2 in 1 SMD Soldering Hot Air Rework Station + Stand 3 Nozzle 5 Tips 852d+ Iron Mark Ethan

This station is a solid device for it's price. It was shipped quickly and arrived with everything in order. I'm currently using it for soldering SMD components onto custom circuit boards, and it works very nicely in that regard. There are only a couple of minor things which keep this product from being a 5-star: It is a little bit noisy (compared to a similar model of rework station that I used previously) The air gun doesn't automatically turn off when holstered - this was/is a feature on some other brands and it is very nice to not have to flip a switch in order to turn off the fan. The air tube is fairly thick and takes up a lot of room on the desk since it can't be wound as tight as a thinner tube, though it is reassuring that I won't burn my arm accidentally. The soldering iron tip has a +- 2mm give when I press it against a board. Nothing crazy but it is a little annoying when I press down and feel like I'm bending the iron back. Other than that the rest of the set is great. The tips come in handy but right now I'm just using the screwdriver tip, which works well for fixing up bridged pins. The temperature control is nice as well. It is a great station especially for a small shop or home that wants to miniaturize their products to circuit boards.

I bought this to get started soldering in general, and more specifically to tear down a Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition Chroma that no longer works due to Razer's terrible quality and useless warranty. I've used the hot air to desolder surface mount components (specifically USB ports). I'm brand new to soldering but I'm already making perfect solder joints. I desoldered all 87 keyswitches on that keyboard and it worked great. It comes with lots of tips for the solderer and air gun, a typical stand + cleaning sponge and some weird for-like dual tined thingy on a plastic handle. I have no idea what that is or what to use it for. I love being able to tweak the temp of both parts of the machine, and I'm so glad I didn't cheap out and buy a $30 direct-plug soldering iron. I don't know what makes a soldering station great, but I can't imagine that you get much more than this from a pricier unit. It might last longer and be more reliable, but as a casual user that doesn't matter that much to me. I'll change my tune if the reliability is so poor that it breaks down even with casual use, but for now this thing is great. The only thing I don't like so far is that you can't unplug the air gun and the giant cord tends to get in the way, especially since it doesn't feel like it fits well into its holster. It would've been nice if the soldering stand was nicer and if it came with one of those metal cleaning sponges instead of a standard yellow sponge, but I'll probably buy a Haako one aftermarket.

So far it's fine. I haven't used it enough to really test it yet, but it's working just fine. I really like the iron temperature control and it heats up very quickly. As far as the hot air thingy, it's very... um... cool, as it were, to have something to shrink tube insulation handily on the machine and the different sized nozzles to mach the shrink tube. The operator's manual, on the other hand, has too much techie info and no practical usage info; like how and/or where to mount the hot air torch rest. Having said that, if the user of this "Soldering Hot Air Rework Station +" can't figure out how and/or where to use and/or mount the hot air torch rest, he/she might want to reconsider whether or not he/she should be using it at all.

Used the hot air 4 times and the heating element broke. As stated by others the iron is also total garbage. Very poorly constructed with even worse tips that don't transfer heat properly. The adjustment knobs are also sticky in certain spots and seem to have a poor internal connection because sometimes the temperature setting will just skitz out. This is indicative of extremely low quality potentiometers. I am an "extremely casual hobbyist" so I figured it would at least last me at my usage level. Nope. Even for the extremely low price, it's still not worth the money.

I ordered this unit after I had tried a different manufacturers hot air rework station which almost burned down my house. After reading mixed reviews about all of these Chinese-made units I was hesitant to purchase this one but I cannot afford the expensive models so I gave it a chance. I have only had this unit less than a week but so far it works perfectly. It was packaged very well and seems very well made. I did not want the soldering iron as I already have a very expensive name brand unit that I have used for years so I didn't even plan to connect it but I'm glad I did as I actually like it much better than the unit I already have. What I like about it is that it heats up much faster, shows the actual temperature of the tip as it heats up so you don't have to guess when it is ready and I really like the shorter distance from handle to tip which actually gives me much greater accuracy than my previous model. I actually boxed up my old soldering iron as I prefer this one more. The only negative is as others have stated, the tips are cheap and they do bend if you apply too much pressure. I plan to get some Hakko tips to try and see if this fixes the issue. Its not a huge deal though as you really should not be applying a lot of pressure with a pencil iron. One thing of note for the hot air is that the air pressure will blow your SMD components off the board on the lowest air setting with the smallest tip. The solution is to use the next smaller size up which worked out fine. I did a really good test of the hot air by removing some surface mounts items from a dead video card and I had a blast as it works just like magic. When the air hits the component it begins to float on the shiny solder and you just pick it off which tweezers! Really please so far but another item of note is that the seller sends some useful emails but then begins to bug you by saying your item was delivered but they have not heard back from you and to please let them know you have the item.