X-tronic 8040

[Dawn]

  I've only had this unit about few months now I guess. The 4040 thread sort of pushed me into this direction as I really was intending to buy the
Aoyue 853. I've had excellent support with the US Ayoue dealer with their solid products and have already purchased quite a bit from them, so buying the 853 should have been a no brainer from what I've come to expect. A look at Amazon's 4040 page shows a lot of people very happy with Xtronic's customer service, so they must be doing something right even though Aoyue's 868A+ is a better deal and has more features.

 The difference between the units is minor and appear to be from the same progenitor. The unit size and heating bed is identical. They differ in that Aoyue for some reason has decided to change the board holder to the X type and originally had the same heavy clamp system the 8040 has...more on that later. In addition, the Xtronic has greater temperature range 100-370c vs 100-500c for the Xtronic and claim to be 1300W vs 600 for the Aouye 853. The Xtronic has digital up and down buttons and a cool switch unlike the Aoyue that only has a variable knob and on/off button. Their manual does not give any information on the heating and cooling ramp if any or if it has auto cool down when shut down. Xtronic doesn't give any either, but heat up is about a second/degree and cool down is also metered very slow, so apparently while not a published and documented profile, the Xtronic appears to have a basic ramping. Maybe the Aoyue does too, but they don't bother to tell you much about their unit in their .pdf manual either.

What really sold me though was the robust clamp board holder. Aoyue used to have one just like it and changed it to this X type which I consider to have been a major blunder. While I never used the
one on the 853, my Aoyue stand came with one mounted on the base board. It's cheap, flimsy and a royal pain to work with, but maybe a bit more versatile for odd boards such as round ones.

Price in the States is $109USD for the Aoyue plus about 14 bucks for shipping. The Xtronic is $99 complete and shipped with a desk ring light and component tweezers added to sweeten the deal. Sold.

So, the gripes. Not many really. It has a flimsy, ill fitting front decal for the unit that's already buckling instead of a screened front panel. Big whoop. That's about all I can fault it for. I can't take a peek inside without voiding their year warranty by breaking their seal, but from what I can see through the ventilation ports, it looks well made. The clamp works well, the boards hold nicely and it's a pleasure to work with. The display has two functions. Set temp that reverts to actual temp. There's a blinking decimal point that indicates the achieved working temp. While it's supposed to be more powerful with higher temps, in practice, it's not a big deal unless you're going to use it to cook your lunch too. I haven't been able to confirm the accuracy of the temp until I can get a thermocouple for my meter. I'm going to need something to monitor board temps anyways. I work in communications, so the 5.25" x 5.25" heating bed is appropriate for the boards I work on and can hold a much larger board if necessary. I haven't fried anything yet, but an independent thermocouple would have been a nice touch to this unit.

You can't argue that point for the price. It's a great deal in comparison to the 853. I've had no need for their support, but from the accolades found in reviews, I should be in good hands with a new unit shipped if this unit fails and the old returned at no charge during the warranty period. There's a good review on yootube by a guy called one hand tech that pretty much answered any question I had on the heating ramp and cool down.

 For now, I'd give this a best buy rating for anything in it's size class based on price and features and much better then working in an electric skillet. The magnifying light that comes with it is not a gimmic. It's actually useful with a second magnifier ground into the glass for a spot higher magnification. The bulb is odd and soldered in I've read, so replacement would be iffy unless they stock the bulbs or a source can be found. I've found myself using it a lot on my desk rather then the ringlite on my bench and have grown pretty fond of it for a something thrown in.