GTT Phantom vs Mirage: Which Triple Mix Torch Fits Your Work?

Short answer: Buy the GTT Phantom ($1,425) for pipes, functional work and medium boro, especially on a concentrator-based oxygen supply; buy the GTT Mirage ($1,975) when large boro or production is the plan and you can feed it from tanks or bulk oxygen. Both are two-stage Triple Mix torches on the same 7-jet Lynx center fire, set up from the same GTT instruction sheet at the same pressures. The difference is the outer stage: 15 jets on the Phantom (22 total) against 33 on the Mirage (40 total), which takes the oxygen draw at full flame from about 16.5 LPM to about 26 LPM on GTT’s Flow Rate Chart.

Where the Phantom and Mirage sit in the GTT lineup

Glass Torch Technologies builds its bench torches as a ladder, and almost every rung is the same idea scaled up. The Lynx contributes its 7-jet center fire to the bigger torches; each larger model wraps more outer jets around that same core.

The GTT Phantom is a two-stage torch that pairs the Lynx 7-jet center fire with a ring of 15 outer jets, for 22 total. GTT sells it in Standard and Snub Nose versions with 2-stud or 4-stud manifolds, and there is even a Phantom hand torch variant with a thumb switch for the outer fire.

The GTT Mirage takes the same Lynx center fire and surrounds it with two rings totaling 33 outer jets, for 40 total. It ships standard with a 4-stud manifold, and GTT calls it “one of the most popular of the 2 stage Triple Mix torches.” GTT also sells both as hand torches, with or without a switch for the outer fire, priced separately.

Below these two sit the Bobcat, Lynx, and Cheetah for smaller work (see Cheetah vs Lynx for that end of the ladder). Above the Mirage, the Delta Elite stacks three outer rings for 57 total jets for the largest work; we compare that step in Mirage vs Delta Elite. The Phantom and Mirage are the middle of the ladder, which is exactly why they get cross-shopped so often.

Same technology, different size

Both torches are, in GTT’s words, “completely surface mix” and use the company’s patented Triple Mix technology. GTT’s own framing is that Triple Mix “produces the most efficient flame available for today’s glassblower” by surrounding the fuel with oxygen and then injecting oxygen directly down the fuel stream so the fuel burns completely, yielding a hotter, cleaner flame. That is the manufacturer’s claim, not an independent measurement, but the design is real and shared: whatever Triple Mix does for the Phantom, it does identically for the Mirage. We cover how the mixing scheme works in GTT Triple Mix technology explained.

Both run propane or natural gas, and both sit at the same point on GTT’s flow chart: 10 psi of fuel at the largest usable flame. The 1/4 psi fuel floor that lets GTT’s smallest torches (the Cricket, Bobcat, Scorpion and Sidewinder) run on unboosted household natural gas at roughly 7 inches of water column is not the figure GTT lists for either of these two, so whether a Phantom or a Mirage does the work you want on a house line without a booster is a question to settle with GTT for your setup. Local codes and the manufacturer’s manual always take precedence over anything written here.

GTT claims the same flame-chemistry range for both: fuel-rich reduction flames through neutral, oxidizing, and over-oxidizing, and everything from “a soft bushy flame to a hard driving flame.” Again, that is the company’s own description of its torches, but community reports do not contradict it, and it applies to both models equally. Both are also available with GTT’s compressed-air 4-Way Mix option; see GTT’s 4-Way Mix explained if you are considering that route.

The point of this section is simple: nothing about the mixing technology, fuel flexibility, flame chemistry, or build philosophy separates these torches. Size does.

Spec comparison

Editor’s note: The oxygen figures above come from GTT’s Flow Rate Chart (PDF) for the largest usable flame on propane (Phantom 35 CFH of oxygen, Mirage 55 CFH, converted at 0.4719 LPM per CFH). They are ceilings, not minimums; see the next section. The pressures are from GTT’s two-stage instruction sheet (PDF), which covers both torches. Prices are GTT’s listed prices for the standard bench models; options (compressed air, variable switch, hand-torch versions) are priced separately and move over time.

Oxygen supply is the real decision

The most important numbers in that table are the oxygen figures, and the most important thing about them is what they are not. The Phantom’s ~16.5 LPM and the Mirage’s ~26 LPM are max-usable-flame ceilings: what each torch can consume with everything wide open on propane. Neither torch needs anything close to that for everyday work on the center fire or a partial outer fire. A Phantom doing small work sips oxygen like the Lynx core it is built around.

