YIHUA 948-II 4 in 1 Hot Air Rework Soldering Iron and Desoldering Suction Tin Gun Station with Suction Pick Up Pen °F /°C

I've been a hobbyist my entire life and have been known to do a bit of soldering here and there, but as things get smaller and smaller, the tools become less and less useful. I eventually found myself needing to remove a chip from a microcontroller board to replace it and lacking the tools to do so.I could have just gotten a hot air rework station by itself and called it a day, but I realized my poor old soldering iron was getting a bit worn out so I decided I'd get one with a soldering iron too, and then I saw a video of someone using a desoldering sucker and knew I had to have one.Lucky for me, there's an option to get all three in one nice package. I didn't even realize the machine had the small suction grabber for pulling and holding chips when using hot air, definitely a bonus that I wasn't expecting.I've used it a lot by now, and wanted to do so before I put in a review.The soldering iron is excellent, it heats quickly and has absolutely never let me down, grab yourself a set of extra tips of different formfactors and you'll be good to go.The desoldering gun took some learning, and I managed to clog it up pretty bad a few times before I got good at it. The trick seems to be holding the suction down until the solder is pulled all the way to the back of the internal catching spring. Once I got the hang of it, I was using it to pull through-hole components in record time. As a bonus, it's also pretty darn good at cleaning up pads without having to use solder wick.The air gun is why I got it in the first place, and it did the job I got it for without any effort, removed the chip and replaced it within 10 minutes of getting the machine and I've used it dozens of times since. It's reliable, heats quickly, and has all the tips you need to put the heat exactly where it needs to go.The small suction cup wand that I didn't realize it included is pretty awesome, I didn't even realize a tool like this existed, with the right cup on it you can get a lock on a chip so tight it'll lift the entire board off the table if you pull hard enough. This makes it trivial to pull chips without having to use tweezers, and even works for reinstalling them. A small dab of flux can help secure the suction if things are a bit dry. I didn't know I wanted it, but I don't know if I can ever go back to not having one.Overall, 10 out of 10, I couldn't be happier with it. The extra components and usage of standard parts for things like iron tips and heat carts just makes things all the better when the time comes to replace consumables.

This is literally an all-in-one soldering/desoldering station. At first I got mad because I set the soldering iron to 360 and it didn't get hot enough to melt the solder wire. That is until I realized that it comes from the factory pre-set to Fahrenheit which is silly because no one I know uses Fahrenheit to set their iron/desoldering gun/hot air gun. We all use Celsius, right? Once I switched the display to Celsius everything moved swimmingly.Some people complained about the desoldering gun being very slow to reach temperature and that it is easy to jam. I didn't find this to be the case. The desoldering gun got up to temperature quickly and as long as you follow the instructions in the manual you will not have a problem with the gun jamming: Make sure it reaches the temperature (380C or so). Melt some solder on the tip, don't try to desolder if the tip is not hot enough to melt the solder. Once hot to melt the solder, touch the tip to the joint and wait a second or two for the solder at the joint to melt completely. Press the trigger and the solder will be completely sucked into the gun and it will leave you with a clean joint.I had to replace a 7 pin header from few devices. Before I had the desoldering gun it took me few minutes to remove the old header but it took forever to clean the holes to allow soldering the new header. Now it took maybe 30 seconds to remove the old header and the holes were clean of solder and I was able to solder a new one immediately.

Overall I like it a great deal and think it's good value for the money.

Bought as a gift for my wife, and didn't get any complaints!

Received this yesterday, quickly and undamaged. Packing was pretty good and was double boxed. I read the manual cover to cover. It's not very long and worth doing. Fairly simple and written well. It took about 15-20 minutes to get it set up. I tinned the tips on both the iron and desoldering gun as directed. The iron warms quickly and temp seems accurate (didn't test yet but will). You can calibrate the displayed temp, which is useful.The desoldering gun performed similarly but took a lot longer to get to temp. The vacuum will not operate until up to temp, which is a good thing. The desoldering technique has a bit of a learning curve. Patience is required but, once you get it figured out, you'll never want to use wick or suction bulbs again. I used it on a scrape board for about a half hour(it's oddly satisfying) and had my first clog. A bit of a PITA to clear and clean but I will get it figured out over time. A bit more suction would be nice but there may be a fine line between maintaining temp and suction power.(guessing...)I have yet to try the heat gun as I rarely mess with SMDs but I'm optimistic. The "Channels" feature is a nice option. It is actually what I would call a "Preset" and should be a big time saver. There is a "sleep timer" feature for auto shut off as well. The solder and desolder cannot be used at the same time, which is not a deal breaker. I'll plug my old station into a separate outlet and have them both going if needed.I think this is a great unit for a hobbyist or part time fixer/maker, especially when you consider the cost. If I needed it to make a living, I would probably look at the more expensive, well known brands. Since I am a weekend warrior, this is perfect. My son is more of a SMD guy, so I'll update when he tries out the hot air and/or it develops an issue.

I have been able to solder any wires I want with this setup and I can even clean boards with the vacuum system. Great machine