Arts & Crafts Net Canada Review Freestyle Cordless Glue Gun
“Great Things Come in Small Packages!”
We at A&CNet, (Arts & Crafts Net Canada), count it a pleasure to serve the Art & Craft Community. We don’t normally do reviews, but glue guns are used by such an overwhelming majority of our market that we couldn’t think of any reason why not to. After putting the FreeStyle through its paces, this is one product we highly recommend to EVERYONE!
So where does one start on reviewing a glue gun? How shall I use thee? Let me count thy ways…
I have family members and co-workers that are artists and crafters. We were originally going to review how the FreeStyle performed in their particular fields of expertise… But as soon as we did a “walk-about”, around the house, the garage, the car, the office and the craft workshop, we realized the applications were endless. I challenge you to buy one of these, and then do your own “walk-about” and see how many good uses you end up putting this to.
The ColdHeat FreeStyle is an easy-to-use glue gun that’s ideal for both the serious and casual crafter, the hobbyist and do-it-yourself enthusiast.
All glue guns are not created equal – The FreeStyle’s combination of functionality, ease of use and great performance set it apart from its competitors. Great things DO come in small packages!
It's cordless, portable, rechargeable, and melts glue fast surprisingly fast! It is a general, all-purpose, non-industrial-duty glue gun that’s perfect for working on arts and craft projects, and doing small repairs around the home, office, or workshop. If ColdHeat ever offers a competition for the most unique application of their glue gun, I’ve got at least a half dozen that I’m sure they haven’t thought of before!
The FreeStyle comes with a built-in stand, a sample pack of low-temperature mini glue sticks, a charger, rechargeable battery pack, AC adapter, and a better-than-average Instruction Manual & Idea booklet.
OUR TEST RESULTS: “This is NOT your typical glue gun!”
Appearance, Size, Ergonomics –
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The FreeStyle glue gun’s design immediately reminded us of a miniature cordless drill, with the removable battery-pack attached to the bottom of the gun handle. It has a two-finger trigger, and a cool-looking horizontal glue chamber with a clear window to indicate when you should add another stick (which nonetheless is easy to tell anyway when the trigger stops releasing glue, but it’s kind of cool if not a bit high-tech looking).
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First impressions tend to be lasting ones – Our first impression was that this glue gun was both well designed, stylish, and NOT your typical traditional glue gun. Its sleek ergonomic design has a smooth plastic finish and features a soft rubberized pistol grip. While the rubber isn’t really meant to add any cushioning to the handle, it definitely increases the amount of grip on the areas where you hold the Freestyle. The gun has a comfortable contoured trigger mechanism for reduced hand strain, and the multi-finger trigger is easy to squeeze. (2 fingers for big hands, 3 for smaller hands or children.)
* Recommendation: It’s a very minor point, but until a user is familiar with the gun’s usage, it is possible to pinch one’s 3rd finger below the trigger… I suspect a slight design change could easily eliminate that possibility. -
The battery power pack attaches and detaches easily from the handle, and fits into the external charger with no trouble whatsoever. The battery is shaped so that it will fit in only one direction within the charger… For those of us who tend to over-tighten things or force square pegs into round holes, you can’t make a mistake with this one. The charging unit, itself, is only slightly larger than the battery so it takes up very little desk space.
Weight –
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Compared to other glue guns we’ve used over the years, the FreeStyle is lightweight, even with its attached battery. It’s so light, that younger children working on crafts shouldn’t have any trouble using it with their smaller hands. The opinion of our staff here is that the advantageous cordless design and portability of the Freestyle, far outweighs the small bit of additional weight a user has when the battery pack is attached to the base of the handle. It feels well balanced in the hand.
Durability –
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Users wouldn’t normally be pushing it off their workshop table, but we purposely did a half dozen times …without any problem whatsoever… It appears to be quite durable and rugged and should easily stand the test of any normal usage wear and tear.
