NEWACALOX Hot Air Rework Station 500°C Soldering Station with Hot Air Gun, Airflow Adjustable, Desoldering Station for BGA IC, SOIC CHIP, QFP, PLCC, etc.

I've been using it now for 3 years without any issues. But as of late, the temperature hasn't been raising as it used to. I know I need to replace the heating element but I have no idea where that thing has gone. Needless to say, its good sign when you lose the spare heating element before you actually need it. Lol

So, I received my Hot Air Rework station on Wednesday and excitedly pulled it out of the box and "assembled" it (if you consider attaching a bracket with 2 screws, the cable end of the hot air wand and the power cord assembly). Browsed through the manual before going further. The tools it comes with are pretty decent and will come in very handy for all my projects!I flipped the power switch, set the Air knob to 8 and dialed in the temp at 300℃ and lifted the hot air wand off the cradle! Oh glorious day! This bad boy started blowing and heating instantly and reached temperature within seconds! For...30 seconds, then EVERYTHING DIED!! The display was out, the hot air wand was silent.....nothing, nada, gone baby gone!So, I pulled the fuse below the power socket and checked for continuity with my meter...it's good! I check the power cord...121 VAC, good there too!Next step was to reach out to Amazon so that I could get in touch with the seller. I sent the seller an email and received an answer the same day. We exchanged several emails asking me about troubleshooting a few basic things (which were already done) and the next day I received an email back with a tracking number!On Saturday, my new Hot Air Rework Station arrived and then about 2 hours later I received an Amazon notification that my Hot Air Rework Station was being shipped to me and they provided the tracking number (Better late than never Amazon 😂!).Much like the previous time, I ripped the package open, got everything connected and fired her off again! I had to test this baby out, so I grabbed a circuit board I had been meaning to rob some parts from before sending it to Valhalla and this sweet little hot air gun was removing SMD LED's, Capacitors, antenna connectors, you name it like it was on a mission!Next step was to try doing some SMD soldering! FYI, this was my first attempt at SMD soldering period! I watched a couple YouTube videos and got prepared. I am in the process of building some MSFS 2020 Flight Simulator accessories to enrich my enjoyment of flying in MSFS 2020 (It's two Garmin G1000 10.4" PFD's along with a 15.4" MFD as well as a GCU475 and a couple of Audio Panels, for anyone interested....Check out FlightSimMaker on the interwebs).I prepared my circuit board by swabbing the pads with isopropyl alcohol, then applied a low temp lead free solder paste to each pad. I used the included right angle tweezers to place my 5070 LED's on the pads and heated the gun up to about 30℃ higher than the package of solder claimed was the melting point (137℃) and started waving the hot air wand around the LED. The paste started to melt, but that was about it. I tried a couple more and same thing, so I started cranking up the temperature. I ended up getting great results at about the 280℃ temperature, so I don't know if the solder datasheet is off or if the hot air gun temp is off (I didn't measure it with a thermocouple yet) so YMMV!All in all, this went EXTREMELY WELL (see attached photos) and I cannot say enough good things about this device. Is it meant for every day use, day in, day out, all day long? Probably not at this price point, but I am just a hobbyist, so not really a concern for me!At the end of the day, I received an excellent product at an incredible price and though I had some troubles, the manufacturer came through in spades with Outstanding Customer Service, which in the day and age is sorely lacking. If you are considering this purchase, please don't hesitate to pull the trigger! I did and I have ZERO regrets!

Even though I used this station to successfully solder a bunch of SMD components over the past several days, I only just now measured the temperature accuracy with a thermocouple. Turns out the hot air station's temp display is fairly inaccurate--when set to 275, my meter measured only 230-235 immediately next to the nozzle. It was consistent, though, so just be aware that if precise temperature matters, probably get an external measuring device (assuming "turn the temperature up until your solder melts" isn't good enough for your use).Other criticisms: the case is not grounded, but you could fix that yourself if you wanted. The Hall sensor which turns the heater off when the hand unit is placed in the holder is kinda finicky and you may need to rotate it a bit before it actually triggers properly. The handle holder is fairly flimsy and it doesn't take too much downward force to bend it out of square (of course it bends back just as easily so that's not a huge deal). Also it seems like when heating up or cooling down, the temperature briefly fluctuates wildly. Not sure if that's a sensor issue or a heating element issue, just be aware you need to give it a few seconds to stabilize.Otherwise though, I'm quite satisfied. If I had to choose whether to purchase it again, I would. It works just fine for some occasional SMD work/reflow soldering, and it's hard to beat the price. I went with this model specifically (of the many, many 858D clones) because the hand unit was removable, which is a nice feature that does not seem to be as common.

Good quality