Appreciation post: That cheap hot air station I bought from Amazon

Spent $40 on a no-name hot air station last year expecting it to die in a week, but it's still going strong after 200+ board repairs. It even reflowed a stubborn GPU connector on a 2015 MacBook yesterday without any issues. Anyone else had a budget tool surprise them like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo23616d ago

You had the same luck I did? My $35 station has been my main tool for two years now. Replaced the heating element once for like eight bucks after I dropped it, but the thing just won't die. I did find out the hard way that you gotta let the temp settle for a minute before you trust the display, otherwise you'll cold solder a joint and wonder why it looks like crap. Also, the included nozzles are junk, but a cheap set of replacement ones from a different random brand fixed that.

spencer_moore3916d ago

Glad I'm not the only one who got lucky with one of those cheap stations. I had the same thing happen with the temp display being off, drove me crazy for a week until I figured out to wait a bit. The nozzles thing is spot on too, the ones that came with mine started flaking after a month. I grabbed a random pack off Amazon and they fit perfect and work way better. It's almost funny how these cheap tools can be solid if you just work around their quirks.