Quick TR-1

[Damp_Cuttlefish]

Hi all, first time poster so please forgive me if I've bungled any vital forum etiquette.
I couldn't find any reviews and hardly any info about this thing on the English internet, so I thought I'd pick one up and share.

What is it?
The TR-1 is an all in one air gun, no base unit, the handle plugs straight into the wall.
It claims 1000W of heat at 100-550c, and 55L/min flow.

Where can I get one?
I bought mine from China Phonefix (https://www.diyfixtool.com/products/quick-tr1-portable-1000w-air-gun-smart-heating-soldering-tool), but it's also on Aliexpress and unionrepair.com.
I paid £87 plus £14 shipping, it turned up in about a week.
It's available in 220v and 110v variants, mine is a 220v which arrived with an unfused type I plug.

What's inside?
Dissasembly is nice and easy, the plastic guard around the hot end unscrews, and the air inlet the other end twists and pulls off.
This reveals two 6 screws to be removed, then the whole casing splits in two.

The casing is a little thin and flimsy, and there doesn't seem to be much seperating the hot nozzle from it.
It lets down an otherwise fairly solid product I'd say, especially with 220v and an alleged 6A flowing inside.

There's a control board with the buttons,display and an STM32 running the show.
A stacked power board looks to have a rectifier, an enourmous cap, SMPS and driver for the fan motor
The third board appears to handle switching power to the heater.

The fan motor is a mains voltage brushless contraption.
The heater looks to be wire around a ceramic core with some kind of temperature sense down the middle.
Power connections look solid enough, mains earth runs straight through to the nozzle, cable has decent overmoulded strain relief.

What's it like to use?

The controls are straightforward, power button turns on and off, settings button switches between flow and temp, +/- adjusts in 5 degree increments.
Current temperature is displayed normally and set temperature when adjusting.

It's a bit of a handful at 30cm long, but not unmanageable.
The cable is reasonably flexible, and hopefully will loosen up with use.

Nozzles can be hot swapped with a pair of pliers or silicone pad.
It heats quickly, and automatically cools before turning off.
Looking down the nozzle, the heating element visibly pulses red at about 5Hz. Not sure what that's doing for the life of the heater, but the air tempt at the output feels stable.

The noise is more like a laptop fan than a traditional air gun, on low it's nice and quiet and at full whack it's no louder than a hair dryer.

I'm not currently equipped to check calibration, and whether the specs are truthful, but so far I'm impressed.
It's not as nice to use as a proper bench top set up, but for work on the go its more capable than anything I've seen.

I'll update this once I've given it a bit more use, let me know if there's anything you'd like to know or tests you want to see.

[thm_w]

Thanks for the photos and review.
It looks good, did you measure power consumption? How heavy does it feel?

Main issue seems to be potential weak plastic where the metal mounts to the unit and long length of the handle, as you say.
Still might be good for heatshrink or as a general purpose precision heatgun.

[mrisco]

I'll update this once I've given it a bit more use, let me know if there's anything you'd like to know or tests you want to see.

Hi, any update, how it is working?

[thm_w]

Saw some alternatives but quality is nowhere near the quick:
Yihua 8858IV: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805913198203.html
JCD 8208: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807081457007.html

Bit of use here, not english:

[Damp_Cuttlefish]

Sorry for leaving you all in suspense, I was waiting until I had a bit more to say but I think it's been long enough that I better say something.

I can't really say much for reliability as it still hasn't seen any heavy use, but I can confirm it's still alive and kicking.
It's probably had about 20 minutes use per week since the initial review, though that does include a fair bit of travel thrown unprotected in a tool bag.
Usage has been mainly rework on small (~3x5cm) boards, along with a bit of heat shrink and glue removal.

It doesn't feel any more flimsy than when it arrived, no cracks, rattles or signs of weakening. The plastic over the display scratches pretty easily, but it's still perfectly legible.

Hands on experience has been generally good, with only one main exception.
- Heat output and control is still great, easily beats the RS branded benchtop units I use, though I haven't had a chance to compare side by side with anything more upmarket
- The size hasn't been as much of a nuisance as I thought. Very quickly adjusted to it and never had any real problems

The biggest downside so far is the noise.
It's not massively loud, but the high frequency components really start to grate after a few minutes.
The design puts the noisy exhaust a lot closer to your ears than a typical set up, so in use it's louder than a simple side by side test might suggest.
Lastly, since the original review it's developed a bit of a squeal at about 75% fan speed. I don't know if this is to be expected, or a result of my hasty re-assembly, but it's annoying enough to make me avoid that speed range entirely.

I wouldn't say it feels heavy in the hand, but there is noticeably more weight at the cable end than a remote blower unit, so it can feel a little unbalanced.
The tradeoff is that the cable is much more flexible than a typical tube, so overall it still feels easy to position.
I'm on the road at the moment, but I'll get it on the scales and post the actual weight here when I next get the chance .

Overall, as an occasional use or travel tool I still wholly recommend it.
For a more permanent set up, especially in a shared space the noise would probably be enough to put me off.

[Damp_Cuttlefish]

Just another quick updated (No pun intended).

Today after a few days of fairly intense use it tried to stop dead from max speed, nearly twisting the thing out of my hand.
The screen displayed ERROR H-E, then seemingly went back to normal.

Popped it apart, and after bit of poking around it seems one of the heater connections, a very small crimped pin/socket arrangement, had worked it's way loose.
Presumably the motor stop was the firmware forgetting to drive the motor whilt it worked out what had gone wrong.

Plugged it back in, and whilst it was open put a thin bead of hot glue around the impeller. Seems to have reduced the noise a fair bit, and there are no longer any speed specific resonances.
Will report back if it all melts into the motor and makes a horrible mess, but for now seems ike a win.

I also noticed there's a new video review on youtube:

Seems to have decent calibration on his unit, and there's some others with experience in the comments prospective buyers may wish to check out.

[Worf_RB]

Hi there.

I've got a big TV screen that won't fit on my workbench and I need to change a badly oxidised zif connector on a board that can't be removed and I've discovered this portable air gun. What do you think? Will this help me with my task or are there better alternatives?

[Damp_Cuttlefish]

Will this help me with my task or are there better alternatives?

I don't know your situation, so apologies if this sounds obvious.

If you would be comfortable doing the job with a bench top air gun, but there isn't enough space to put the base unit then I'd say it's probably the best choice.
I'm not aware of anything better in this form factor, and I find it just as effective as any bench top I've used.

But if you could use a bench top, you'll be able to get the same performance for less.
And if you're not comfortable using an air gun for this kind of job I can't promise this will help