If a heat gun is not getting hot, it isn’t doing the only thing it’s supposed to do in the first place. Heating up is the entire purpose of these things, so what leads to this loss of function?
Well, there are usually only a couple of reasons for something like this to happen. I’ll teach you how to troubleshoot each one so that you can get your heat gun back to being hot.
What To Do If Your Heat Gun Is Not Getting Hot
- Motor Power Deficiency
The motor is responsible for managing airflow and the power of heating your heat gun emits. But, what happens when it stops working and doesn’t generate what the device needs?
Well, for starters, the airflow will be much worse. Because of that, it’ll be much harder for the gun to produce the right temperatures for the use you need.
It could also affect the performance of other components, and make the entire device a lot less efficient. It’s a really important part of any heat gun that needs to be fully operational at all times.
So, before I go to the main reason for a heat gun not getting hot, I want you to inspect the motor. Make sure that there’s no melting on its casing, and that it doesn’t smell in any way.
There should be no visible damage on it either, and make sure none of the wires around are melting either. If you don’t know what the motor looks like, I’ll show you a picture below so you have an idea.
Your motor be in different spots of the heat gun depending on the model you own. However, it should look identical to the device’s motor that I’m holding in the picture up there.
Take the cover off of your heat gun after turning it off, and you should be able to find a similar component. Inspect it after that, and check for the signs I mentioned earlier and in the photo.
If you inspect the motor and think it’s not functional anymore, you’ll have to find a replacement part for it. That will be the only thing that can revive your heat gun.
I have made a video how you can disassemble your heat gun and the important mechanisms that you’ll see inside. You can watch it below.
On this video, I disassembled my heat gun because it’s not blowing hot air anymore. The usual reason for this is due to broken heating coil.
After I removed the cover of heat gun, I showed its two most important parts: the blowing motor and the heating coil. Both the heating coil and motor must work fine in order for it to blow hot air out.
- Defective Heating Element
The heating element inside a heat gun is what produces high temperatures, just as the name suggests. It generates enough heat and transfers it outside of the device for your use.
However, because of the insanely high temperature that this element produces, it doesn’t stay functional forever. The heat it produces weakens its parts, which slowly kills the element.
After some time, it stops generating heat like it once did, and won’t function optimally. How quickly a heating element dies depends on the quality of your heat gun and the materials used in it.
A heat gun can melt anything from plastics to metals like wires. It also has a wide variety of uses from soldering wires to sealing a caulking tube for reuse.
I have made a video which shows how a heat gun is used to fix broken wire. As you you can see from the video, it was able to easily melt the plastic cap and the wire.
Even though these components are made with durability kept in mind, the heat starts to affect them negatively over time. Because of that, they eventually stop working.
You can tell if a heating element is no longer fit for use by checking it while the device is still on. You can see below how the element on my heat gun lights up and produces heat, which means it’s functional.
If your element doesn’t light up at all or lights up dimly, that means it is dead/dying. Most heat guns have a life expectancy of around 400 hours of use, so it could be that yours is past its usage.
At that point, you will have to purchase a new heat gun. Replacing the heating element isn’t worth it, since getting a new one will cost the same and work out much better for you.
