Red Dragon Torch - Great Review

Pharm · Mar 1, 2013

I've used this to control plant growth around our creek crossing. After reading this review of it on Amazon I could not resist buying it.

Holy Crap this thing is Awesome

"I bought this thing while I was camping. Our firewood was a bit damp and I was having trouble getting the campfire started. With this handy-dandy roaster, I had a bonfire within a minute or so. Then, I decided to use it on the weeds at home. The instructions warn against using the torch near conifers (like Evergreen-type shrubs, bushes, topiaries), so I stayed about 5 feet away from those. Well, this thing is hotter than the blazes of **** and Damnation itself! I roasted a few of my bushes, but thankfully, they've started to come back. We just had a few inches of snow here in Chicago and I drove over it in the driveway. I ended up with icy patches of packed snow and figured I'd pull out Satan's air conditioner. Not only did it melt those ice patches faster than a hooker drops her panties, it melted a five foot section of snow (about 3 inches deep) in front of the nozzle. Well, after that, I just had to screw around with it. I cooked a frozen hot-dog in less than 30 seconds. OK, "cooked" is the wrong word. I turned a frozen hot dog into a pile of ash. Since that was fun, I tried it with an old cell-phone I had laying around. It stunk, but man it was cool to watch it turn into a gelatinous pile of stink. Someone else mentioned having to roast your weeds and then come back to weed by hand a week later. That's totally unnecessary. Just hold the flame on the weed for about 10 seconds and it'll kill it, burn it, turn it to ash, and then burn the ash into smaller ash. The roots will be dead and the weed will never return. OK, maybe it will, but I roasted a section of stone in my backyard that had weeds growing up. It's been nearly 2 years and nothing has grown there. Yeah, it sounds like a jet engine when you fire it up, but it's awesome! I highly recommend this for weed burning, camp fire starting, party tricks, and hot dog cremation. And next week, I'm going to head over to my mean, old, crotchety neighbor's house in the middle of the night and burn "A-Hole" into his lawn. Man, I can't wait till my kid's hamster bites the dust!" :laughing:

sixdogs · Mar 1, 2013

I have one of these and the uses are endless. It performs way better than I expected.
My introduction was in the damp climate of northern New England and trying to burn brush piles. The pile would never burn completely and the center always burned out until I got one of these. Wow, instant 500,000 BTU and the brush burned completely after that.

Wait for the charcoal grill to get started? Not hardly and in 20 or 30 seconds I can get it started. Wait a while longer to fully spread and I'm good to go. Grass or brush in awkward places is no problem either since I can cook it to Heck and back in mere moments. Ice you can't thaw is now faster than time-lapse photography.

Another interesting discovery was a partial solution to my Japanese Beetle problem. I had about enough of those peckers on one tree and in a primal scream of desperation dragged out my "flamethrower". The intent was to burn the tree back to the stone age but when I held the flame a few feet above the tree before starting, all the bugs suddenly flew straight up and cooked themselves. In an instant I had thousands of dead Japanese beetles at the base of the tree and I never laid a glove on the tree itself. My error took care of 90% of the problem.

An interesting point for mine is that I bought it years back when they first came out. It had only one page of instructions and when I shook the box upside down in search of more, a small pice of paper came out that said "Not for use indoors". Yeah, i'm good with that. This thing is a keeper for me.

Uhhh, maybe skip the idea with the neighbor's lawn.

Western · Mar 1, 2013

Something similar has been used in South Texas for years to burn off the thorns on cactus, allows the cows to eat it in dry years

Pharm · Mar 1, 2013

sixdogs said:
Another interesting discovery was a partial solution to my Japanese Beetle problem. I had about enough of those peckers on one tree and in a primal scream of desperation dragged out my "flamethrower". The intent was to burn the tree back to the stone age but when I held the flame a few feet above the tree before starting, all the bugs suddenly flew straight up and cooked themselves. In an instant I had thousands of dead Japanese beetles at the base of the tree and I never laid a glove on the tree itself. My error took care of 90% of the problem.

Yeah - I've had the downpour of Japanese beetles with this thing. You definitely want people to keep their distance.

cqaigy2 · Mar 1, 2013

That's a pretty funny review! Reminds me of the pages of reviews for a bic pen for women on the amazon site. Days of reading material.:laughing:

kevin37b · Mar 1, 2013

Pharm that is absolutely THE most hilarious thing I have read all winter . Sixdogs is a very close second .

SPIKER · Mar 1, 2013

I use mine for Yellow Jackets works like a champ! I use low idle type flame and cook them as they fly in

and roast hole & all down back to stone age... then lay it down so flickering flame is across the open hole the foragers come back & fly right into it.

ya I like that !

Other Uses warming thick steel b4 welding, or heating bearing races for press fits.

Mark