Heat Gun Reviews: Which is the Best Heat Gun in the UK?

Heat Gun Reviews

Vonhaus 2000W Heat Gun Review

With an inexpensive price tag and simple features, the Vonhaus 15-181 heat gun is a popular choice amongst DIYers looking to get their hands on a competent paint-stripping aid. It has a high power rating of 2000W and can operate at two different temperatures and airflow settings for use in different applications. The heat gun’s lower setting produces a hot airflow rate of 250 L/min at a temperature of 350ºC while its high setting delivers 550ºC heated air at a flow rate of 550 L/min. Unlike some of its competitor machines, the Vonhaus heat gun has no digital readout, with the company opting for a minimally-featured power tool to keep its price low. Indeed, the heat gun reaches temperature very quickly making such sophisticated features almost unnecessary.

One of the unique features of the Vonhaus heat gun is its body shape which has been designed to stand on its rear surface without falling over. This is a useful feature when needing to cool the gun’s hot end safely, ensuring it does not inadvertently damage any surface it is placed on in the process. In addition, the design can also be useful if two hands are needed to hold an object to be heated, although extreme care should be taken if using the heat gun in this way as the hot air stream is dangerously hot and the heat gun is not immune to being accidentally knocked over.

Another positive feature of the Vonhaus heat gun is that it comes with a small selection of accessory nozzles. These include a glass protection nozzle which can be used to direct heat away from the glass when paint-stripping window frames. This is important since too high an air temperature applied to glass can cause it to crack. The Vonhaus heat gun also comes with an air spreading nozzle to distribute the heat over a wider strip-shaped area, ideal for removing paint from large flat surfaces such as doors or skirting boards. The third nozzle accessory is a concentrator nozzle for focusing the heated airflow onto a narrower point than what the gun alone can do, which is useful for paint-stripping thin beading, architrave, mouldings and crevices. The final nozzle that is included with the Vonhaus power tool is the reflector nozzle which is designed for heating around elongated structures such as pipes that need defrosting or (in the case of plastic pipes) bending, and electric wiring when heat-shrink tubing needs to be used as electrical insulation.

The Vonhaus heat gun comes with a reasonably long 1.8m power cable that is sufficient for most uses, however, can be too short for some situations, such as when working up a ladder. The heat gun is also very lightweight making it easy to hold for long periods, although there is a little vibration when the device is operating, which can become annoying for more sensitive users.

In use, the Vonhaus heat gun works very well, easily lifting thick layers of paint right down to the underlying wood, while thin paint layers sometimes need to be helped off with a separate scraping tool. Both high and low heat settings can be used for paint removal with the lower heat setting taking longer to achieve the same result but protecting the wood more from being scorched. Importantly, new users should be aware that, out of the factory, the Vonhaus heat gun does produce a little smoke when first switched on as new components heat up and burn off oils and other residues from the manufacturing process.

On the more negative side, as the Vonhaus heat gun is an inexpensive budget model, component reliability over the long term and quality control during manufacturing are not as high as with more premium devices, sometimes even making the occasional unit of the Vonhaus machine fail after only a few uses. Although this is rare, it should be noted that both the blower or the heating element may fail, producing different failure symptoms. This means that when buying the heat gun, it is important to make sure that it is used and tested thoroughly immediately upon reception so that any faulty units can be dealt with right away. Unfortunately, Vonhaus does not make it easy to contact them (essentially only via email) to get problems sorted out promptly, so one should rely more on returning any faulty devices via the Amazon ecosystem.

Due to the budgetary nature of the Vonhaus heat gun, the nozzles also do not always maintain a perfect fit, with some nozzles loosening as they are heated, while others sometimes becoming too tight, making them difficult to remove. Therefore, a little bit of DIY ingenuity is sometimes needed to ensure a stable fit. In addition, contrary to the impression given in the marketing material for the Vonhaus heat gun, the nozzles are not themselves scrapers, being too flimsy to be used as such, and a separate scraper needs to be sourced when using this heat gun for paint stripping.

Other minor dislikes of the Vonhaus machine is the triple position trigger, which is responsible for turning on the device but also for setting it to the high or low heat and airflow configurations. A separate lever or button for setting the power level would have been preferred, especially since the trigger is too easy to operate unintentionally.

Overall, the Vonhaus heat gun is a powerful, basic device that performs admirably in its primary role as a paint-stripping aid. It comes with some useful accessories that allow for more precise application of heat to the surface of interest, making it good value for money overall. Being a budget device means that it will not cost an arm and a leg to purchase, however, it will not last as long as premium heat gun brands, making it more appropriate for DIYers and not so much for the heavy-using professional.