Short answer: The GTT Cobra and the GTT Viper are the two largest production Triple Mix bench torches GTT makes, and the choice between them is almost entirely a question of flame size and how much oxygen you can feed. Both are three-stage, surface-mix, furnace-class bench torches in the pro price band. The Cobra carries 130 jets at about $5,500 (reference); the Viper carries 200 jets at about $7,000 (reference). If you are asking which one belongs in a home studio, the honest answer is usually neither: these are studio and production-shop tools built to move furnace-size glass, and their oxygen appetite reflects that.
Confirm current pricing and configuration with GTT before you buy, because both torches ship in more than one build.
What Triple Mix and surface mix actually mean here
Both torches use GTT’s Triple Mix design, which stacks three separately controlled fires: a center fire, a middle fire, and an outer fire, each with its own valve. GTT describes the mixing process as oxygen surrounding the fuel and then being injected down the fuel stream, with oxygen and fuel finally combining at the face of the torch. That is the defining trait of a surface-mix torch: the gases stay separate until they reach or just pass the burner face, rather than premixing upstream inside the head. Our catalog lists both the Cobra and the Viper as Surface mix designs.
Three independent fires matter for big work because they let you shape a very large flame instead of just making one giant roaring cone. You can run a tight center for detail, open the middle for body heat, and bring the outer ring in for the broad, even envelope that furnace-size pieces need. For the full mechanism and where Triple Mix sits in the range, see our GTT Triple Mix technology guide and the surface mix vs premix explainer.
Jet by jet: the jump from 130 to 200
The headline difference is jet count, and it is worth seeing how each stack is built rather than just comparing the totals.
GTT describes the Cobra as a 7-jet Lynx center fire, a 33-jet Mirage middle fire, and a 90-jet Cobra outer fire, which adds up to 130 jets. The Viper is offered in two builds that both reach 200 jets. One uses the same 7-jet Lynx center and 33-jet Mirage middle with a much larger 160-jet Viper outer ring. The other swaps in a 50-jet Delta Elite middle fire under a 143-jet outer, arriving at the same total by a different split.
| Fire | Cobra | Viper (Mirage middle) | Viper (Delta Elite middle) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Center | 7-jet Lynx | 7-jet Lynx | 7-jet Lynx |
| Middle | 33-jet Mirage | 33-jet Mirage | 50-jet Delta Elite |
| Outer | 90 jets | 160 jets | 143 jets |
| Total | 130 | 200 | 200 |
Two things are worth flagging. First, the jet counts GTT names for the Mirage and Delta Elite modules inside these stacks (33 and 50) are the middle-fire configurations for the Cobra and Viper specifically, and they differ from the standalone Mirage and Delta Elite torches in our catalog. Do not read the module counts as the specs of those separate bench torches. Second, the practical gap between 130 and 200 jets is almost all in the outer ring. Both torches share the same class of center and middle fire; the Viper is fundamentally a Cobra with a far larger outer envelope, which is why GTT frames it as, in the company’s own words, the biggest torch on the market.
Oxygen demand and gas supply
This is where the decision usually gets made, and where honesty matters most. Our catalog records the Cobra’s oxygen at roughly ~65 LPM as an estimate of the max-usable-flame figure. The Viper’s oxygen is not published in our catalog, so we will not put a number on it. What is safe to say is directional: a 200-jet flame is hungrier than a 130-jet flame, and both sit far above what a home concentrator setup delivers.
Editor’s note: oxygen figures here are rough sizing estimates, not precise specs, and different sources disagree on the demand of the very largest GTT flames. We publish the catalog estimate for the Cobra and decline to invent one for the Viper. Confirm the real oxygen requirement for your chosen build directly with GTT before committing to a supply.
