Feature Tool: Here’s how to choose the right Hot Devil Blowtorch for your DIY project.

As part of our tips and advice section, we’re keen to help our customers get a better feel for some of the popular tools and tool ranges out there. This week, we’re looking at Hot Devil Blowtorches.

Hot Devil is a well-known brand here in Australia, with a huge range of torches. There are way too many out there for us to cover all of them, so today we’ll be focusing on 3 of our favourite butane torches that Hot Devil offers – The Professional Blowtorch, The Mini Gas Blowtorch and The 3 in 1 Gas Torch & Soldering Iron.

These 3 are all affordable options for DIY but they have different strengths. We’ll share our thoughts on these Hot Devil Blowtorches and discuss their differences to help you decide which one is the right tool for your job. 

1. Hot Devil Professional Blowtorch (Product no. BTS8023)

The Professional Blowtorch is one of the most popular tools in the Hot Devil range. It’s designed for soldering, heat shrinking, pre-heating metals and loosening rusted nuts, bolts and screws. It should give you around 30m of burn time per canister, however, it’s not recommended to use the tool for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Despite its ‘professional’ namesake,  this blowtorch is probably better suited to heavy DIY use than the worksite. It’s definitely a powerful torch for the price, but a busy tradesman may want to fork out for the even more durable & powerful Ultimate Blow Torch or the 10 piece Soldering & Torch kit.

The design of this particular torch actually differs quite a bit from other Hot Devil products, consisting of a multi-setting nozzle that connects directly to the top of a replaceable Butane Canister. This design makes the Professional Blowtorch extra easy to store away, despite it being significantly larger than other Hot Devil products once the canister is attached. 

Burning at 1350℃ with auto-ignition, an adjustable flame and flare control, this blowtorch is a great affordable all-rounder for DIY. The full-sized flame gets larger than both the Mini Torch and the 3 in 1 Torch, making this our favourite affordable choice if you’re working on a big project with more surface area to cover.

One thing we did find is that once you get it down to a finer flame, it’s a bit touchier than some of the smaller Hot Devil torches. For this reason, we wouldn’t recommend it for precision tasks. It’s also bulkier than most of the Hot Devil range once the canister is attached to the handle, which is annoying for smaller tasks as well.

2. Hot Devil Mini Gas Blowtorch (Product no. HD3100)

This powerful little torch is so small that it almost resembles a cigarette lighter on steroids. Yet despite the tiny package, it manages to retain much of the functionality of its larger relatives!

The Hot Devil Mini Gas Blowtorch is also capable of burning at 1350℃, with an adjustable flame and a safety lock. This means you can use it for many of the same tasks as other Hot Devil torches, including soldering, heat shrinking and loosening rusted bolts. As with any butane blowtorch, it’s not recommended that you use this tool for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Its tiny size and light weight gives this blowtorch a big advantage on precision jobs, making it great for hard-to-reach wiring or even for stripping away paint in a controlled way. The downside of its small size is that it runs out a little faster and it’s definitely not well suited to big, long jobs. 

Like other Hot Devil butane products, this one is completely refillable, although the Mini Torches are often sold empty initially. Overall, this is a perfect choice if you’re a very occasional blowtorch user. It’s much cheaper than other Hot Devil torches, it’s easy to use and it won’t get in the way in your toolbox. 

3. Hot Devil 3 in 1 Gas Torch (Product no. HD908)

This versatile little torch is one of the most useful Hot Devil torches available. It’s much more affordable and compact than similar Hot Devil Soldering and Torch kits, yet it also offers much more functionality than the various sizes of Butane Torches they have on offer.

A big draw for the 3 in 1 Gas Torch is a longer run time than both the mini and the professional blowtorches – it should burn for up to an entire hour before running out! (Once again: never use these for more than 10 minutes at a time.) It’s also a bit easier to use than the professional, with an easy-to-understand setting switch, a palm-sized grip and a safety lock.

The 3 in 1 torch burns slightly less hot than the Professional or the Micro, clocking in at 1300℃ instead of 1350℃. It more than makes up for this by offering two lower settings for precision soldering. Simply attach the soldering tip it comes with and you can enjoy a 400℃ soldering setting and a 500℃ hot blow setting.

This torch is great because you can use these lower heat settings to do much more complex soldering tasks, like motherboard circuitry soldering or desoldering with the hot blow setting. Yet the 3 in 1 still gives you all the functionality of a fully-fledged blowtorch that can heat shrink, solder thick wiring or loosen rusted bolts at 1300℃.

The verdict: Of these three options, we think that the versatility of the 3 in 1 Gas Torch & Soldering Iron offers the best value for money for DIY projects. However, if you don’t think you’ll do much fine soldering work, then go for the affordable Mini Gas Blowtorch as a convenient everyday tool and the Professional Blowtorch for those bigger jobs.

The Hot Devil range is seriously huge, but hopefully understanding some of their most popular DIY-level options has helped you in choosing the right blowtorch for you. 
If you’re currently shopping for new power tools, why not check out the huge range of power tools and power tool accessories available online at Multifors. Delivery across Metro Melbourne from $19.95.