Hot Air Gun 858D 700W BGA Rework Solder Station Soldering Heat Gun Station 110V For SMD SMT Welding Repair Tools

After the safety related horror stories about miswired clones and failing shutoffs I decided to spend a few dollars more on the Yihua 959D hot air station. (I've also been very happy with their 939D+ soldering station). Unit had fuse and switch on the right power plug terminal, case was well grounded and temperature calibration was within 10 degrees F of my NIST traceable kitchen thermometer. And it had readable directions in English. Heat shuts off and wand cools down ONLY when placed in cradle. (Suspect a magnetic sensor, likely a reed switch). Should be reliable long term. Build quality seemed good on case and PC boards, had heat sinks on power regulators and internal cables were well done. Had no trouble swapping 20 pin QFN with ground plane thermal pad underneath. I think I've become a fan of these guys.Wish I'd bought the combo unit when I got the soldering iron! Who knew I'd be doing SMDs so soon!

Works so far... could do with a much smaller case. Waste of materials and space when it could've been the size of a small book.

This device works great for me. I use it on heat shrink solder butt connectors. They need 200°C and this device can be set to exactly that. I also use this at 170°C to quickly clean up strings on my 3D prints. I've used it a few times to heat and remove then re-solder quad smt chips.

At this price, I wasn’t expecting much, just something for occasional use. It does work - the temperature and air speed are both adjustable. It’s not terribly fast to reach temp. I’m impressed that the wand has a magnetic switch so that when the wand is placed in the holder, it turns off the heat and lets the blower run for a bit. As soon as the wand is lifted, the heat and blower are turned back on. The case is sturdy, it’s metal everywhere except the front.But, there are some problems. The case wasn’t grounded - there’s a screw that’s supposed to ground it, but the case anodization seems to prevent this. The wand is grounded. Internally, it’s not very robust and things look crusty with some leftover flux and slop in the assembly (see pic). There seem to be signs of corrosion despite this unit being produced just 6 months ago (see pic of date sticker). Some of the corrosion was nearly bridging one of the chips.

Easy to work with. Not sure how accurate the temperature readings are. At this low price I am sure they are not accurate.

I took my unit apart before using it to confirm wiring. I can say that my unit:* was wired correctly* was grounded at the case and tip* was NOT grounded at the metal ring on the front panel* did have a fuse* did have a transformer* did not have a chopped into fan* did have properly attached wiring to the heating element* was not rusty/corroded inside* soldering looked fine (not dull, cracked)* the tips fit properlyI was worried, based on reviews and teardowns of other 858d units, that I would get a death machine. My unit seems well made (for the price) and safe enough for my standards.I will point out that some reviews say this unit does not have a transformer, but it does. The inside is a different design than some 858d reviews. It does not have the large transformer present in those versions. It has a transformer on the circuit board (it's yellow).Hard to beat for the price.

Fan in wand worked for thirty seconds and then stopped. Wand continued to heat up and over heated. Sent back unit and purchased a different model.

Updated again:I brought it back to life by replacing the blower in the handpiece. The new 5015-size blower cost about $6. You should regard 858D-style instruments as kits that will fail from time to time and need troubleshooting. If you want a tool that just works and works and works, you'd better look elsewhere and be ready to spend ten times as much.Updated review:It died after about 3 hours total use, spread out over a couple weeks. Blower failed.Original review for the record:For occasional light-duty hobby use, you can't beat it.It reaches setpoint temperature in a reasonable time and maintains temp okay. (Note the display reverts to setpoint once it hits; I measured it with an external thermocouple.)There was good ground continuity from power cord to cabinet to handpiece.Don't ever disconnect the handpiece while the power is on, there's a shock hazard at the panel-mount male connector.The supplied US power cord is wired backwards, neutral vs. hot; I threw it out and used a standard IEC cord so hot goes through the fuse and the switch.The fan intake screen had some over-mold that I whittled out with a hobby knife. I probably didn't have to do that.