The BEST Heat Guns (According to Adam Savage)

At the prompting of an old friend, Adam revisits the topic of workshop heat guns and runs through his favorites that he keeps at arm's reach at the workbench. From a trusty corded heat gun to his all-time favorite blow dryer, each has its advantages and ideal project environments. But if you're going to just get one heat gun, here's the one Adam would start with.

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Shot by Adam Savage
Music by Jinglepunks

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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

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#adamsavage #tools

[tested]

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[SxC]

Between the Dewalt tools, the Conair hair dryer, and the Papermate pencils, it seems like Adam has a real preference for yellow tools lol.

[robertpouard]

Electrical Tech here, I absolutely love the stick heat gun! If you love your self and other people, you will label your wiring. That gun works all day shrinking labels!

[briansavage]

I have my late grandfather's Chicago Electric heat gun from Harbor Freight which he had since the 1980s. It still works like a champ and stays holstered next to my workbench ready to use. It has a low and high setting and is pretty much perfect for anything I've ever needed it for.

[RandomToon]

My favorite heat gun is one many people never think about - a hot air de\soldering iron. Gets hot enough to melt solder but is small and directed enough to not completely trash everything around it. Plus, the temperature control is measured in degrees C, and not just a +/- dial. Pretty much the only way to reflow IC's without scrapping the PCB if you do that kind of thing, can make some fun patterns in Kydex, and in a pinch can be used to touch up a 3D print (although I wouldn't really recommend this for a novice).

[zillathor]

Heat gun story! I am a cosplayer and work with eva foam, as one does, and it took your previous heat gun video about the crappy factory "heat gun" to realise that this whole time i hadnt been sealing the foam well enough because the heat gun I was using at the time was really under powered!

Glad to say now I have a heat gun with the tempreture dial and my props now have infinite better finishes now that they're being sealed properly! Thanks for that!

[ThorJohannmakes]

Velociraptor in the background, you little tease <3

[ITGOTEVERYWHERE]

So when I was an electrician, we had those big, long PVC pipe heater boxes for melting the pipe into big, long sweeps so it was easier to pull the wire through. Well if we didn't have access to one of those and we only had a few to do, then we would pack the pipe full of sand/dirt and use a heat gun. The sand inside the pipe would make it much less likely to collapse the pipe as we would gradually bend it into whatever shape we needed.

[docersatz]

A neighbor in the building gave me a hot-air pop-corn popper she didn't like in the early '80s. I didn't like it either, but I stripped it down and used it for a heat gun. I've used other much finer ones in shops where I've worked, but at my home shop, I still used the core of that pop-corn popper - it really puts out the heat!

[aaronl_trains_and_planes]

I've got one of those small ones, a hair dryer and a true heat gun. I have a model train layout and work on the trains converting them to DCC, so I use whichever one is closest for the heat shrink when I'm soldering wires. The small one is also great to get paint to dry much faster.

[joelbutler]

I bought a Wagner heat gun several years ago because I could not find my makita. It is by far the best heat gun I have used. It has a digital display and both the fan and heat are changed incrementally. It was cheap and also came with some useful nozzles and a scraper. The heat rating goes to 11.

[Guardian_Arias]

I really like a battery powered heat guns for a quick heat shrink job. I often use a corded heat gun with a digital dial for higher heat or precision heat like when desoldering flat pack microchips especially land grid arrays. The last heat gun that goes missed that I keep around is a Propane Torch, great for instant heat for a large number of things from cooking to torching away stringing on 3D prints plus a propane torch keeps working during a power outage.

[DocStainton]

So happy to see the Cordless and Tube corded heat guns! The tube Corded heat "gun" lives on my electronics workbench, it's my go-to for heat shrink because it's not hot enough to scorch but good enough to get the job done. As a fire alarm technician, I have the Ryobi Cordless heat gun and it's "Crapiness" is the secret to being gentle enough to activate heat detectors for testing WITHOUT melting the plastic casing!

[randycarter]

That corded Dewalt heat gun (looks like a space laser) controls the temperature by actually varying the power into the heat element, thus the air flow is constant. Many other heat guns control the heat by restricting the airflow, less airflow equals hotter air. Burns out quick if the intake becomes clogged.

[normalicy]

I'm surprised by the lack of mention of a hot air solder rework station. I've found the small tips very handy for when you want localized heating, and of course, the adjustable temperature is a bonus.

[Cole]

I bought a Drill Master heat gun at Harbor Freight for $9 about 10 years ago, and it still works great. It has high and low, no adjustable heat settings. If I want less heat, then I move it back further. It was only meant to only be temporary, but it just keeps going.

[BaselNebula]

But wait!
There's one other you may want to consider---a Hot-Air Rework Station. It's great because you can adjust the heat and the air intensity, along with the nozzle size. Not only can you change the volume and the temperature of air but how fine a stream you would like. It can handle heat-shrink to solder, that should do you just fine for most hot-air applications. You can pick a good one up for $40-$100, and you can find portable or benchtop versions.


Thanks for what you do.
-B.Nebula

[nickrivera]

For precision heat gun-ing, Adam needs to look into a Hot Air Rework station used for circuit boards. They usually have a similar form factor as the last mini heat gun shown. They have interchangeable nozzle tips and connected with a hose to a base station where you can control both air speed and temperature, often with the ability to save a few different presets.

[gregorymacneil]

My Steinel Heat gun was purchased about 20 years ago. It was expensive, but its wide range of heat and air settings makes it an excellent tool. The Steinel Heat gun does everything a complete collection of heat guns does, plus it has an unmatched set of accessory nozzles. 

I also bought the DeWalt cordless model after watching Adam's previous video. I like its portability. I use the Dewalt with a 9-amp FlexVolt battery so it will not tip over. The DeWalt is great for warming your boots on a cold winter day, thawing frozen locks and a host of other things. However, it will not melt roofing tar for practical purposes, unless you are on the sunny side of the roof in August.

[jimmyers]

For me up has always been on as almost every place you go a light switch goes up to go on so therefore up should be high the down should be low at least that's what is intuitive for me. Thanks for another great video. PS. I like the shorter ones as I try to limit myself to two hours a day of videos