"Alan" wrote in message
...

"Nick Lockett" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these torches? They burn a mix of
oxygen
and propane so should produce a fair bit of heat.
They're currently available in B&Q for about £45 which seems quite
reasonable unless of course they're no good.
Nick.



Nick,

I bought one of these a few years ago.
It has sat in my garage gathering dust for ages because:

There are no proper regulators, and the taps supplied for each bottle are
vague for controlling gas supply.
Because of above point you have to keep adjusting the taps as the bottle
runs down to compensate for the reducing pressure to keep the torch flame
the same.
The stated 15 minutes (or whatever) runtime from the oxygen bottle is a
"at
best figure", I found when using this kit to braze an exhaust manifold it
was closer to 5 minutes.
The price of the oxygen cylinders for the run time is a joke - I think
they
are about £5 a time. The cylinders weigh virtually nothing even when new
because they ship them with such a small quantity if oxygen. Check the
quantity label of the replacement oxygen cylinder compared to the fuel
one....
The "Mapp" gaz is better than the supplied stuff, but the small oxygen
quantity lets the whole cost of running down.

So, since I've bought a "portaflame" kit, with a massive oxygen cylinder
in
comparison, which costs about £15 to refill - and runs for about 3-4 hours
continuously. It has a proper regulator on the oxygen cylinder, but none
on
the mapp gas cylinder (still small disposible type) and a proper torch.
This has been soooooo much better and is a tool which works properly and
is
cost-effective to run, without having to go down the oxy-acyletene route.
I've added a cutting torch to it since and it's great.

So, I have a second-hand Benzomatic kit if you want it.....

Alan.

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll forget about Bernzomatic and look at the
alternatives including Portaflame.
Nick.