But the ceiling matters when you size your oxygen supply, because a torch you can never open up is a torch you overpaid for. Here is how the two shake out in practice, according to long-running Lampwork Etc. threads comparing exactly these two models:

• The Phantom “can be run on a couple of generators,” meaning oxygen concentrators, and posters consistently describe it as the more oxygen-efficient of the pair. Stacked concentrators can cover the flow for much of its range, but GTT’s flow chart lists 35 psi oxygen at the largest usable flame, above concentrator pressure, so the very top end still wants tanks.
• The Mirage puts out more heat but uses more fuel and oxygen. One poster reported that a Mirage “runs through a K tank in one good session” when worked hard. That is one person’s account, not a measured consumption test, but it illustrates the scale: at roughly 26 LPM max usable, a full-flame Mirage is in tank territory or a large concentrator bank.

Treat all of that as community experience rather than measured fact, but the direction is consistent across threads and it matches the manufacturer’s own flow table. If your oxygen plan is concentrators, the Phantom is the torch that fits the plan; if you are already plumbed for liquid oxygen or high-capacity tanks, the Mirage’s appetite stops being a constraint. Our guides on how many LPM your torch needs and concentrators vs tanks walk through the math and the supply options in detail.

One more note on fuel: GTT’s flow table shows natural gas consumption running roughly 2.5 times the propane CFH figures for the same flame. On household natural gas that is rarely a cost problem, but it is worth knowing when you compare utility bills to propane refills.

Work size: what each torch is for

The catalog positions the Phantom for pipes, functional work, and medium boro at an intermediate-to-advanced skill level, and the Mirage for large boro and production at an advanced level. Community experience puts useful edges on those labels.

On the Phantom, forum posters report comfortably working 44 mm boro tubing and up to about 60 mm medium-wall, and making 2-inch marbles easily, with pieces over 2 inches becoming time-consuming rather than impossible. That is forum experience, not a specification, but it is a helpfully concrete picture: the Phantom covers the large majority of pipe and functional work, sculpture at moderate scale, and essentially all soft glass.

The Mirage exists for the work beyond that line: large tubing, heavy sculpture, big preps, and production schedules where gathering heat faster is money. With nearly double the jets and two outer rings, it holds more glass at working temperature at once. We are deliberately not quoting flame-diameter or heat-output figures here because neither GTT nor any independent source publishes measured numbers we trust; the honest statement is qualitative: the Mirage is the bigger flame, and the difference shows up on big work, not small work.

It is worth saying the quiet part: on small and medium work, the two torches feel like siblings, because they are. Same center fire, same mixing, same controls philosophy. Nobody buys a Mirage to make beads better.

Which one should you buy?

The long-running community consensus, from a thread asking exactly this question, is blunt: “unless you are going really large, I’d get a Phantom.” We think that holds up, with three tests to run against your own situation:

1. Work size, today and in two years. If your realistic ceiling is pipes, functional glass, marbles, and boro up to roughly the 2-inch range, the Phantom covers it with headroom. If you are already bumping against that scale, or production large work is the plan, buy the Mirage once instead of upgrading later.
2. Oxygen supply. Match the torch to the oxygen you will actually own. Concentrator studio: Phantom. Tanks or liquid oxygen: either, and the Mirage’s roughly 26 LPM ceiling becomes usable instead of theoretical. Buying a Mirage you can only feed 12 LPM buys you a heavier Phantom.
3. The $550. The gap between GTT’s listed $1,425 and $1,975 is real money, and if it lands on the Phantom side of the decision, it is enough to fund a meaningful chunk of an oxygen concentrator, a kiln upgrade, or a lot of glass.

Either way you land inside the same technology family, both torches run both fuels, and GTT’s flow chart lists both at the same 10 psi fuel pressure at full flame. This is one of the lower-risk decisions in torch buying: the failure mode is not a bad torch, it is a mismatch between flame size and the oxygen and work you actually have.

Related guides

• GTT Triple Mix technology explained
• GTT Mirage vs Delta Elite
• GTT Cheetah vs Lynx
• How many LPM does my torch need?
• Oxygen concentrator vs tanks for lampworking

Sources

• Glass Torch Technologies: Phantom
• Glass Torch Technologies: Mirage
• Glass Torch Technologies: Triple Mix torches
• Glass Torch Technologies: Lynx
• Glass Torch Technologies: Flow Rate Chart (PDF; largest usable flame, tested on propane)
• Glass Torch Technologies: two-stage instruction sheet for the Phantom, Mirage and Delta Elite (PDF)
• Lampwork Etc.: GTT Phantom or Mirage thread
• Lampwork Etc.: Phantom or Mirage? (archive)