As mentioned earlier, butane powered soldering irons offer the ultimate in portability. They heat very quickly and last for hours on a single charge of butane. Weller’s Portasol PSI100K is shown on the left and heats to well over 1000°F. The temperature is adjustable and the lower the temperature, the longer the flame lasts. Makes sense, right? With such a high temperature it makes the iron useful for many other tasks besides soldering such as cutting through thick rope or shrinking heat shrink tubing.
It has a rugged, virtually indestructible, stainless steel body. Fuel level is visible through a sightglass in the reservoir. The kit (thus the K at the end of the model number) includes multiple tips, a sponge and even a stand all in an organized, easy to carry, case. The P2KC, shown on the right is the little brother of the P100. The primary differences are that it only gets to ~850°F and the reservoir only holds one hour of fuel. The kit (again te K in the model number) includes multiple tips, a sponge and stand. Don’t let the 850°F maximum temperature bother you as that is more than hot enough to solder. It is very fast from cold to melting solder. Simply turn on the fuel valve and depress the piezoelectric igniter and you’ll be melting solder in less than a 60 seconds. The flame is adjustable from the equivalent of 25 to 75watts of heating power.
Another manufacturer is Solder-It. The model shown is the PRO180K model. It gets much hotter than the other models that were discussed above, to nearly 2500°F. It has a long time capacity of 2 hours and a nice feature is the fuel comes in a self contained modules that are inserted into the handle. The manufacturer calls it a Liquid Energy Cell (LEC). This may be the ultimate in convenience, especially since they include two. The LEC is refillable with butane. Having the LEC sort of forces you to refill it before you need it, or at least reminds you. The kit (gotta love that “K”) includes multiple tips, a sponge, flux, desoldering “sucker”, wire cutters, solder and 2 LECs.
These are great when you need to be “remote”. If you go for one of these, don’t forget to buy extra fuel. It’s no fun to run out of gas halfway through a project. Similarly, you can use a cordless, rechargeable, soldering iron like ones made by Iso-tip. They offer tradenames like PowerPro, ProCharge, QuickCharge, EZ Change and others. Iso-tip used to be made by Wahl now they’re manufactured by Senasys. My experience with the rechargeable one dates back about 25 years and I did not like them, they seemed under powered and didn’t last very long. A lot can happen in 25years so they might be worth checking out. Don’t forget that if you use an extension cord with a soldering iron you might get reduced output by virtue of the power losses in the cord. I’ve tested mine on a 100 ft of #12 in combination with 25ft of #16 and saw no power reduction. Depending on how long or how small the wire gauge the loss could be significant.
Incoming:
sponge 850 f
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space heaters use a lot more energy than these, but because they are heating a much larger area don’t get nearly as hot. Some are all electric others use natural gas for heat and electricity to circulate air, still others use kerosene only.