Speedheater paint remover is the holy grail of paint removing tools. At over $400 I was skeptical, but after I removed 124 years of paint and varnish on a 9FT solid redwood door with only one pass I was speechless and a believer. Nothing, not even the most toxic of removers have performed this well. This product is ideal for flat surfaces. Detail work takes a lot of practice and patience, but it's still incredibly effective. read more

Spent a lot of money on this tool, it overheats after 45 minutes of working and it most be cooled down. To get it working again. the bulbs stop working on it for a weekend and must be replaced at additional cost of over $120 including shipping. Dont waste your money get something else. When asked the owner cathernine to speak to techincal support she refuses, saying it must be sent in for repair. What type of customer care is this.. read more

I am refinishing all of my interior doors, and needed a tool to remove a hundred years of paint from each. Jasco wasn't the solution, so I researched and purchased the SpeedHeater from Eco-Strip. Watch their promotional videos, the product does everything that they demonstrate. It's a bit pricy at $500, but it's made the work much cleaner, easier and reduced the time it takes me to refinish by close to half. The unit isn't as robust as I had expected. It fell off my work surface several times breaking one the the infrared bulbs, and the on/off switch. I contacted Eco-Strip, and spoke with Catherine the owner. She instructed me on how to package up the unit and then arranged for FedEx to pick it up. It was repaired under warranty, and back to me within 4wks. This includes in-transit time from California to Virginia. The replacement switch is much better quality than the one that came with the original unit. Very seldom these days do you find a product that does everything that the seller describes. The warranty service that I received was amazing. read more

This company has the best customer service I've seen in a long time! Catherine answered question after question about the SpeedHeater infrared paint stripper, on multiple phone calls. I had done A LOT of chemical stripping about 30 years ago, but never worked with a heat gun or power strippers (Just as well; my old house--an 1890's victorian--had a lot of lead paint. And here I am again, working on an 1880's victorian, also with lead paint.) So I was pretty nervous getting started. Catherine walked me through the process of buying a safety mask, and the necessary preparation. (If you already have PPE the set-up is pretty easy and quick.) Her explanations of how to use the tool were clear and thorough. This is someone who has obviously used it a lot and knows the technique. There's a bit of a learning curve in knowing how long to apply the heat. It depends on your individual situation--type of paint, number of layers, ambient temperature. (I burned a spot while I was figuring it out.) But the SpeedHeater is much lighter and easier to handle than I had imagined. I used it on baseboards and a windowsill. Where it worked, it worked well. It took some areas right down to the wood quickly. I can see where this tool would be great for stripping clapboards. Unfortunately my under-layer was some kind of old primer that didn't want to move. Scraping was hard and only partially effective. It was more like dry-scraping. Unfortunately again, the top layer turned out to be latex, so coating with linseed oil to refresh the old paint didn't work. What a shame! This was a rental, but I would have definitely bought if it had worked. The cost of a new SpeedHeater is about the cost of 1 room-worth of the special lead paint strippers. And I could have used it for the whole house. There's a newer version called the Cobra that's only available in Europe right now. It looks easier to use for interior work than the 1100 model. I will be keeping a watch for when it's available here in the US, and may try again. It's such a good idea--no goop, no apply and wait, no lead vapor. read more