Rant: That $12 heat gun I got for shrink tubing was a fire hazard

I tried using it to seal some dollar store shrink wrap on a project, and the plastic casing around the nozzle started melting after 2 minutes. Has anyone else had one of those cheap heat guns almost catch fire on them?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucas4989d ago

Those parts fail because they use ABS plastic instead of something heat resistant like polycarbonate. I had one melt into a smoking blob and realized the switch was rated for 3 amps but the heating element was pulling 10.

brookepark5d ago

That's a pretty scary failure. Maybe it's just me but a 3 amp switch on a 10 amp load is just asking for trouble. I mean, that's not really a plastic quality issue at that point, that's a straight up engineering mistake.