The new toy on my desk this week was the cordless hot glue gun (Docrafts 'stick it!' Excel). I thought it would be fantastic to take with me to crops and crafting sessions - it's incredibly lightweight and measures just 7"x5". The plug-in hot glue gun I also have (I believe it's made by Bostik) is lighter and smaller (not including the cord) at just 4.5"x4"... but to be quite honest, the bigger glue gun (cordless) is much more comfortable to use with it's wider handle (I have rheumatoid arthritis).
They both take the same size glue sticks, and both heat up about as quick as each other - though maybe the battery-run one is slightly quicker. HOWEVER... you are guaranteed a continuous, constant heat with the traditional plug-in glue gun. The cordless glue gun uses batteries pretty quickly - though this may be partly due to my cheap batteries. Using re-chargeable batteries will save a LOT of money in the long run - but buy enough so that you can have one set in the gun and one set charging for continuous usage (my glue gun takes 4 batteries, AA size). When the battery power gets low, the glue gun just doesn't melt the glue sticks as well - though there is a red light above the on/off switch that fades as the batteries lose power.
More pro's and cons for each type of glue gun:
The cordless glue gun has a smaller, more precise nozzle - it appears (so far) to drip less and doesn't clog at all. When stood upright when not in use temporarily, the nozzle points upwards so no dripping hot glue everywhere. Unfortunately, this also means that the end where you load the glue stick is pointing downwards, and until it's in the front barrel the glue stick will fall out. Okay, so that's not really much of a hardship I guess.
The plug-in hot glue gun has a resting position that means the nozzle is pointing downwards. This means the hot glue drips out and I find that the nozzle becomes surrounded in hot glue which causes more 'glue strings'. Of course, this resting position also means that any glue stick loaded into the barrel won't fall out. One huge disadvantage to the plug-in hot glue gun is that the cord tends to get in the way - not just when you're using it, but also when the gluegun is at rest - it can twist the gun round so that it constantly falls over.
The cordless glue gun is very stable when in it's resting position - though lightweight, the batteries help keep it from toppling over.
As you can see from the photographs, the plug-in glue gun is pretty messy - with hot glue over the nozzle and the front barrel of the gun itself... and this happened quite quickly. Maybe it's just me... but this has happened to both my traditional plug-in glue guns. I've used the cordless one for a few days straight... it hasn't got glue mess anywhere yet - either on the glue gun itself or anywhere round my workspace.
So, I guess overall I'd pick the cordless gun every time... unless I need something less precise and don't mind a bit of mess, well then the old gun will come out to play again :)
2 comments:
Enjoy playing with your new toy.
Toni xx
This was just wanted I needed to hear about. I'm attempting to use a little mini hot glue gun for the first time and am quite nervous about burning myself or letting my girls use it. We made a project over the weekend and it needs glued but I keep putting it off, lol. Thanks for all this great info about both of them. Wish me luck as I try it tonight?? Will try to post our projects on my blog too. Have fun with your new cordless one.
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