They're great if you have to make one (maybe two) solder-ring connection, on clean pipe, in a cupboard full of firelighters and dynamite.
Otherwise they take an age to heat up, and they've got just enough oomph for one well-behaved connection before you're waiting for them to get back up to temperature.
They do reduce fire risk though. Last time I used one was on a pipe embedded in sheeps' wool insulation (posh hippy house). It wasn't a good idea to put a flame near that stuff, even when we'd been building it, certainly not after it was decorated, sparkling and fragrant.
In particular, "especially with the inlet to a soft plastic ball valve on a cistern", where the thread will be permanently minced if you get it wrong first time.
We had one of those when we moved in here. A month later it was our first Christmas and the family rush for toilet accomodation meant that it had to be fixed beforehand (and the service isolator valve turned back up to full flow). This was one of the worst cases I've ever had of sequential failures in plumbing - I'd replaced the siphon valve, the doughnut and coupling and was on my second fill valve and around the fourth flush handle before I had a stable non-leaking system that filled, flushed and didn't break when people used the handle as a climbing frame.
"It does not burn, but instead singes away from fire and extinguishes itself (Wool has a very high inflammation point of 560=B0C due to its high Nitrogen content of ~16%) Wool is self extinguishing because of its high Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI=3D25.2), which means to completely burn wool an oxygen content of 25.2% is necessary whereas air only has
Search out your local building trades college and compare prices. This is vastly more than my local one used to be, but it may be they are no longer subsidised like they used to be.
Watched my dad initially. Was quickly on to things like descaling ballcocks and even servicing the cast iron gas boiler (brushing off the soot, cleaning all the burner jets, etc. as a teenager. I can't recall for sure, but I think I did some basic plumbing too. For soldering, I was already compitent at electrical soldering (self taught), and transfering that skill to plumbing is not a big step. I recall firing up dad's parrafin blowlamp on several occasions for soldering, but I can't recall exactly what I was soldering with it.
Actually, one thing I recall - I made up a new exhaust pipe for the lawn mower with soldered copper pipe when the original one rusted into a pile a dust. Looked really good. About 30 seconds after starting the mower, all the soldered joints melted apart. Still, that's how you learn things...
Two courses I did because I wanted the skills myself and had no one to teach me were plastering and bricklaying. Each was 2 or 3 days, and well taught. I've also done electrical courses and got a couple of C&G, but in that case I already knew most of the material; it was a question of getting the certificate to make me happier about doing electrical work at work, and work paid for the courses (after which I designed and installed a computer room, amongst other things).
I wouldn't claim to know a fair bit of plumbing, but rather a bit. I got started when I essentially apprenticed for a family friend who replaced the old boiler in a previous house with a combi converting the whole house to mains pressure at the same time. That taught me the basics like soldering, checking for gas leaks, etc. From them I've just read up, both on usenet/forums and from books and got stuck in.
Pretty much everyone smells it singeing before they OK its use - otherwise the usual response is "we can't use that, it's not fireproof like rockwool!" As you point out, it singes and won't sustain burning, but no-one ever believes it until you torch a piece in front of them.
My soldering blanket is made of wool (fireproof Melton, from the Bristol fireman's jacket factory). It's less conductive than my Kevlar one, so there's less damage behind. The Kevlar one can get hot enough to scorch paint behind it. I tend to soak the wool one with a bit of water anyway, but the middle is pretty scorched now and no longer smells as much.
(but I agree really. And definitely worth it in some cases, e.g. where you have to plumb in a kitchen sink or, especially, a bath away from the wall and then move it back into position because of access constraints)
Oh, I have the wiring too. 240V running to microswitches above cupboard doors as a lightswitch, with just a bit of shrinkwrap over the terminals. There's hardly an (exposed) junction box here that still had its lid in place.
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