[Brent Deines]

The heat gun I am using now is the Makita HG1100. It has 5 heat settings and 2 speeds (both slow). Don't get me wrong, I'm not promoting this gun, and I still think hair dryers work very well and are safer to use as and they typically won't get hot enough to damage anything even on the hottest settings. However, if you need a heat gun for other purposes you might as well get one that is as versatile as possible.

I agree that one must be very careful when using heat guns, but as I said, this particular gun has cool settings as well as hot settings, so it is very different than the heat guns I have used in the past. It warmed the area that I was working on to about 85 degrees F and kept it that way throughout the repair process. I could even still touch the metal tip of the gun when I was finished, although in retrospect doing so was probably not all that smart.

Actually the metal tip is the one thing I don't like about this gun. I have another one, can't think of the name right off hand, with a plastic tip, but it does not have a setting cool enough to safely use on a windshield in my opinion. I have no idea what kind of plastic is used that does not melt when the temperature is so hot, but it doesn't.