Flame Guns

[#1]

Just been look at flame guns for removal of weeds, advertised on ebay and various other places for around £10 -  £15.

Further searches suggest such things are dangerous with reports of at least one person being killed and calling for them to be banned.

Anyone got one ? Could they be dangerous if used in the correct way ? Would you consider using one ?

Reviews on Amazon vary, as you would expect.

[#2]

not used one personally.. but having seen them in action by Swedish maintenance people 1) they are effective 2) pretty lethal.

obviously they may well be industrial type ones and not those sold on amazon.

[#3]

I use one a lot & they are affective, & if handled correctly, they are no more dangerous than the gas torches used in the building trade for plumbing etc, all these weed burners are, basicaly an extention of the gas burners.

I bought mine from Aldi approx two years ago & it is still going strong.

As normal practice, be careful when buying over the net, especially from china etc.....

Have a look locally at p[laces like Wilkinsons they had some last week in my local, quite reasonably priced IIRC

[#4]

There are three basic types as far as I can see

Gas from an external cylinder - you need to hump the cylinder about and you may find it doesn't include a pressure regulator

Gas from cartridges - this has got to be expensive to use

Paraffin - i.e.glorified blow lamp  which I suspect isn't necessarily for the amateur and is probably the one with the biggest flame

(slight hiccup - power cut so this is from auto save)

However as roundup may soon be banned I have just bought 5 lites of 360g/l glyphosate for weed control including a large block paved drive

[#5]

I have one of the paraffin flame guns. It is effective for weeds, but with paraffin at circa £8 for 5 litres it is expensive to run. If you have access to heating oil or red diesel it would halve the running costs. We use it to control weeds on the riverbank at our orchard where we a reluctant to use chemical weedkiller because of the pollution risk for aquatic life.

[#6]

Been thinking about getting one of these too. Not impressed with round up if it does get banned, maybe they should ban the weeds instead.

[#7]

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AlaricAdair wrote:

but with paraffin at circa £8 for 5 litres

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Assuming you can find it in 5L containers, usually comes in 4L ones...

But that aside, diesel does work, just smokes more due to the added lubricants that are needed in diesel engines, especially so in paraffin lamps & heaters and suchlike, I'm just glad I have plenty of paraffin in the shed, mainly for my Aladdin mantle lamp, cos I like using that during the colder months...

[#8]

Give that alladin lamp a rub there might be a genie in it and you could wish for something to keep to warm over winter rather than an old lamp !

[#9]

Wrong kind of Aladdin, I've rubbed that thing enough that it shines, and still not got a genie out of it, did burn my fringe over it's chimney a few times though...