We asked Bernard Robinson, owner of BR Cartronics, an independent Garage and Service Centre to review the Mini-Ductor® II for us.
Model tested
Mini-Ductor® II (MD800)
Type of business
BR Cartronics is based in Leicester and is an Independent Garage and Service Centre specialising in Servicing, TPMS, Diagnostic’s and repair of BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Porsche.
A safe alternative to Oxy-Acetylene use
By using these products we’ve found we’re getting through fewer gas bottles, the removal process is quicker and as there’s no flame involved, so it’s a lot safer for my team to use these products. Previously we had to remove fuel tanks from the workplace, gas plants also require maintenance and insurance premiums are higher as the risk of accident is greater.
Bernard’s comments
- An excellent piece of kit. We estimate that it saves 80% time vs traditional heating methods which leads to higher productivity and the customer gets charged less. Our profits will increase because productivity is high and there’s almost no Health & Safety worries.
- Very effective for getting to inaccessible places, for example the bendable coils reach previously inaccessible areas around exhausts.
- Good for removing track rod ends, rusted bolts, suspension arms, exhaust champs, brake pipe unions etc.
- Excellent for debonding rubber bushes as heats the metal housing and allows the bush to be pushed out easily in just 15-20 seconds. Normally this job, using traditional naked flame heating takes a long time – making a hard job fairly easy.
- The Mini-Ductor® II allows us to do things in situ – so there’s no need for major dismantling to get to inaccessible areas so saves huge amounts of time.
- Flames and smoke levels have been reduced – naked flame heating sets fire to rubber so we often have noxious rubber fumes and the workshop can be full of smoke! We did not have this problem with the Mini-Ductor® II.
- The tough, powerful unit keeps heat localised around bolt – it takes 15 seconds to get hot and very efficient way of heating up such parts that need to be removed.
- Can release track rod ends without having to replace the ball joint – previously this was a big job but the Mini-Ductor® makes it relatively easy.
- Also good for forming metal.
Thoughts on other possible uses
- On site hydraulic hoses on tractors
- Braising items onto end cable – no need for flame
- Re soldering of battery terminals
- Bearing houses – to het these up is important
Final thoughts
Workshops can save themselves lots of time and money by switching to a Mini-Ductor® II flameless heating tool.
