Cold Heat (R) Soldering Irons

M

Mark Jones

Guest
Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623
 
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:09:08 -0500, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1>
wrote:

Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623
It's junk, read the reviews.

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
 
Hi Jim,

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)
And when they say "Wait! There is more!" or "only if you call within the
next six hours". Or "with our socks you can fly to the moon".

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
 
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 08:36:00 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:09:08 -0500, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1
wrote:

Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623

It's junk, read the reviews.

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)

A lot of that stuff that was not available in stores finds its way
there anyway.

I kinda wanna get those weed wacker blades.

Endless inkjet is another. For S&H ( they gotta meke $ somewhere) I
get the same thing the fat cunt at the state fair sells for $50. The
bad thing is that I stood right there in front of her crowd and
pointed out that the ink cartridge she claimed she could fill 8
times from one bottle appeared to have a resevoir with a capacity of
a few ccs greater than the ink bottle. She said that was
"technical".

Basic shit, right. 6th grade math. Say 2 cm X 5 cm 4 cm > 8 cc
bottle. Did that keep these fuckin' morons from plonking down their
credit card? No.

--
Best Regards,
Mike
 
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 19:19:17 GMT, Joerg wrote:

Hi Jim,

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)



And when they say "Wait! There is more!" or "only if you call within the
next six hours". Or "with our socks you can fly to the moon".

That's a typical sales technique. I've called days later and gotten
the "extras."
--
Best Regards,
Mike
 
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 19:19:17 +0000, Joerg wrote:

Hi Jim,

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)



And when they say "Wait! There is more!" or "only if you call within the
next six hours". Or "with our socks you can fly to the moon".
And then the commercials that sound like they're all localized to
your demographic, but they say, "call that number you see on your
screen there." I guess that way they can use the same tape no matter
how many times they have to move to evade the authorities. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 15:36:36 -0500, Active8 wrote:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 19:19:17 GMT, Joerg wrote:

Hi Jim,

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)



And when they say "Wait! There is more!" or "only if you call within the
next six hours". Or "with our socks you can fly to the moon".

That's a typical sales technique. I've called days later and gotten
the "extras."
It doesn't really make any difference if you call "within the hour" -
all that does is bookend the slot so they know who gets credit for
the air time. In your case, whoever was running the spot when your
call came in got the commission. That's also why they have "operator
numbers." Come to think of it, this could also be what those dynamic
phone numbers are for.

Cheers!
Rich
 
Jim Thompson <thegreatone@example.com> wrote in
news:isrmp0hmggehfctledb325e5ico7187c36@4ax.com:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:09:08 -0500, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1
wrote:

Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623

It's junk, read the reviews.

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)

...Jim Thompson
A mall in my area has a "As seen on TV" store that sells all those
products. One of the local TV stations does reviews on whether they work or
not;a few actually do work!

I don't know about the soldering iron,although I've seen it in that store.


(Altamonte Springs,Fl. mall)

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net
 
Active8 <reply2group@ndbbm.net> wrote in
news:1xcrmyrtnie4z$.dlg@news.individual.net:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 08:36:00 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:09:08 -0500, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1
wrote:

Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623

It's junk, read the reviews.

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)

A lot of that stuff that was not available in stores finds its way
there anyway.

I kinda wanna get those weed wacker blades.

Endless inkjet is another. For S&H ( they gotta meke $ somewhere) I
get the same thing the fat cunt at the state fair sells for $50. The
bad thing is that I stood right there in front of her crowd and
pointed out that the ink cartridge she claimed she could fill 8
times from one bottle appeared to have a resevoir with a capacity of
a few ccs greater than the ink bottle. She said that was
"technical".

Basic shit, right. 6th grade math. Say 2 cm X 5 cm 4 cm > 8 cc
bottle. Did that keep these fuckin' morons from plonking down their
credit card? No.
I refilled ink cartridges on my Canon BJC-620 and a short while later,the
printhead began leaking and emptying the cartridges,and then the printhead
failed.Goodbye printer.
Also,the black ink on printouts faded to barely readable light brown even
when kept in dark conditions.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net
 
I bought one and now its sitting in a drawer and hasn't been used for
months. After I abandoned it I got a portasol butane torch that works
great and gets plenty of regular use, including heat shrinking and
blow torching.

The tip is a special material with a thin slot down the middle. The
slot is about half a mm wide. You are supposed to put the junction you
want to solder across the slot, shorting the two sides. The current
then flows from one side of the slot to the other _through_ the
junction you want to solder. The special tip material heats up real
hot with all the current flowing through it and thats what lets you
solder.

Problems I encountered:

The slot width makes it impossible to solder any small joints. Forget
smt or delicate work. This is something meant for big wires like
repairing your vacuum.

You have to maneuver the slot around on the piece you are trying to
solder until it makes sufficient contact to bridge the slot and heat
the tip up enough to melt the solder. This can be time consuming and
frustrating.

