Heat Guns

A heat gun is a controlled hot air tool, and that control is the whole purchase. A hair dryer tops out too cool for paint work, a torch is far too hot and far too narrow, and a heat gun sits in the useful middle: air from roughly 120 degrees up to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, shaped by nozzles, aimed where you point it. Strip paint, shrink tubing, bend plastic pipe, soften adhesive, thaw a frozen pipe, dry filler, or emboss a card, and the same tool does all of it, badly if the temperature is wrong and cleanly if it is right.

The twelve guns below cover the honest classes. Corded LCD flagships from DEWALT, Makita and Wagner give stepped or fully variable temperature for paint and restoration work. Cordless guns from Bosch and Milwaukee cut the cord for shrink work and site jobs, at the cost of runtime. Dial-controlled workhorses from PORTER-CABLE, Genesis and BLACK+DECKER keep it simple and cheap. Compact guns from Wagner cover crafts, embossing and electronics benches where a full-size gun is a blunt instrument. Every pick is a true heat gun sold on Amazon, and every temperature figure is the maker or listing rating for that model.