$50 Hot Air Station

[daveyk]

Anyone have experience with these $50 hot air stations? Heck they look nice:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/191557453776



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[Brumby]

I have something similar for about 2 years now.  The hot air seems reasonable.  However the iron on mine is not crash hot.  There is a significant air gap between the element and the tip, which really messes up the thermal capacity, so it doesn't get used much (at all, really) - especially when I have a better iron on the bench.  When I bought the unit, I looked at getting a spare element and found it was different to similar irons and while you can get replacements, they are not nearly as common.  Haven't needed to replace the element yet - but that's hardly surprising since I don't use the iron.  I have thought about getting a better iron that is electrically compatible - but I'm not motivated to muck around with that since I have a better iron right next to it.  So I pretty much only use if for hot air.

The iron also had one small issue which showed the level of quality of the unit:



When I pointed this out to the seller, we went through a little dance on how to deal with it, which eventually worked out to me getting a partial refund.  I bought a replacement plug from Jaycar to swap over, but I haven't fitted it yet.

I did do the "Don't turn it on, take it apart!" to check out the internal construction - always a good idea on cheap Chinese stuff.  While it wasn't aerospace quality, it was reasonable for the price and - more importantly - safe enough to use.

It doesn't get a lot of use - but seems to be functional.  You get what you pay for.

[Jono427]

Looks like the hot air is the same (or similar) to this stand alone one.  I grabbed a similar one, but haven't done work with it yet (just heat shrink).  As Brumby said "Don't turn it on, take it apart!" - just look at the thread below too.  Mine was fine and better than what Dave got in hid video.



https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/deadly-wiring-fault-atten-858d-hot-air-rework-station/

[WaveyDipole]

I've had my 858D for a few months now although I have only used it a handful of times so am still a relative novice. Since I already have a decent Weller iron, I only needed the hot air gun rather than a complete station. Besides, since my desk space is very limited, the less space used the better. I did take mine apart to examine before first use and did find a couple of problems. In particular, the fuse was on the neutral rather than the live AC input line so even if the fuse blew, the circuit would have been left connected to live. Also its worth checking all ground connections. However these issues are not difficult to fix. I initially practiced on a couple of old boards that I hadn't yet disposed of to get the hang of using it, although I'm still trying to get a feel for the optimum temperature and fan speed settings, which I'm sure will come with more experience. I think it does seem to depend to some extent on the type of solder used on the board but for most part seems to work very well. I also find that you have to leave it running for 3-4 minutes to get up to temperature properly before using it.