My father and I picked up the Clarke weedburner with some trepidation: it seemed a fearsome device to be using on something as negligible as a weed, especially as human beings have hands that ought to do the job just as well (and more cheaply). Our suspicions were correct: the flamethrower, which is powered by a canister of gas, was easy to set up but proved fairly useless in action. A weed at the bottom of a wall took a bizarrely long time to burn with the (scarily large) flame directed at it. After a minute or two we ended up with a pile of ash and a slightly scorched wall. One wonders whether the significant amount of gas used could have been put to better use. The weed might even grow back: we couldn't tell if its root had been destroyed. For posterity I pulled out another set of weeds in less than an quarter of the time that the torch took. Good for scaring your enemies, then, but not for much else.

Hero's verdict: One star

The Clarke GBT1 weed burner costs £14.99 at Machine Mart

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