What Are the Advantages of Heat Guns over Blow Lamps?
Electric heat guns have largely superseded the traditional bottled gas blow lamps for stripping paint from timber, a common purpose of both devices. With the heat gun technology comes a host of highlights that take care of paint stripping with ease. We outline our “big four” advantages of a heat gun below, with factors such as weight, safety and efficiency considered and compared to the traditional blow lamp.
Advantage One: A Heat Gun producers heat almost instantaneously; users just turn it one and off when needed while flame blow lamps need to be relit every time work commences again which is added time and inconvenience. Further to this, many models have setting for varied temperatures where as a blow lamp often has one heat setting only. This lets you manage exactly the amout of heat you apply on differing surfaces.
Advantage Two: Heat Guns are built as lightweight, easy-to-use tools. They are easily manoeuvrable, operable and controllable which ultimately reduces the risk of scorcing wood or cracking glass when stripping paint. With added control, heat can be applied to tiny areas like the sides of the door stopper with ease. A heat gun comes with accessory nozzles which target heat. A blow torch is heavy, more difficult to position and inflexible which makes its entire operation less simple, purposeful and enjoyable.
Advantage Three: Heat Guns are Cheap to buy, and getting cheaper as their popularity grows. Your local hire store can rent you one for a weekend, but often it will be cheaper to buy one outright knowing that it is multi-purpose. Also the wattage for a given model may be high, but seldom are they used for an entire hour, so you are unlikely to notice any change in your power bills. What will you save is trips to the gas station to refill your blow lamp’s tank.
Advantage Four: Heat guns are always safer; their trigger feature ensures that when pressure is lifted from the pistol grip, the heat ceases immediately every time. This differs from a blow lamp which requires a manual extinguishing, often causing delays and a nuisance to the operator. In the event of a mistake or accident, being able to control the heat is essential.
It is clear that everything has its day, and the blow lamp has become antiquated and seemingly irrelevant for the modern day DIY man. It is time perhaps to sell your old blow lamp and put whatever you get towards a brand new heat gun, an investment well worth making for the long term.