Hot glue gun exploded, what now?

[FlevasGR]

Hello, yesterday i bough a brand new hot glu gun from the tools section on a toy mega store here in Greece. The price was only 5 euros with 5 sticks included. I though that it was a good deal.



After going home i put it to work for 5 minutes and then i stored it safely in my desk. 2 hours later i wanted to glue something so i left it warm up and then i pressed the button to drip some glue. The trhird time i squeezed it the gun just exploded and shutdown the main electrical fuse on my house.
Its not about why tha happened to me but why does this happens in general. Specificaly im talking about this:




aaaand...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/JwTq7w4xT6

https://www.youtube.com/embed/JwTq7w4xT6w

So, this is how am i going to die? From a glue gun?

[matseng]

Hehe... You got royally cheated there...    I picked up this piece of crap (but actually working just fine so far) for 29 Baht (0.90 USD) in a we-sell-cheap-junk store in Bangkok.

[FlevasGR]

Hehe... You got royally cheated there...    I picked up this piece of crap (but actually working just fine so far) for 29 Baht (0.90 USD) in a we-sell-cheap-junk store in Bangkok.

I bought the most expensive i could find and thats what happened

[codeboy2k]

I have that same one, matseng bought. 

It's been working for me for about 10 years now ..

[electr_peter]

Well, I do not trust cheap hot glue guns. But hey, they do work as intended - real issue is poor quality, low power and no proper temperature control.

For soldering irons/hot air/hot glue/oven/oven plates/other hot things, I only turn them on when I need them and turn them off as soon as I have finished. Only higher quality ones can be somewhat trusted to be turned on for longer time. Some of mentioned devices do not have mains power switch, so turn on/off is extra annoying.

One thing to note about hot glue guns - hot glue gun will consume hot glue sticks like there is no tomorrow when you are doing anything. Buy bigger pack of longer sticks in advance, it is cheap.

[SeanB]

Glue gun going bang and tripping the mains is either the cord twisting where it leaves the gun ( very common on units with some use) or either the PTC inside has shattered or the insulating kapton layer has been punctured. Yours looks like the PTC had blown itself apart. If you are not returning it to either buy another one ( playing a lottery there) or a better one or get your money back, you can take it apart ( bleeding triwing screws in many) and see where the 2 wires go into the insulating sleeve on the casting of the heater. You will likely see the scorch marks and the little bits of ceramic heater there.

[Balaur]

One thing to note about hot glue guns - hot glue gun will consume hot glue sticks like there is no tomorrow when you are doing anything. Buy bigger pack of longer sticks in advance, it is cheap.

Yeah, I have no idea where that glue is going. Maybe there is a singularity/black hole inside the gun and when the singularity isolation fields fail, the gun explodes.

[SeanB]

Lucky for me at work we use it in 40kg boxes, though the glue guns are still the cheap junk ones. Just stick with a brand that lasts, I use Stanley branded ones, they last around a year before failure. Funny enough I was looking on eBay, and saw the same ( or at least identical outside) for $1 each excl shipping, but I am not going to see if they are actually the same gun for $1 instead of the $15 I pay.

[FlevasGR]

Lucky for me at work we use it in 40kg boxes, though the glue guns are still the cheap junk ones. Just stick with a brand that lasts, I use Stanley branded ones, they last around a year before failure. Funny enough I was looking on eBay, and saw the same ( or at least identical outside) for $1 each excl shipping, but I am not going to see if they are actually the same gun for $1 instead of the $15 I pay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stanley-Tools-0-GR25-Heavy-Duty-Glue-Gun-240-Volt-/361149026219?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item541628cfab

Is this the brand you're taling about? The seem good

[SeanB]

Similar, but the ones I get are black and have no switch. They are surviving reasonably well, only the cords wear out from use so I shorten it a little each time.

[codeboy2k]

One thing to note about hot glue guns - hot glue gun will consume hot glue sticks like there is no tomorrow when you are doing anything. Buy bigger pack of longer sticks in advance, it is cheap.

I did that, but now some of my glue sticks are yellow, instead of white.  Seems like they still work, but I don't know if its compromised in strength or other properties. 

[matseng]

Well, I do not trust cheap hot glue guns. But hey, they do work as intended - real issue is poor quality, low power and no proper temperature control.

I second the low power and no temperature control. It takes quite a while for my $0.90 gun to get up to working temp, and when left on for half an hour so so it gets so hot that the glue comes out severely discolored.  But what can you expect for less than a dollar?