Hot or Not? Harbor Freight Micro Torch
By Jordan Ross
A super-hot instant flame can help you out on tons of jobs, like cutting braided cable or carefully applying heat-shrink tubing. On Harbor Freight’s site I came across this $7 micro torch which seems comparable to its “mainstream” counterparts — it’s self-starting and refillable, with a 35-minute run-time. But how does it really stack up? Is it a piece of junk, or do some of you actually work with one regularly and reliably?
I’m guessing that in comparison to other torches this thing probably flops, but I want to hear from you: Hot or Not? Let us know in comments.
Micro Torch [Harbor Freight]
Street Pricing [Google]
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Used a charcoal lighter w/ a torch tip for doing soldering on my car the other day. Worked better than my soldering iron. Got it to do the heat shrink n’ said you know I bet this would solder. Was made by diamond. Don’t remember what it cost.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I’ve had one for a couple of years - still works fine. I use it for electrical soldering and shrinking tubing. No complaints at all.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:49 pm
The seal in mine has deteriorated — won’t hold gas overnight.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I also have had mine for years, and I still use it… works good.
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Does not seem to get anywhere near as hot as advertised…
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Had a part time job in a self-storage yard a while back. One of these is the quickest, easiest way to de-ice frozen padlocks. That might not be exactly the kind of use you were talking about, but for my particular application? HOT.
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
This looks an awful lot like the torches they sell at cooking stores as creme brulee torches. That said, this is cheaper. But what’s wrong with a regular old BernzOmatic?
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Works great as a torch lighter for cigars. At 1/10th the cost.
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Question to self: Would I ever trust a Harbor Freight tool to supply butane to a flame, or to reliably contain the fuel when idle? Nope!
While I’ve had problems with Bernzomatic micro-torches before, they’re pretty reliable. I don’t want to be anywhere near one of these HF jobs if/when they fail.
Micro-torches: hot
HF micro-torch: NOT
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I have had a couple of these. The reason I like them is the lack of safety interlocks - you need to be a three handed monkey to light most of these nowadays. I had one for years that I bought from Micromark, and it was great - flip the lever, light it and go. When it died I tried to replace it, and hated the one they sent - so childproof even I couldn’t use it easily.
That HF unit worked for a few months, than began a rather disconcerting habit of shooting out a foot long stream of fiery liquid when lit. It’s replacement has been working fine for about a year, and at the price, I don’t mind treating them as quasi-disposables -worth it for the convenience. I have a section of my workbench set up for soldering, complete with firebrick background, so the occasional flamethrower effect is more alarming than dangerous.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I bought one and it broke only two years after buying it. I rarely used it and the trigger mechanism blew apart and then the gas slowly leaked out of the nozzle.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I have one, got it for 5 bucks from HF.. works fine..
F.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Mine won’t hold butane more than an hour. I just give it a squirt every time before I use it. Got ’bout what I paid for.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Until they make one of these that can cut through a bulkhead door so I can escape the man-eating aliens, I’ll pass.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:33 am
- Hot -
Got mine for about $5 too. Works great.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Got one for $5 a few years back, works great. I use it quite often, and have only had to refill it twice. Definitely one of my better bang-for-the-buck purchases from HF.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Works OK, had to fiddle with the air intake (black knurled ring in the photo) to get it to light and stay lit. Took a dab of white paint and made a line across that knob and the flat part on top when I finally got it adjusted properly so I wouldn’t have to waste 5 minutes trying to get it going again after a refill.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Not so hot! I got mine for $5 and it worked O.K. ONCE. The replacement works fine for what I use it for, I guess. But for $5 buck- what can you expect. I treat a lot of HF tools as ’starter’ sets. It’s a good way to try one for a low cost and they’ll typically last long enough for me to decide if I want to spend the money on a real one.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Buddy of mine had one and his worked great for awhile and mine leaked out the gas after the second time using it….get what you pay for
March 26th, 2009 at 8:45 am
I love mine. I broke the electric start on the first one but I still keep it around because it works fine if I light it with another lighter.
I use it mostly for candles, it works great to get down in deep.
Definitely worth the money, I originally bought the pencil style one from HF but it broke; this style is much more solid.
Everyone should have at least one!