Quick Review: DeWalt Ceramic Glue Gun

[MrAl]

Hello there,

Recently i was able to pick up a new glue gun for $20 USD and this seems to be the best glue gun i ever had so i decided to write a little about it and the older one i have. This one is actually like my dream gun because it has temperature regulation, and i have always dreamed of a gun like that. There could be some problems as i'll explain, but so far so good.

First, the product case is stamped "50 watts" but the power really varies from about 110 watts down to maybe 60 watts as measured with a true power meter not a volt amps measurement. So it is a variable power gun not fixed like all the other ones i have had in the past. When first plugged in, it draws about 110 watts and as it heats up the power goes down until it gets to around 60 watts, and then, amazingly, it turns itself off! So it's like a beverage water heater, once it heats up enough an internal switch turns it off so it maintains some approximate temperature which is presumable sufficient to keep the glue stick in it's melted state As the gun cools over time, the switch turns back on and the power might be back up there again, 90 watts or maybe higher, which again heats up the gun barrel.
The reason it's like my dream glue gun is because of the temperature regulation, which allows the gun to heat up VERY quickly, which they call "Rapid Heat". The higher power allows the gun to heat up in about 40 seconds as measured from cold at room temperature, while the lower power and temperature switch keep it from overheating and pouring glue out the front.

There's a small extra advantage and that is that it has a silicone nozzel cover that protects against accidentally touching the tip and getting burned. Most guns dont have that they are all metal.
Another advantage is it has a "feed tab", which is a small tab that comes up from inside the gun and makes contact with the glue stick when you pull the trigger. This allows the glue stick to feed properly into the heat chamber. My other guns dont have this feature either so sometimes the glue stick mechanism just 'slides' right past the glue stick and does not force it into the chamber which means you have to manually press the back end of the glue stick to get it to start going into the heat chamber. That can be a pain because you might have to take your eyes off the work piece to do that.

Now compared to my Stanley gun, it totally blows it away. That's because for one, the Stanley gun is rated and stamped with "80 watts" when really it's just 40 watts as measured with a true power meter. Is mine just defective? I dont think so, because the Stanley is just about $12 USD so it's probably not 80 watts even for a good working unit, but i have only that one unit to test so it could be defective i guess. It does have two temperature settings though, LOW and HIGH. But it still bites compared to this new one, and it was very disappointing when i got it and tried it. It was supposed to heat up fast, but it still takes about 3 full minutes or more to heat up just like all the other cheap ones.

The DeWalt is a little more expensive though, yes.

The only thing that bothers me is that i have now read some reviews that state that the gun does not last that long. Several reviewers around the web say the gun burnt out after anywhere from a week to 6 months. I dont know if they got a bad unit or not. There are instructions that say not to leave it on and unattended for more than 30 minutes though, and i think every glue gun should be treated like that.
Since i have not had it that long yet i cant attest to it's long term usage though, so i'll update this review when i've had it for a while longer.
The weak point could be the thermal switch. Some thermal switches last for years but some go within a year with regular use. I had a coffee maker a long time ago that only lasted less than a year because the switch stuck open so it would no longer heat the water, yet i have had a small 1 quart water heater that lasted for years. If the switch gets stuck open it will mean the gun does not heat up anymore so either has to be fixed or replaced, and if the switch gets stuck closed it will burn out the heating unit. I'll just have to wait to see.

I posted a small pic of the unit from the side.

 

[audioguru]

My Weller soldering iron has controlled temperature similar to your Dewalt glue gun. It is about 51 years old, has been used every day and many days all day long and it still has its original control parts. It starts heating at full power then turns off when it reaches its controlled temperature and it turns on and off all the time to regulate the temperature. It uses a magnet pulling on a switch and "The Curie Method" where the magnetism stops at its rated temperature which disconnects the switch until the magnet cools a little then it turns on again.

My electric kettle uses the pressure of steam to turn it off. It has a fine filter screen over its spout that allows fluid to flow out but blocks some steam.

 

[MrAl]

Hello there audioguru,

That is interesting, i didnt know they made temperature controlled irons way back then. I think mine was an "Ungar" way back then, just fine point but no temperature control. What is also interesting is the temperature control mechanism you describe. Maybe that is what allowed it to live so long.

