Users of the Haako FA-400 or Weller WSA350 Smoke Absorbers

[grahamreitz]

Hello,

Are there users of the Haako FA-400 or Weller WSA350 units that could comment if it performs satisfactorily?  If it's another unit please interject.  I have no experience with any of the bench top devices

It's difficult to find reviews to help differentiate the two beyond price.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ETBN9Q/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&m=A2QE1R98UNI0YZ
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EM74SK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Kindly,
Graham

[FenderBender]

Neither are worth $100+. A simple solution would be to get a large diameter PC fan. 140-250mm, mount it in a box, and put a HEPA filter behind it. And then holes on the other side of the filter for the exhaust.

[ciccio]

I have a similar one, but it is mostly un-useful:  for the smoke to be captured by the fan, the fan must be close to the soldering iron, and it will make your soldering job complicated. It will obstruct lighting and movement.
The "professional" systems use flexible pipes coming from a centralized aspirator system. The pipes are smaller and less obstructing.

I once bought a low cost (8 euros?) table lamp, 12 V ac from a transformer in the base , then removed the halogen lamp head and replaced it with a 80 mm pc fan, powered by the transformer, a diode and a series resistor.
It worked better than the dedicated unit (without any filter) to move the smoke away from my eyes and nose...
Sorry, I sold it some times ago, and I have no photos..

[SiBurning]

I keep it about 1' (30cm?) from the iron and it seems to work well. If the room is ventilated, it at least gets the direct fumes out of the way, and the air coming out the other side seems clean enough compared to what goes in.

I do agree, it seems expensive at $100us. The older Hakko 493 (which looks almost exactly like the Weller WSA350) comes up used frequently on ebay for about $25us. No HEPA filter, but there's a choice of charcoal or a better corrugated (?) box filter, though it looks like the corrugated ones are discontinued. The larger models with HEPA filters tend to be pricey and loud. Hakko uses a vacuum, and Weller (sounds like it) uses a pretty loud compressor. Replacement HEPA filters run around $80usd and up. You also want a prefilter with these to protect the HEPA filter. They're basically the filter used in the smaller models.

Overall, I tend to use the small fan for small jobs, even though I have both a Hakko and Weller HEPA thing.

[saturation]

You could also review this related thread, and the linked Hakko model is a better choice, and is on sale:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=5512.msg72219#msg72219

For my home lab I use a consumer grade 'air cleaner' for reasons mentioned in the thread.