IR Paint Stripper, Black

I used to use the 1500 degree gun-shaped paint strippers but there was always the risk of having the piece of wood catch fire. I have been using the IR paint stripper beginning last year and it works about the same speed and quality as the gun-shaped 1500 degree strippers. This unit is about a foot long and maybe 4 or 5 inches wide so it does a good size area for a handheld device. It does take a few minutes to warm up , and it does get hot. You will see some smoke when the paint starts to melt. But I was able to hold the device with my hands for several hours and had no burns or damage to myself or the house...So I would say it's a lot less dangerous than the gun-shaped paint removers. The handle does fold and it has a simple on/off button so there isn't much too it. The heating element feels like a piece of porcelain and can wash off with a paper napkin after it's cool. So far no problems, works as advertised, and I will be using it again in the spring.

The heating was not even, so the larger heating surface did not help remove paint faster than a heat gun

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!!! Where has it been all my life. SO EASY TO USE!!!!! No more chemical stripping for me. As long as you pay attention to what you’re doing you won’t hurt yourself or the whatever your stripping the Finnish off of.

This is better than paint stripper, but it's cheap for a reason. It does not heat evenly. You need to have the center of it directly over the area you want to scrape, because the sides of the ceramic plate do not have enough heat to work. This is so bulky to use with such a small area that actually works. You're better off buying the cobra speed heater if you have the money or if you're covering a large area. I used this to remove paint off a door frame, and even that small project took over a week because it's really annoying to use and control.

I wanted to write a review because I was torn between getting this or the high end competitor; the cobra. You're more likely to be like me, realizing that there ain't much choices for infrared paint strippers."do i buy this $140 piece of equipment or splurge $500 for a Cobra?"I say, yes and no. Cobra definitely is worth the money and works better but this IR Stripper ain't so bad! IR stripper will get the job done and works pretty well. It is slower and slightly cumbersome to use.Pros:- its a reasonable price for a tool especially if you're new to restoring windows. This is where it really shines because the tool works well enough and when you've had it on long enough, it works even faster.- it's harder to burn the wood and crack glass panes since it's on lower heat. You should still use tin foil for shielding on the glass.Cons:- it does take a little time to warm up, much longer than 2 mins before its really hot and heavy.- the handle is cheap. the swivel is cheap and only goes one direction. Its primarily for storage, not for during use. I would have respected the person who designed this tool more if they put a way to attach this to something off-hand so you could easily set up a station to bake and scrape.- there's no temperature gauge to tell you how hot it really is. Only a lazily placed on-off switch.- one of the design flaws is that you have to put the device really close to the surface to speed things up. this results in eventually getting a lot of bubbling and flaking paint touching the heating element and it gets pretty gross under there when it sticks on it. Luckily, the heating plate is indeed durable and i'm not really sure how to tidy that heating element and just kinda decided to not clean it out of fear of braking the element.Protip:- Set up a way to attach this to a pole and sturdy stand. I used a band clamp to secure the handle to a pole and the pole to a ladder. You really dont want to hold this hot tool for a long time especially considering scraping hot paint is time consuming. Set up a station with all the wood you need to scrape and keep baking while scraping. time goes by fast and it feels good to see so much paint coming off quickly.Overall, this is the correct tool to buy that is safer than a heat gun and it can do small-big projects. If you are torn by price between the two devices, get this for sure. If you have the money and will regularly be stripping paint, get cobra. I'm happy with this device while it lasts and will get a Cobra anyways.

The media could not be loaded. It is cumbersome.It keeps getting hotter after it reaches its supposed maximum temperature.Instructions say keep it 1/2" from surface of wood which is unrealistic to do and you will struggle with removing paint and you will seriously burn your wood.They should have taken this to the next level and it would rival $500-$600 IR paint removers but they didn't and so the end result just doesn't work.The first 6 minutes of my video are just getting ready to use my modified paint removal tool. It is only the second time I tried it out. Starting at 7 minutes you can see the potential of this tool. I am removing the paint from 60 year old cabinet doors with at least 4 coats of paint on them. I tried chemical strip, forget it - you might S well but new cabinets but with the addition of a thermistor used for smoking meat and adding feet to keep the tool 1" above the surface of the wood I am able to remove without any flaws all of the paint on half of a 30x15 cabinet door in 10 minutes. Chemicals took me over. 6 hours and what a mess.Why they didn't make simple improvements to make this a great tool I do not understand.

We bought this to strip years of paint from windows in a 160+ year old 52 room building, once a Poor Home, now a Historical Museum,and if it died tomorrow,, we'd buy another. Yes it works that well. We are also removing the glazig around the glass, and on glazing,,It's amazing!! The calked in glasses,,, eh. And "someone" loved calking in glass. It's not the fastest tool out there, but with fast comes fire and broken glass, 2 things we don't want. Also it's highly portable, which means we can strip woodwork and doors, after the windows. It you've got a paint removal project with detail workor need to change a bunch of glazed in window panes, look hard at this tool.