I use hot glue. A lot. And the projects on this blog? 99.9% of them use hot glue in some way, shape, or form. Hot glue is the perfect solution when you don’t have much time, but need something to stick quick. The drawback, of course, is that hot glue guns need to be plugged into an electrical outlet in order to operate.

That’s fine if you’re making a project at your desk. But not so fine when you need to glue projects for 22 kids and their caregivers. During out workshops, kids either have to carry their projects to hot glue stations, or I have to walk around the program area, dragging a cumbersome daisy chain of extension cords behind me.

That was why I was so very, very excited to learn that hot glue guns were going cordless.

Today, I’m reviewing the Imaginisce i●bond cordless hot glue gun. It retails for around $30 and requires 4 AA batteries to operate. I’ll cut to the chase…it doesn’t really work that well. The Imaginisce burns through batteries like crazy. Just one hour of use and the batteries are dead (I tested this twice, with new batteries each time). Also, the batteries just don’t seem to have the same oomph my plug in glue guns have. The glue isn’t as hot, and it dries quicker with less adhesive properties. I tested this with the glue sticks that came with the gun, and with another brand of stick.

Interestingly, Imaginisce added an LED light to the end of their glue gun, presumably to illuminate your work area. But if you’re working in sunlight or with a light on, you can already see your area clearly, right? Unless you like to craft in the dark?

So the LED light wasn’t very useful. Mostly, it allowed me to take cool pictures like this:

I will admit, the cordless aspect of the glue gun was sheer heaven. I could go anywhere! No dragging cords! No knocking things over on my desk! But the trade off was a glue gun that didn’t heat up or last very long. If, however, you have a small job to do in a limited amount of time, the Imaginisce glue gun could work for you. But I since I use my glue guns for heavy construction, this cordless model’s batteries just didn’t produce.

Looks like I’ll remain tethered for the time being.