The concrete consequence: neither torch runs on oxygen concentrators. A common home setup pairs one or two concentrators at roughly 5 to 10 LPM each with a small surface-mix torch. A single full-flame figure in the tens of LPM is already beyond most stacked-concentrator rigs, and the Viper’s larger outer ring only widens that gap. In practice these torches are fed by high-flow compressed oxygen, which for a working shop means large cylinders or bulk oxygen with a manifold, not the tidy concentrator-on-a-shelf arrangement a beadmaker uses. If you are weighing supply options at all, the oxygen concentrators vs tanks guide covers why the concentrator route runs out well before you reach this end of the range.
Both the Cobra and the Viper are also offered in an optional compressed-air version as a custom feature, which changes the supply picture again. That is a build decision to settle with GTT, not something to assume from a spec sheet.
Why these are studio and production tools
GTT positions the Cobra, in the company’s own framing, as a torch for people who love a Mirage-size flame but need more heat for fast melt-ins and rapid heating in production work. It positions the Viper as its largest torch, built to work furnace-size pieces. Community discussion on Lampwork Etc. echoes the same divide across the GTT line: flame size is the dividing factor, and the top Triple Mix torches are treated as furnace and production-scale tools rather than beginner or hobby torches.
Several things follow from that, and they are trade-offs to weigh honestly rather than knocks against the torches:
- Footprint and mounting. These are bench-mount torches (Bench in the catalog) built around a substantial base. The Viper ships with a powder-coated base with mounting holes, a purple manifold with color-coded valve caps, and rack-and-pinion adjustment. This is equipment you bolt down, not a torch you clamp to a folding table.
- Oxygen infrastructure. As above, feeding a furnace-class flame means bulk or large-cylinder oxygen and the regulators, manifolds, and storage that go with it. That is a shop investment on top of the torch.
- Ventilation and heat. A furnace-size flame throws heat and combustion products at a rate a spare-room studio is rarely set up to handle. Match your ventilation to the flame, following the manufacturer’s guidance for your space.
- Price. At about $5,500 for the Cobra and $7,000 for the Viper (reference figures), these are professional purchases justified by throughput on large work, not by a hobbyist’s occasional big piece.
None of that makes them bad torches. It makes them specialized ones. A shop turning furnace-size sculpture, large hollow forms, or high-volume production has a real reason to reach this far up the line; a home studio almost never does.
How to choose: workload, not prestige
The clean way to decide is to start from the glass, not the jet count.
If your largest routine pieces are big but not furnace-scale, and you want more heat than a Mirage-class flame while keeping oxygen demand as low as this tier allows, the Cobra is the more proportionate tool. It is GTT’s “more heat than a Mirage, for production” answer, and its 130-jet flame is already a very large envelope.
If you are genuinely working furnace-size glass and need the broadest, most even flame GTT builds, and you have the bulk oxygen and shop infrastructure to feed it, the Viper is the larger tool. Its extra jets live in the outer ring, so the gain is envelope size and even heating across a big piece, not a hotter pinpoint.
What should not drive the decision is buying the biggest torch as a statement. A Viper starved for oxygen performs worse than a Cobra fed correctly, and a torch sized past your actual work is money and oxygen spent on a flame you cannot use. Size the torch to the largest piece you make regularly, then size your oxygen supply to the torch. For the whole GTT range and where these two sit at the top of it, see the GTT torch lineup pillar; for the middle-fire modules these stacks are built from, the Mirage vs Delta Elite comparison covers those two torches on their own.
This article informs your decision; it does not replace GTT’s own instructions, specifications, or advice from a qualified professional for your specific setup and supply.
Related guides
- GTT Triple Mix technology explained
- The full GTT torch lineup
- Surface mix vs premix torches
- Oxygen concentrators vs tanks for lampworking
- GTT Mirage vs Delta Elite
Sources
- GTT, Cobra product page: https://www.glasstorchtech.com/cobra
- GTT, Viper product page: https://www.glasstorchtech.com/viper
- GTT, Triple Mix torches: https://www.glasstorchtech.com/triple-mix-torches
- Lampwork Etc., community archive thread on torch differences: http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-248601.html