The tip material is somewhat soft and easily gets damaged, especially
while you are trying to get it into position to solder. Once you mess
up the tip, you cant get it to bridge anymore and thats the end of
that. And the tips cost about 10$ each last time I checked.

The slot is easily plugged up with flux residue, and good luck
cleaning it without damaging the soft tip material.

There are about 12V across the 'slot' so anything you short will get
12V across it at low impedance. Forget soldering closely spaced
components, the current from the soldering iron will flow where you
don't want it and hurt things.

I took mine apart to see how it worked. There is a small PCB with a
smt IC on it. The IC markings had clearly been ground off, but you
could still see the ST trademark and a few digits of the part number.
I went to ST's website and did some detective work and narrowed it
down to a few DC-DC converters. So basically you have a bunch of AA
batteries hooked up to a DC-DC to convert it to 12V, and the 'magic
tip material' does the rest.

Asa


Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1> wrote in message news:<T-idncBvTYyO9wbcRVn-iw@buckeye-express.com>...
Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623
 
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:44:12 +0000, Jim Yanik wrote:

Active8 <reply2group@ndbbm.net> wrote in
news:1xcrmyrtnie4z$.dlg@news.individual.net:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 08:36:00 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:09:08 -0500, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1
wrote:

Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623

It's junk, read the reviews.

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)

A lot of that stuff that was not available in stores finds its way
there anyway.

I kinda wanna get those weed wacker blades.

Endless inkjet is another. For S&H ( they gotta meke $ somewhere) I
get the same thing the fat cunt at the state fair sells for $50. The
bad thing is that I stood right there in front of her crowd and
pointed out that the ink cartridge she claimed she could fill 8
times from one bottle appeared to have a resevoir with a capacity of
a few ccs greater than the ink bottle. She said that was
"technical".

Basic shit, right. 6th grade math. Say 2 cm X 5 cm 4 cm > 8 cc
bottle. Did that keep these fuckin' morons from plonking down their
credit card? No.


I refilled ink cartridges on my Canon BJC-620 and a short while later,the
printhead began leaking and emptying the cartridges,and then the printhead
failed.Goodbye printer.
Also,the black ink on printouts faded to barely readable light brown even
when kept in dark conditions.
I bought one of those re-ink kits, and took it back and got my money
back the first time I tried to use it. The ink was good ink, but it
got everywhere except inside the cartridge. It cost more to clean up
after it than to just buy a new cartridge.

Good Luck!
Rich
 
Jim Thompson wrote:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:09:08 -0500, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1
wrote:

Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623

It's junk, read the reviews.

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)
Meaning " not available from anyone who tried it out and doesn't want
returns ".


Graham
 
On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:58:42 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

It doesn't really make any difference if you call "within the hour" -
all that does is bookend the slot so they know who gets credit for
the air time. In your case, whoever was running the spot when your
call came in got the commission. That's also why they have "operator
numbers." Come to think of it, this could also be what those dynamic
phone numbers are for.

Ah. I forgot that trick. They do it with department numbers on the
addr, also. I've only ordered a coupla things and they weren't
overly concerned exactly when I saw the ad.


--
Best Regards,
Mike
 
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:02:33 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:44:12 +0000, Jim Yanik wrote:



I refilled ink cartridges on my Canon BJC-620 and a short while later,the
printhead began leaking and emptying the cartridges,and then the printhead
failed.Goodbye printer.
Also,the black ink on printouts faded to barely readable light brown even
when kept in dark conditions.

I bought one of those re-ink kits, and took it back and got my money
back the first time I tried to use it. The ink was good ink, but it
got everywhere except inside the cartridge. It cost more to clean up
after it than to just buy a new cartridge.

I've had much better luck so far.

--
Best Regards,
Mike
 
On 18 Nov 2004 00:41:07 GMT, Jim Yanik wrote:

Jim Thompson <thegreatone@example.com> wrote in
news:isrmp0hmggehfctledb325e5ico7187c36@4ax.com:

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:09:08 -0500, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1
wrote:

Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623

It's junk, read the reviews.

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)

...Jim Thompson

A mall in my area has a "As seen on TV" store that sells all those
products. One of the local TV stations does reviews on whether they work or
not;a few actually do work!

They were in our mall for a few weeks. They had a "well built
feeling" 4-way cig lighter splitter for $2 and some other stuff that
looked like it might work... and some snake oil.

Like those pasta pans. They work, but the bottoms of cheap aluminum
cookware warp and don't conduct heat from flattops and maybe to a
lesser extent, the old electric elements.


--
Best Regards,
Mike
 
acannell@wwc.com (Asa Cannell) wrote in message news:<51ca721c.0411171850.6b9f3ebb@posting.google.com>...
I took mine apart to see how it worked. There is a small PCB with a
smt IC on it. The IC markings had clearly been ground off, but you
could still see the ST trademark and a few digits of the part number.
I went to ST's website and did some detective work and narrowed it
down to a few DC-DC converters. So basically you have a bunch of AA
batteries hooked up to a DC-DC to convert it to 12V, and the 'magic
tip material' does the rest.

