Since we’re on an As-Seen-On-TV kick, I noticed the other day an ad for this soldering iron called Cold Heat. Supposedly when you touch it to metal, it gets wicked hot. Let it go, and it cools off in seconds to the point that you can touch it.
So, can anyone tell me whether this is hotness or hype?
Linkage
Hmm it seems like it’s true to its word.
I just don’t see how it cools down in seconds from a high tempature.
It’s possible, but I don’t think it does cool down that fast.
They probably mean like over 60 seconds of cooling time.
shrug
I just prefer the old ones…I use them everytime I need them and I never have a problem.
–d0ri
I saw that thing last night.
Looks pretty fake to me… Common sense tells me you can’t heat something to 800 degrees and then cool it down to room temperature again in a matter of seconds.
Cory
Cold Heat…it’s pretty much an oxymoron. 
See what I mean:
civil war, bittersweet, open secret, genuine imitation, smart blonde, drag race, cold heat, plastic glasses, painless dentistry, freezer burn, pretty ugly, criminal justice.
I saw it advertised too but somehow I don’t fully believe it. If you remember several years ago they were selling a wax that would hide scratches. You had to buy the wax that was similar to the color of your car. My Dodge was blue and had several light scratches on the hood. These were not deep scratches but just enough that they were visible up close. Well, I bough the blue wax and put it on then buffed it out when dry. It hid the scratches and looked nice…for a day or two until the sun bleached the wax to an off-white color and then they REALLY were visible at that time! :mad: Needless to say I tried redoing it several times but it would never last for more than a few days and that was the last time I used that wax. If I wanted the scratches to show up with wax I would have used regular Turtle Wax or Carnuba Wax or something. This is also when you have those doubts about what you see on TV and you realize how true they are sometimes.
There is actually a marketing trick that says that the customer won’t bother returning items they bought on those “as seen on tv” commercials if the item is less than $20. Hence the $19.99, or $9.99 trick.
They figure, most people will just keep the (cheap) under $20 item, rather than go thru the trouble of returning it.
Darn marketing trickery…
edit: Although, there is an “as seen on tv” store at the local mall here. Maybe (in the interest of science, and FIRST) I will see if I can buy one of these “cold heat” devices there and test it out… If it doesn’t work, you can be sure that I will return it to the store…
Muwhahahaha…
Marketing team, I’m onto you and your trickery…
Ok… I will say that i have bought one of these ( since I babysitted my cousins for 3 days) and it does work. You turn it on and connect the tip to metal and it instantly heats up ( about 5 sec.) when you disconect it then it cools down very fast ( about 6 sec until cool). It is great since it is cordless and it also has a LED near the tip so you can see what you are soldering ( or as a cool flashlight).
The website is http://www.coldheat.com/. Watch the videos and demo on there to learn more.
I am at a loss for words upon reading that sentence…
Did you use it on your cousin?? :ahh:
Hey Elgin, remember, we ARE talking about Ted here! 
No i did not… 
This product appears to be the real deal. I read a review that says that it preforms as the company says. The only thing it says to be wary of is that it produces current at the tips so electrostatic sensitive components may be damaged.http://www.moddershq.net/reviews.asp?reviewid=32&pagenumber=1
I COMPLETELY understand! It is hard to save money from babysitting … it takes forever :yikes: !!! Anyway, its an honest job so no worries there!! 
Thanks for the info. Its good to know that it does work, that way people ‘interested’ don’t waste money on something that’s completely bogus such as the car wax or else!! :]
And to agree with Elgin, I also believe that the marketing industry is ripping us all off!! They stink … darn advertisers!! I’m also unto them !
I just saw it today on thinkgeek: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/69d3/
About the car wax, my uncle worked in show biz and he once shot a commercial for some car wax, and right before take 1 they were waxing the car with the wax they were going to sell and it just would not shine. So they had to run out and buy some Simonize wax to shine the car that would be selling the cheapo wax. 
No Ted didn’t use the soldering gun on his cousins.
We stocked up on duct tape and cable ties.
I have one and it works fine. My team used it on every soldering job we had.
my son got one - it does work
but
the tip has to maintain electrical contact on both sides of the tip for it to heat
and as someone else said, there is voltage present across the tip (I dont know how much)
I like my Weller. Never yet grabbed it by the wrong end and burned myself. And Ive never NEEDED to stick a soldering iron in my pocket 3 seconds after using it.
If you need to cool an iron quickly you simply wipe it with a wet sponge or paper towel.
Neat product, but I thinks its a solution in search of a problem.
civil war, bittersweet, open secret, genuine imitation, smart blonde, drag race, cold heat, plastic glasses, painless dentistry, freezer burn, pretty ugly, criminal justice.
Don’t forget “hot water heater” 
I’ve used one.
It does work- it heats up quickly and cools down quickly. You can even solder with it.
The problem is that it’s pretty useless for doing more then quick fixes. It heats up quick, but it has so little thermal energy that youd be sitting there for an hour trying to heat up a large joint enough to get solder to flow properly. So don’t even bother trying to solder up a crimp connector. For small PCB stuff, it’s pretty snazzy. I wouldn’t want to do more then a few joints with it though. An electric iron may take a few minutes to heat up, but once it does it will stay hot for as long as you want. It may seem silly, but waiting those few seconds for the coldheat to warm up is annoying.
I’d say its not overly useful for FIRST, but it could be handy for the average joe. It certaintly is a lot faster and easier then a butane powered iron and more portable then a corded. There is more concern with keeping it clean, as solder stuck on the tip fouls it up right quick.
-Andy A.
We have one, but I didn’t like it. It is true to its word of heating up and cooling quickly, but metal must be in the little slot for it to work. It might be good for small jobs around the house, but I did not find it very useful for robotics.
This is quite true as I myself had this same problem. It is OK if you want to solder a cheap fix, but if you try and solder for anything complicated like r/c cars or robots it is pretty ineffective. I once tried to solder my r/c car with it and before the solder melted the plastic encasing around the tip melted and it has never worked since. My advice leave it alone, any plug in wall solder gun will work fine and there really is no reason why someone needs to put their solder gun in their pocket after using it. This is my experience and may be biased, so don’t follow my every word if you choose.