Found out my heat gun was the wrong wattage the whole time

I've been using a cheap heat gun from Harbor Freight for years to shrink tubing and remove components. Last week I borrowed a friend's $60 Weller one and it hit temperature in like 20 seconds instead of my 90 second wait. I looked up the specs and mine is only 800 watts while the Weller is 1500. All those times I thought my solder joints were bad were probably just the heat gun being too weak. Has anyone else had a similar experience with a tool they thought was fine for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

lewis.mila21d ago

You mentioned "all those times I thought my solder joints were bad were probably just the heat gun being too weak." That's not quite right. A heat gun is for shrinking tubing or heating up large areas, not for soldering. The actual soldering iron tip temperature is what matters for joints. Different tools for different jobs.

morgan.joseph21d ago

Did you ever catch that Tech Tip Tuesday video where they tested cheap versus expensive heat guns? The cheap one wouldn't even melt solder paste at the lowest setting. I had a similar problem with a no-brand gun. Couldn't get heat shrink to close tight, figured my setup was garbage.