In the past, domestic motorists always had a blowtorch. She worked on gasoline and gave a flame of a sufficiently high temperature, which made it possible, for example, to heat the place for soldering radiators – then brass.
Today, gas burners are more often used to heat various parts and components of a car, and even in household repairs.
The pain of lighting jet flames is a thing of the past: the gas ignites instantly and produces a narrower flame jet. Burners of this type look like nozzles for gas cylinders of different standards, or, with small dimensions, have their own refillable gas tank.
Gas cylinders differ both in operating temperature and in the way the burner is connected.
What are they needed for?
The first use of a torch in auto repairs is to heat rusted threaded fasteners to facilitate unscrewing. It is popular to burn out the rubber parts of silentblocks if the whole cannot be taken apart in any other way. Sometimes during installation it is necessary to heat press fit parts, e.g. connecting rods before piston pins are implanted.
In addition, gas burners can be used to braze brass, copper and even aluminum.
When working with an electrician, both in a car and at home, torches allow you to quickly heat up heat shrink tubing.
They are indispensable when defrosting locks and gate pins in garages or in the countryside.
Finally, burners can be used to thaw pipes, light barbecues and stoves, roast wood products, as well as carcasses of animals and birds.
What did you experience?
We chose different size burners for testing. The assembled company is motley – from very small ones, which de facto represent a lighter with the ability to refuel and solder nozzles, to fairly sturdy burners capable of burning a large wooden panel or a wild boar carcass.
Of greatest interest to motorists are burners, which give a powerful narrow beam of high-temperature bluish flame, allowing you to quickly heat rusted fasteners. If other indicators are more important to you, see our comments for each product.
The tests covered burners designed to work with the most common propane-butane mixture collet-mount gas cylinders, as well as rarer and more expensive threaded-mount cylinders. Small burners have a filling unit similar to regular gas lighters – they are charged with special cartridges.
Cylinders with gas differ in operating temperatures, for which the fractional composition is responsible. In more frost-resistant cylinders, the proportion of propane is increased. By the way, the same can be observed at car gas stations. In the summer, a mixture with a higher content of cheaper butane is used, but in the winter, a switch is made to almost pure propane.
test method
We tested the ability of burners of various types to heat a bolt with an M10 thread and two nuts screwed on with a “17” wrench size. Heating by each burner started at the same temperature of 25°C and lasted for 2 minutes. We made at least three such measurements for each burner – and even more if the result was unstable due to flame disturbances.
Then the temperature of the bolt head was checked with a pyrometer Megeon 16550. The results were simply evaluated: the higher the temperature, the better. In addition, we expertly assessed the operation of the burners in different physical positions and assessed the influence of this factor on the stability of the flame.
A bolt with two nuts imitates soured fasteners in the suspension. A bolt cooled to room temperature was used for each new test.
Members
What is the result?
Inexpensive burners without piezo ignition are quite suitable if you don’t use them often and aim to save money. Among them there are models that give a rather hot and narrowly directed flame, which ensures a decent temperature.
In most burners for a stable flame, the physical position and immobility of the cylinder turned out to be fundamental. The fact is that the gas in the cylinder is in two states of matter. At the bottom is the liquid phase, at the top is the vapor phase. The gas intake is optimal when the cylinder is vertical. Then only the vapor phase enters the burner. But if we move or flip the burner, the output is a liquid phase, which leads to a flame failure in most of the simplest burners. And only models where gas is supplied through a thin tube heated by a flame at the nozzle itself provide stable operation. This happens because the gas in the tube evaporates and does not enter the nozzle in liquid form.
And the main conclusion is this. Gone are the days when the powerful flame of a blowtorch was only exposed to garage lights. The most popular cartridge with a collet chuck for a burner costs 100-200 rubles, and many burners are slightly more expensive. He pressed the piezo ignition button – and heat whatever you want. Progress!
- “Watchman” for the battery and for the car: you definitely need it!
- “Drive” can be read in Telegram.
Many car jobs require a high temperature flame. The good news is that the pain of lighting blowtorches is a thing of the past. Bad – among gas burners there are frankly incompetent.
Repair “with a twinkle”: we chose good and cheap gas burners