IR Paint Stripper Infrared Tool - Spengar DIY Home Decorating - Quick Easy Safe - Best Way to Remove Paint & Varnish from Wood, Strip Furniture, Door, Window, Deck - Handheld

Ordered this about a month ago, but only just got round to using it.We are doing extensive home renovations, and want to strip all the door frames, the stairs, skirting boards… the works. Hubby started using a paint stripper. Not quick by any means. Messy, and expensive. I saw this bit of kit, did a bit of research, and decided it had to be worth trying.It takes about 5 minutes to heat up, although instructions say 10 minutes. The extra time quoted may well be ideal for older/newer paintwork. It really is a case of waiting around 30 seconds for the paint to start to bubble, then it scrapes straight off. On occasion I was just peeling it off with my fingers instead of scraping, as the paint literally comes off the wall like a rubbery sheet where it’s been treated. We found that paint over knots in the wood were a little harder to remove, but only necessitating an extra pass or two with a scraper.The speed of this thing is amazing. It worked like a dream, and without searing or burning the wood like a traditional paint gun. Far cheaper than paint stripping products too (assuming you’re doing a larger area, necessitating multiple bottles of the stuff).The unit itself isn’t the lightest thing I’ve used, but isn’t what I would describe as heavy. It’s lighter than our cordless drill, to give you an idea of the weight. I found my arm did ache a bit after a while, so I’d just switch hands. If I could make one change to the unit, I would look at finding a way to adjust it so there was a way to have the handle at the end, as well as on the side. Doing a door frame, I was holding it sideways to maximise the area being treated. If the handle had been at the end the weight would have been better distributed. That really is the only thing I would change. It’s still far easier than when we were using paint stripper gel, and scraping the woodwork until it was clean. On some occasions we had to do a second pass with the gel, but not with this stripper!It’s amazing, I love it. We have had a few trades in doing works on the house who have also seen it in action and been impressed!

Easy to use, works good.Wish it could be used from a 10-12mm distance (as in manual). The on/off and led should be on the other side (according to me), when you use it it can accidently be turned off and you don't see it. But this is a minor problem.The Stripper seems very durable and works very well. Fully satisfied.

I bought one of these guys for stripping a lot of paint in a house I've just bought. It's very effective for stripping paint from large, flat areas. It takes a little getting used to: you have to get into the habit of holding the machine against one area while stripping paint from the area you've previously heated. The machine is not a complete replacement for a heat gun, however, because the heated element can't fit into corners and small areas. That said, this product is very good at what it does: it saves a lot of time when stripping large areas compared to using a heat gun alone.

Very light, felt a lot safer than a heat gun.Paint scraped off easier than I expected, which helped with the clean up. Great little tool, saved me some time

We have an air pollution sensor in my partner's room (where the device was being used). The sensor is on a windowsill, and the window was open (of course, as we ventilated the house while using the device). We only used it for a few minutes, as it was quickly evident that the fumes caused were unsafe.While I was using it on one layer of paint, particulates increased to 300 mcg/l. When my partner used it on multiple layers of paint, they spiked to 1000 mcg/l. There is no safe level of air pollution, but normal levels in this location are 5 mcg/l. A level of 100 mcg/l is considered to be very high. And levels would actually have been much higher where the device was, as of course the fumes would be diluted at the sensor (which was on the other side of the room, by an open window).We were using it as directed, i.e. only until the paint was just pliable/smoking/bubbling, as the manual states. The longest it was on any one area was 12 seconds (also as directed; between 10-20 seconds).So this device is inherently unsafe and should not be on sale. It is not possible to safely ventilate that level of air pollution (even outdoors), and besides, even if the fumes disperse, they are still doing harm wherever they end up. Particulates stay in the body causing damage for a long time after being inhaled, so this one short exposure could affect our health for years.So I immediately sent it back, and we went back to using the eco chemical paint stripper I had used previously. Which is slower, but far less harmful; particulates peak at about 30 mcg/l using that method.It also wasn't easy to use anyway; the executive functioning and co-ordination skills required to scrape one area while also heating another (if you put it down in between instead, you are wasting all that energy) were beyond my capacity. And the softening effect didn't seem to last long after removing the heat; the eco chemical stripper I use might take longer to work, but once it has (and you don't have to be there holding something during that time), the paint is easier to remove.

I was really impressed with this tool! First of it’s light weight, foldable and collapses down for easy storage. The warmup time is quick, about 5 minutes and it’s good to use. I was a bit dubious about the description claims of how effective it was at stripping paint from wood, but honestly you need to see this working with your own eyes. After hovering the tool’s infrared ceramic element about half an inch over the painted wood for 20-30 seconds you see the paint bubble and rise away from the wood, then with a quick scrape the paint comes off down to the bare wood itself. I tried it on my kitchen doorframe and managed to strip all sides within about 40 minutes. It also feels oddly therapeutic, paint stripper in one hand, scraper in the other and before you know it you’ve blasted through a job that would normally take x3-x4 times longer! I’d no idea something like this existed, massive time saver, easy to use, clean and store away.