Time To Heat-Up –
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It’s great when a company doesn’t exaggerate their specs. ColdHeat states it will heat up in 1 to 3 minutes, depending upon the remaining battery charge. We found with a fully-charged battery that the gun was ready for use in less than a minute — which is quite impressive and considerably faster than any other glue gun I’ve ever used. It’s essentially so fast that it’s basically ready as soon as you’re prepared to use it — and that’s very convenient for an impatient guy like me. As the battery starts to lose its charge it could take up to 3 minutes to heat up, which is right in line with its spec.
Time To Cool Down –
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The Freestyle also melts glue at a lower temperature than many other high-heat glue guns that use the very hot glue types. This helps the glue cool faster, too.
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I would think that a parent would be much more confident in allowing their children to use it (under supervision, depending upon their age), and as long as they are also warned not to touch the metal tip on the gun.
Temperature Settings –
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When you turn the gun on, you can select either a low or high temperature setting. The low setting activates a low-intensity white LED below the nozzle which tells you that unit is on. The high setting activates a higher-intensity white LED which indicates that the gun is on and it also doubles as an LED work lamp. While the LED wouldn’t serve as a flashlight in a dark room, it’s bright enough for a bit of “spot illumination” on your work area. It’s actually quite handy, depending what you’re working on.
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With either temperature setting the glue melting performance of the gun appears to be the same. (i.e. the mini glue sticks will work well with either low or high heat.)
Tip Burn Protector –
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The FreeStyle has a tip burn protection shield. The shield is rubbery and minimizes the amount of hot surface that might be exposed to a user inadvertently. You can’t burn yourself with this gun the way you could with most high-temperature glue guns that have a more exposed tip. But even though this gun heats its glue at a lower temperature, it’s still mighty hot! DO NOT confuse the manufacturer’s name and their other ”cold heat“ products with the FreeStyle --- the tip is HOT NOT COLD by any means, and should never be touched while the gun is being used.
Glue Control & Flow –
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We found the FreeStyle to be a very accurate for glueing delicate repairs or intricate projects. And it doesn’t drip anywhere near as much as other guns we’ve used. I suspect this may have something to do with a user’s experience and of course, following direction,s and using the gun for what it was designed.
Tip Glue Build-Up –
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Minimal --- The rubberized shield around the tip serves as insulation which helps prevent burns if you accidentally brush against the tip. But it also reduces the amount of melted glue that inevitably builds and sticks to the tip of any glue gun. It’s been considerably messier with any other glue guns we’ve ever used, where their tips are like magnets to any sloppy gluing technique. With the FreeStyle, it’s far easier to keep the tip clean. Even after some hours of use, you could barely tell that our FreeStyle had even been used!
Stability of the Stand –
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The FreeStyle glue gun has a built-in flipable wire stand similar to all glue guns. The rubberized footing sleeve on the bottom of the stand stabilizes it, preventing the glue gun from sliding around, and keeps it from tipping over easily if inadvertently bumped. It flips down to support the gun with a bit of a locking action. It properly angles it downward so the glue does not back up into the glue chamber. It’s the perfect angle for picking up or parking the glue gun.
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For a few delicate tasks we found that keeping the stand flipped-out enabled us to actually use the stand as an excellent “pivot point” for accurately doing some pinpoint spot gluing or gluing in a straight line (by pulling it backwards, of course). If we tried to do it freehand we wouldn’t have done as perfect a job.
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And like all glue guns, if you’re sloppy at glueing, it can be a bit drippy from the nozzle when it sits on the stand. If you’re not sloppy, there’s next to nothing for dripping!
* Recommendation: As long as the glue wouldn’t run back into the chamber, it would be nice if the bottom of the battery when attached to the handle, was totally flat and slightly weight-balanced so that the gun could stand on it more reliably. Due to a protruding plastic strengthening ridge on the battery bottom, it makes the gun somewhat wobbly if you attempt to stand it upright on the handle. Granted, this is not likely to be an intended way to rest the gun, but some people might prefer this. One of our people preferred this to the stand. Actually, there’s no way the gun would ever drip when the nozzle is pointing up when standing on its battery base like this. Applying some sticky rubber feet to the bottom of the battery might in fact work quite well to stabilize the gun.
