I have a trusty old heat gun which works great, however it's loud and has a very strong concentrated blast of heat.... it works perfectly and fast for typical embossing and also for use in shaping butterflies made from plastic packaging (the flow is small enough for me to concentrate it away from my fingers or tweezers and not get bured). I needed something however so that I could use it at night and not wake the whole family and also for use with UTEE (my old one would blow the UTEE right off before ever melting it). Yes this one is whisper quiet and it has a much larger spread on the heating which means it doesn't blow the powders off, I can't hold things and emboss them though as it burns my fingers. It also takes a bit of extra time to heat up but once it's hot it embosses as quickly as my old one.