Another thank you from my end to everyone contributing to this thread. It was the top google hit for my search when my 853D hot air died, and ultimately helped be recover.
Reviving the thread because I believe I also have some more information for others that might find it the same way I did.
I found it very hard to find the replacement fan for the "YHFS HDS-501524H" used in my S218A hot air handle. the price for just the fan was actually almost as expensive as ordering a brand new S218A from Amazon - so I did that. Unfortunately, when I hooked it up to my 853D, the fan was killed within the first 40 seconds as I was testing higher speed. :/
With now two dead hot air handpieces I decided something must be wrong with the base itself. So I took a dive into the schematics from above, and though I have a slightly different PCB version again (853D_USB_ZB_V6) the fan circuit is essentially the same.
Yet, I noticed that the two SMD resistors before and after the potentiometer, R8 was 15k and the other was 12k. The values would match the circuit, but they were swapped against the original design.
12k was going to ground and 15k to the TIP122. This leads to the voltage on the fan exceeding 28V and I believe is the cause for some dead units out there.

When I swapped the resistors, the voltage was reliably limited to 22ish volts.
With that fixed I had to tackle the fans:
24V 5015 fans are easy to get a hold of, but 3-wire ones are pretty rare.
I tried to non-destructively open the fan, but it broke anyway. This revealed the broken chip within, a OCS477H Single Phase Intelligent Hall Effect DC Fan Driver.
I had some other 24v fans as spare for my 3d printer, so I took one of them apart and it had a similar chip within. So I soldered that in my original fan, and sure enough it started working again.
A little superglue plus some decent amount of hot glue and the fan came back together. it might not hold forever, but it's good for the time being. Hot glue seems to be counter intuitive in a hot air station, but as it's on the intake fan, I think it should be fine.
Taking the fan apart, also revealed a second repair approach, by adding a third cable to a two-wire fan.
This is what the motor looks inside


Just drill a small hole in the back of the fan, and solder the sensor cable to one of the coil connector solder points.

It was easy for me to find the right spot with the broken one to use as a template, but the solder points were actually visible from the side.
You just need to make sure to find the one that is not the FAN+
The "ears" on the enclosing for mounting with a screw were easily removed with a saw.
I tested both methods, and they work similarly well.
Edit: formatting trouble with the images