Hakko 851-2 Does not get hot enough

[hpxca]

Hi There,
I don't have any experience with hot air rework stations but I wanted to give it a try. I bought a used Hakko 851-2 at a good price, I was eyeing the 810 but it was pretty expensive new.

I was fairly sure when I tested this unit out that it was not getting hot enough, but because of the pandemic I could not test it indoors and had to test it in my garage in sub-zero ambient temperatures so it was fairly hard to be sure. Given the potential issues with it I negotiated an even better price for it and bought it off the guy.

I brought it in and tried to remove (without any flux) a 1206 cap off a junk PCB I had. No dice, the cap didn't budge and the solder didn't melt even with both the air and the temperature at maximum. I tried for over 5 minutes and I could not get it to even melt the solder, let alone remove the cap. Due to my inexperience I really have no point of reference on if I am just "doing it wrong" or if the device is faulty. As this is an analog station there is only one light by the heater knob which is solid red for a very short time then starts to flash red. I'm guessing (but do not know for sure) that the flashing red means it believes that it is up to temperature, while solid red indicates heating. The manual is completely unhelpful only saying that the light is on when it has power. Can anyone with one of these confirm the behavior of this light?

The airflow of the device seems reasonable so if it is not working odds are the problem is either the heater or the temperature control board. Is there any way to confirm which is actually the issue? The heater seems more likely, statistically speaking.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Andrew8088]

I just pulled out my new hakko 851 (maybe 10hours) and it is doing the same, when I set it to max the light stays on and it heats up. But other than that the light just flashes. when I have time I will check the pot and wires to torch. as it is low hours I would thing it would be something simple like that.

I will be free in January, if you want to take a day figure it out

[Andrew8088]

Mine spent some time in cold storage over last winter since last I used it