver solder?
Where it might be useful, sweating out a leaking fitting in a finished area ?
Nice concept. Obviously this is marketed towards non-professionals (i.e. home owners) as I can't see professional tradesmen using it since time is money and some job sites may not have power outlets within reach; even using extension cords.
From a homeowner point of view, the price of one of these buys a fair pile of pushfit or compression fittings.
I'm struggling to figure out the niche for this, maybe installation of gas piping in inaccessible high fire-risk areas (IIRC in the UK compression joints aren't allowed on inaccessible gas pipes).
Never heard a solder joint referred to as being "sublime"!
It would be nice if the jaws were spring loaded so you could just clamp it on and let go while it heats the fitting.
What so that fitting that comes with solder inside?
A good idea but it needs more thought in the implementation
Bought these so didnt set fire to close flamable stuff even with heat mat for scorching. The promo I saw a while back shows heating pipe to side of joint.
Dont think they are a speed item like you say more get you out of trouble spot.
Oh and the pliers are heat sink 🤣.
Tin the tool first mate to help with heat transfer!
That’s actually pretty cool, obviously I’m no plumber but I imagine it’s a tool that would only come out in places a blow torch is a bit overly risky ? Seems a lot of faffing about, you’d have a joint done before I even plugged that in 😂
Yeah exactly. It's a novelty...but a handy one!
Putting pliers on the heating elements of the unit will absorb the heat back into the pliers pulling it away from your tubing you want to solder.
If the clamp bits were bored out to fit the outside of the female fitting, I think that would solve most of the problems. I think they should fit the fitting quite will to work as intended. Thanks for the vid!
Hello sir , is it podsible to solder CAR AIR CONDITIONER ALUMINIUM PIPE ? thanks ,
The biggest problem with it is that as soon as you plug into the customers socket, they will moan about you using their electric 🤣
Would be better if it had some kind of ratchet build in, so it actually clamped, without requiring constant grip pressure on them.
Without any kind of heat protection on the outer edges, and I can see many injuries, as you mention in the video, bumping into them, or potentially knocking them over.
The gripwrench used to hold on the 22mm pipe, was acting like a heatsink.
You know what I can see those being really good at sweating off joints. Clamp the fitting and wiggle it off whilst keeping the heat on.
How long do you heat up the fitting with a torch before soldering for comparison?
Perhaps a good idea to leave them resting over a mat if you're worried about the stand.
Depends on how hot you have your torch. me personally, I set my torch to but pretty low, just below being able to hear the hiss of the torch burning and for that level a 15mm or 1/2 pipe takes about 10 seconds to heat up.
"I don't want the heat on the pipe I want it on the fitting" Exactly, in an ideal world your heat should be where you want your solder to go and your pipe and fitting should both be heated. Holding the clamps on just the 3/4" copper tube and not the fitting isn't as good as if you could apply the heat directly where you want it.
Most people would likely use the pipemaster with capillary fittings where it's better to heat the pipe.
@@mfx1That makes sense in theory because the solder comes attached to the fitting already but I have never used a capillary fitting like what's shown. I've never even seen a capillary fitting before this video. I havn't seen any in local plumbing supply or hardware stores like Wosley, Crane, Emco, Bird Stairs, Home Depot, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, Frasier's, etc. Not a useful tool for me at least.
@@krakenthrottle2199 Solder ring capillary fittings probably aren't a thing in the US but then neither is the pipemaster I suspect given it'll likely struggle to get hot enough with 110v outlets.
It was necessary to heat the T coupling or as you already call it, not the pipe.