Asa
The tip is connected directly to a 6 volt supply (4 AA cells).
The IC is an LED driver for the white LED "work light".

My cold heat iron was sold with the Coleman, lantern fame guys,
label on it. Sears has them also.

Jim
 
Active8 <reply2group@ndbbm.net> wrote in
news:i3ofbjh71opg.dlg@news.individual.net:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:02:33 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:44:12 +0000, Jim Yanik wrote:



I refilled ink cartridges on my Canon BJC-620 and a short while
later,the printhead began leaking and emptying the cartridges,and
then the printhead failed.Goodbye printer.
Also,the black ink on printouts faded to barely readable light brown
even when kept in dark conditions.

I bought one of those re-ink kits, and took it back and got my money
back the first time I tried to use it. The ink was good ink, but it
got everywhere except inside the cartridge. It cost more to clean up
after it than to just buy a new cartridge.

I've had much better luck so far.
You pay your money and take your chances.
Are new printheads available for your printer,or are the PHs integral with
the ink cartridges?

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net
 
Rich Grise wrote:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:44:12 +0000, Jim Yanik wrote:


Active8 <reply2group@ndbbm.net> wrote in
news:1xcrmyrtnie4z$.dlg@news.individual.net:


On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 08:36:00 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:


On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:09:08 -0500, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1
wrote:


Perhaps you've seen ads on TV for the so-called "cold heat"
soldering iron. Cordless, tip heats and cools instantly, 1000 solders
per 4 AA batteries. But is it right-on, or a rip-off?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4623

It's junk, read the reviews.

Basically, anything advertised on TV is not worth buying, particularly
when they say, "Not available in stores" :)


A lot of that stuff that was not available in stores finds its way
there anyway.

I kinda wanna get those weed wacker blades.

Endless inkjet is another. For S&H ( they gotta meke $ somewhere) I
get the same thing the fat cunt at the state fair sells for $50. The
bad thing is that I stood right there in front of her crowd and
pointed out that the ink cartridge she claimed she could fill 8
times from one bottle appeared to have a resevoir with a capacity of
a few ccs greater than the ink bottle. She said that was
"technical".

Basic shit, right. 6th grade math. Say 2 cm X 5 cm 4 cm > 8 cc
bottle. Did that keep these fuckin' morons from plonking down their
credit card? No.


I refilled ink cartridges on my Canon BJC-620 and a short while later,the
printhead began leaking and emptying the cartridges,and then the printhead
failed.Goodbye printer.
Also,the black ink on printouts faded to barely readable light brown even
when kept in dark conditions.


I bought one of those re-ink kits, and took it back and got my money
back the first time I tried to use it. The ink was good ink, but it
got everywhere except inside the cartridge. It cost more to clean up
after it than to just buy a new cartridge.
Why's that? Last and only time I used one there were no problems with the
syringe and needle transfer.

Anyway, I use a cheapo laser now.

--
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org
 
On 18 Nov 2004 16:17:15 GMT, Jim Yanik wrote:

Active8 <reply2group@ndbbm.net> wrote in
news:i3ofbjh71opg.dlg@news.individual.net:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:02:33 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:44:12 +0000, Jim Yanik wrote:



I refilled ink cartridges on my Canon BJC-620 and a short while
later,the printhead began leaking and emptying the cartridges,and
then the printhead failed.Goodbye printer.
Also,the black ink on printouts faded to barely readable light brown
even when kept in dark conditions.

I bought one of those re-ink kits, and took it back and got my money
back the first time I tried to use it. The ink was good ink, but it
got everywhere except inside the cartridge. It cost more to clean up
after it than to just buy a new cartridge.

I've had much better luck so far.


You pay your money and take your chances.
Are new printheads available for your printer,or are the PHs integral with
the ink cartridges?
Integral, AFAIK. Lexmark... old HP Deskjet.

--
Best Regards,
Mike
 
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 19:50:10 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 04:59:48 -0500, Active8 wrote:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:02:33 GMT, Rich Grise wrote:

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:44:12 +0000, Jim Yanik wrote:



I refilled ink cartridges on my Canon BJC-620 and a short while later,the
printhead began leaking and emptying the cartridges,and then the printhead
failed.Goodbye printer.
Also,the black ink on printouts faded to barely readable light brown even
when kept in dark conditions.

I bought one of those re-ink kits, and took it back and got my money
back the first time I tried to use it. The ink was good ink, but it
got everywhere except inside the cartridge. It cost more to clean up
after it than to just buy a new cartridge.

I've had much better luck so far.

When I think back, I'll cop to being impatient with the thing - there
was some very dense foam right inside the little filler hole, and
I think I knew at the time that if I sat there for the rest of the
night ever-so-slowly infusing the ink, microliter by microliter by
microliter - That's when I took it back. :)

You shove the syring into the foam, draw back a bit and fire. Take
little time.
--
Best Regards,
Mike
 

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