Air Cooled TIG Torch

Even though I have tig welding machines with water cooled torches, I still use an air cooled tig torch quite a bit.

I just like the simplicity and not having the extra noise from the water cooler while I am filming welding videos.

I am glad to have both water cooled and air cooled setups and I usually use water cooled on aluminum thicker than 3/16" but I wont hesitate to grab the ck mt200 that has a ck17 air cooled torch for most of the stuff I weld in videos.

What are some advantages to an air cooled tig torch?

• Simple and less expensive than water cooled
• no extra noise from water cooler
• no maintenance or changing coolant
• no possibility of forgetting to turn on the cooler
• usually lasts longer
• more portable
• great for production work where time is money

What are some disadvantages?

• air cooled tig torches are more limited on amperage
• air cooled torches are bigger than a water cooled tig torch of same amperage rating
• Air cooled tig torches can get really hot in your hand if you push amperage limit
• Thick high amperage aluminum is just not happening unless you pony up for a large high amperage air cooled torch like a heavy hitter or ck high amp air cooled model
• production work is not  practical if the required amperage gets the torch too hot to handle

There are times when having both air cooled and water cooled is smart.

It only takes a minute to switch back to an air cooled from a water cooled torch.

Especially if you have a Dinse adapter for each.

A few months before I retired from my aerospace repair welding job, one department was in the process of transitioning from the early 90s model miller syncrowave 250 machines that  used city water for coolant...to Dynasty 200dx inverters with water coolers.

Those little miller coolers were very noisy.

One shop in particular only welded titanium and nickel alloys at low amperage DCEN ( 40 amps or less) d

They would have been better off with an air cooled #9 torch with super flex cable and they wouldn't have had to hear all that extra noise from the tig cooler.