Looking for a professional heat gun: what about Steinel HG2310LCD?

[VinzC]

Hi all.

I'm looking for a decent professional heat gun that I'd use also for de-soldering – not my main activity though. I looked up at RS online catalog for a temperature-controlled model and found this model, a Steinel HG2310LCD with air flow control, too. Is this okay or absolutely overkill?

Thanks in advance for any hint/suggestion.

[janoc]

Uh and what exactly are you planning to use it for? If it is for removing paint, this looks like a very good choice On the other hand, for that you certainly don't need an LCD and could probably do with a gun that costs 1/3 of this one.

I wouldn't use it for electronics, though - having parts and molten solder blown all over the place by the hot jet blast is not fun. I am pretty sure that its two power levels for the fan are both way too strong. At least it has temperature regulation down to 50C so it doesn't produce molten slag out of everything. If you want hot air for electronics, don't search for "heat gun". Search for "hot air rework station".

You don't need to go crazy and spend a lot of money - e.g. the Atten 858 (or one of its many clones/rebrands) is good enough and very cheap (Dave's review http://www.eevblog.com/2011/04/25/eevblog-167-atten-858d-hot-air-rework-review/).

I have one and it is plenty sufficient, plus having the fan in the handle and not the base means I don't have a thick air hose taking up space on the bench for something that gets used only every once in a while.

[G7PSK]

Steinel  are the industry standard for welding plastics, I have one for that purpose and use it for heat shrink sleeve as well and on occasion I use it for preheating a board with a very large ground plane. It is now over 20 years old and still works perfectly, it gets hot enough to melt solder and has 2 speed fan control as well as 6 heat setting all thermostat controlled.

[rwgast_lowlevellogicdesin]

I acually have a question maybe the OP will benefit from this product too, I was walking around home depot the other day and saw something called the Benz O Matic 3 in 1 soldering butane soldering iron/heat gun

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bernzomatic-ST500T-Auto-Ignite-Butane-Torch-335258/205495608

I almost bought it as 20 bucks is an impulse buy but the butane was separate and they were out, im not sure if the nozzle would allow other butane brands. I was looking at it as a portable way to solder but then I saw it had a heat gun!!! I dont own a heat gun, I do have a reflow oven but a heat gun would be awesome for those times I want to pull smd chips individually or any smd part for repair. It shows it doing heat shrink which is nice too because I always char heat shrink using a lighter, or the heat from the tip of my iron makes a mess.

So has anyone used one of these? Do they need to be constantly refilled? Do they work as a heat gun for SMD rework?

[AndyC_772]

Hi all.

I'm looking for a decent professional heat gun that I'd use also for de-soldering – not my main activity though. I looked up at RS online catalog for a temperature-controlled model and found this model, a Steinel HG2310LCD with air flow control, too. Is this okay or absolutely overkill?

Thanks in advance for any hint/suggestion.

I have one of those, and I use it for reflowing components regularly. It raises a few eyebrows, and yes, it would be nice if its minimum air flow rate (there are many steps, not just two) were a bit lower, but there's no doubt it can be used for the type of work you describe.

[ConKbot]

Works great  I'd definitely recommend it. And yes you can use the lower speeds for SMD work, if youre so inclined.

[KL27x]

2300W. What's not to like?

[VinzC]

Thanks to all for your suggestions and comments, guys. I am a bit late but to clarify some questions, first off my company typically orders from RS online, which is our main supplier. Their offer of heat guns is pretty restrictive though and not many models seem to be available (for the plug model type). I have watched one of Dave's reviews about heat guns and he suggested not to go crazy on the price since there are cheap models that are perfectly fine.

I intend to use this gun for desoldering under controlled temperature and of course heat shrinking. On the other hand if it can also help with reflowing and SMD every now and then I'm all for it although I do plan to buy a dedicated oven for that purpose; in such cases the heat gun would mostly be used for troubleshooting, sort of. So far my tightest requirements are for desoldering as I already trialled myself at desoldering some connector with a gun that had no temperature control and I almost toasted the board so I'd rather avoid that from now on :-D . So rather than having one gun for each usage I've opted for one that would suit most uses.

On a final note, I'd rather avoid gas devices. First and mostly due to temperature requirement. The Atten looks interesting indeed unfortunately it's not available from our main supplier.

[KJDS]

I've got a big box of Weller 6696R that work well, happy to offer them cheap to anyone that wants one. They are a bit crude but ok in the right hands.

I also have a delightful Leister, and if you want a perfect hot air system then theirs is the one to go for.