Aoyue 2703A+ Soldering Rework Station

[KungFuJosh]

I've seen a lot of posts and discussion about soldering irons and stations, and in them, a lot of contempt for lesser known brands.

Well, I've had my Aoyue 2703A+ Soldering Rework Station since October of 2017. It's seen countless hours of use and abuse, and I'm still happy with it.

The heating element in the desoldering iron finally died a couple weeks ago, after nearly 6 years of use typically desoldering at 440C. I replaced it for $15 and it's back in business.

I love that the heating element is built into the soldering tips (I usually use that around 330C), so I never have to worry about that either. One time, I was soldering with an older tip for a few hours straight. I eventually broke the tip off. Apparently, you're supposed to give the tips a break every hour or so. Oops. Slipped a new tip in and got back to work.

I've used the hot air for SMT work for a variety of project sizes, from simple 0603, 0805, etc. to chips in 10-pin VSSOP packages.

After a couple years (in July 2019), the soldering iron wasn't heating up as it should, so I bought an FG 100 Soldering Tip Thermometer and recalibrated the soldering station. It was all done through the front panel buttons, nice and simple. Though I forgot how already, and will need to look at the manual when it comes time to calibrate again. I'm not getting any younger.

I bought the tweezers that can be used in place of the soldering iron, but I haven't used them because I would need to recalibrate to compensate for the new device, and my soldering iron gets used too much for me to do that. I might do it eventually to test it out, but there's no point right now, especially when I generally use hot air for SMT.

Support for Aoyue here in the US (at least on the right coast) is done through sra-solder.com. They've been nothing but fantastic. This past December, there was an issue where the metal ball in the air pressure gauge got stuck, and I couldn't get air flow anymore. I asked SRA about the issue, they said not to worry about it and sent me a replacement gauge for free. They didn't need to do that, but their support is awesome, and they've always been great whenever I contacted them. For the record, it was determined that the ball in the gauge was the issue, because when I hit it in the face with a giant rubber mallet, it loosened the ball and would operate as expected. I found that hilarious, and shared that information with SRA, who suggested sending me the replacement. 🤣🤣

When I bought the station, it was $299. Now in 2023 it's $379. Years ago, I really wanted the Hakko equivalent because that's a "better" brand. The closest Hakko equivalent is the FM206 series, and that will cost at least $2200, with no tips, and still only 1 year warranty. For that price, I could buy 5 more of these Aoyue units, except I don't need to because this one still works great. Though I fully admit, it's not as pretty as the Hakko. 🤷

The only thing I would really do differently, is the soldering iron's smoke extractor. It's usually fine, and hasn't been a big enough pain in the ass for me to change it yet. It does run through the tiny carbon filter on the front of the unit, but sometimes the metal vacuum tip that hangs over the soldering iron tip gets in the way. I will eventually try and use some kind of external ventilation / extraction and leave the built-in pump dedicated to the desoldering iron. Then I can remove the entire vacuum tip and hose from the soldering iron. Laziness and procrastination see that taking a while to happen though. Until then, I do like the smoke not getting in my face so much. I can mutilate the soldering iron attachment without worry, the replacement is only about $20.

Anyway, this review wasn't requested, I'm not affiliated with either company, and I don't benefit at all by posting this. I just wanted to share my experience because not everybody can afford the bigger brands, but should still be able to get a solid / reliable station. I've been through a lot of stations over the years from Madell, RadioShack, X-tronic, etc. I don't recommend any of those. 😉

[slavoy]

I took a look at the teardown, and I must admit that it's a quite decent piece of equipment. All the components are through-hole, and there is no SMPS, only a transformer. The inside appears to be well-assembled, and the housing is made of aluminum profiles.
Cartridge tips should work pretty well. If the desoldering gun is ok, it appears to be a quite nice combo. Although I'm not a fan of compressor-based hot air and that handle with an additional tube for fume extraction doesn't seem very comfortable.
Not bad overall.

[KungFuJosh]

The desoldering gun is fantastic. Not having it while waiting for the heating element was a real bummer. I tried desoldering wick, and a Velleman electric heated desoldering pump I had, and just threw that crap out and waited for the heating element to arrive. Now I've got 2 spare heating elements for it, assuming I can find them in 5 or 6 years when this one burns out.

It's well made, and not bad to take apart either. Replacing that front panel gauge was the trickiest part, but still not that bad. I disassembled the rest of it quite a bit before figuring out the sticky ball was the problem. I'm wise enough to take photos of things before disconnecting anything. 😉

[plazma]

I bought the previous model 2702 model about 10 years ago. It have worked well. My main soldering irons are two Metcal units. Nowadays I mainly use the hotair and desoldering gun of the 2702 unit.

[KungFuJosh]

I bought the previous model 2702 model about 10 years ago. It have worked well. My main soldering irons are two Metcal units. Nowadays I mainly use the hotair and desoldering gun of the 2702 unit.

Still in service after 10 years isn't bad either way. Especially not for the price 10 years ago. What do you like about the Metcal units? I thought their MX-5251 looks nice, but costs almost 3 times as much with no hot air.