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Picked between a hot air station and a proper soldering iron for my bench last week
I was doing a repair on a 2017 Samsung TV board in my garage last Tuesday and kept burning pads with my cheap iron. I had to decide between dropping $200 on a Hakko FX-888D or getting a Yihua 852D hot air station for about the same price. I went with the hot air station because I do a lot of laptop motherboard work and figured it would help with those tiny SMD caps. First job was a busted HDMI port on a Dell and it worked like a charm. But now I'm stuck using my old iron for through-hole stuff and it's still garbage. Has anyone else found that hot air alone just doesn't cut it for certain jobs?
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the_fiona1mo ago
Picked up a used TS100 for like 35 bucks on eBay and it was a total game changer paired with that hot air station. Still use the iron way more day to day for headers and random wiring on boards.
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pat_hall871mo ago
Go grab a used Hakko 936 or even a basic TS100 pencil for like 40 bucks to pair with that hot air station. Hot air is great for reflowing and removing parts but you really need a decent iron for through-hole stuff and heavy ground planes on laptop boards. I use my iron way more than the hot air in day to day work, mostly for wiring and headers. A cheap iron will just keep giving you trouble especially on TV power supply boards with big solder joints.
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