The tea pot is also interesting in the way that it turns off, so maybe they are coming up with new ways to do this too. I had one myself with a thermal switch that senses the hot part temperature then opens up, then when it cools down closes again, thus keeping the water hot. Some people did not like that because you could hear the switch open and close as it made a loud 'click' each time, but it didnt bother me at all because i always used the water right after the first click (it was hot and therefore ready to use). I couldnt see leaving it on and wasting energy and also the water would boil away eventually i would bet.

My old coffee maker had a similar thermal switch, which once replaced it worked again, but it's long gone now

Thanks for the info.

What i dont know about the glue gun yet is if the switch is external to the heating chamber or internal to that too. I know it is inside the gun case itself, but if it is not within the heating chamber than i could probably fix it if it did get stuck. Either replacing the switch or better yet use a little temperature control circuit with maybe thermistor for heat sensing, and let that do the switching and maybe throttle down instead of just turning off.

I know the "Professional" glue guns have better specs and so might last longer with frequent use, but they are upwards of $200 USD so the cost for me is just not justified based on what i use it for an how often i use it. I might use it three times in one week, but then not for another whole month or two. The thing i hated the most about the guns i had in the past though was that they took so darn long to heat up. Three minutes is not much if you have something else to do, but sometimes you just wanna get the thing glued and be done with it, so waiting three or four minutes motivates me to not use the glue gun even when it is the best tool for the job at hand. Maybe now i can use it when i really need to knowing it wont take long to heat up and be ready for using it for what it was made for.
BTW this one has a very rugged case too, screwed together so it may be repairable.

A good example of thermal switches that go bad quickly are those kind they use in cheap Christmas tree bulb strings, the ones with the tiny incandescent colored bulbs. They come with a blinker bulb, which is nothing more than a regular bulb with a cheap thermal switch (you can see) that gets hot when the bulb lights up. After a little while the switch opens up and turns the bulb off, then the bulb cools down, then the switch turns on again. The cycle keeps repeating and thus makes the string blink on and off. The switch gets stuck closed, and if you flick it with your fingernail you can break it open again, and it starts to work again for a while until it gets stuck again. That's a good example of a bad switch

 

[audioguru]

My 51 years old Weller WTCPT temperature controlled soldering station is still made and is still available. Except today it costs about 5 times as much as what I paid. Because it has temperature control its tip also lasts a long time.

 

[MrAl]

Hi again audioguru,

Care to share the model number? I can go find it and take a better look.

Tiny update on the DeWalt glue gun:
Yesterday i fired it up again and this time it took 60 seconds to heat up to the point where the glue would be able to come out of the tip and actually glue something. That's a little longer than 40 seconds the first time and i suspect it was because the line voltage dropped a little. I'll be using it from time to time so i'll find out more about the startup time, but it is definitely a LOT faster than my older guns included that Stanley dual heat gun. It makes sense though because the startup power draw is around 110 watts and that's almost three times what the older guns are, so it makes sense it would heat up three times faster. It says "50 percent faster" on the package cardboard, but it's actually even faster than that.

One thing i miss on all these guns though is a power indicator. On one of my older guns before the Stanley i put a 120vac neon indicator lamp in the handle. On the Stanley i put a tri color LED (RGB, using blue and green and not using red) to show the high or low heat select switch position. On this one i have no LED or neon, at least not yet
BTW the case on this thing looks so strong i could probably lay it down on it's side on the floor and stand on it without damage.

 

[audioguru]

Hi again audioguru,
Care to share the model number? I can go find it and take a better look.

They made mine 51 years ago with a white cord. Today the new ones are the same except the cord is black:

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

Oh, so it's a soldering STATION. I thought you just meant a soldering IRON.
No doubt that a soldering station should have temperature regulation

 

[audioguru]

The same soldering pencil is available and also has temperature regulation. It is 42W and is powered from 24VAC.

 

[MrAl]

The same soldering pencil is available and also has temperature regulation. It is 42W and is powered from 24VAC.

Hi again,

Was that available 50 years ago too?

 

[audioguru]

I do not know if the soldering pencil was available as a product 50 years ago but it was probably available as a replacement part for the soldering station.
At work long ago they had Weller 60W and 100W soldering penicils (powered from 120VAC) but they did not have temperature control so they got too hot for electronics but were used to solder metal plates together.

 

[ChrisP58]

Back in high school, ~1974, I bought a Weller W60P3 stand alone iron that used the same type of temperature control as the WTCPT that AG described. I think I paid about USD25 for it.

It also is still made. **broken link removed**

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

Glue gun still working well. I dont use it every day though.