I’m still rocking a cheap hot air station from China. I keep looking to pick up a 2nd hand Quick or Atten, but so far my cheapy Chinese unit has been admirable with a decent selection of nozzles that it came with.

Not so great for BGA rework, but easily good enough for SMD passives and SOIC or TSOP work.

As for preheating the board, I’m currently using my old 3D printers heated bed for that.

By heat gun do mean an actual heat gun or a hot air station (or both)?

FWIW, I have both. I have a 1500W Milwaukee heat gun and a Quick 861DW hot air station. Both serve a purpose in electronics repair.

I find the heat gun useful for large through-component removable (mainly sockets) in conjunction with a desoldering gun. It has a wide nozzle so it's best at heating large areas. Also useful for melting glue and applying heat-shrink tubing.

The hot air station is useful for precise applications like SMD work. Especially if you are working with SMD ICs.

I don't really know which one I need. I mainly want to use it to DESOLDER QFP/SOP SMD components like RAM, logic chips etc rather than solder them, and I certainly don't expect to work on more sophisticated things like BGA. I am thinking a simple hot air gun should be enough for me?

If you're doing SMD work, I would go with a hot air station. Reason is that hot air stations will have interchangeable nozzles with smaller diameters than a hot air gun, and more control over both air flow and temperature. This will allow for more precise hot air application which is more useful when working with SMD components.

I've used an Atten 868D+ for years and years. It's cheap and cheerful and has done well.

You do not want to be using a DIY style hotair gun on electronics.

Also, free tip, if the board and surrounding components are sacrificial and you only want to harvest certain components, heat the board from underneath rather than from the component side. Less chance of damaging the thing you are trying to remove and generally you'll get cleaner lifts.

Depends on what your budget range is

Honestly IMO you do not need anything fancy to begin with. I've been using cheap, simple hot air station for a long time and for hobby level work i do not see a reason to upgrade. Lukey 902 it is IIRC.

But IMO it needs to be soldering/hot air station, not a heat gun which is intended for another purpose and is way too powerful and imprecise for working on electronics. It would be like using a sledgehammer with small decorative nails.

For preheating PCBs you'd likely want a hot plate, if you do it with hot air you heat up the PCB unevenly which can lead to damage in extreme cases. That is usually only needed for working with large ICs, but it is useful for any work as with it the risk of doing damage to the PCB is greatly reduced.

This spirals out of control very quickly - there are a lot of very nice specialized tools which make things easier, but again - for hobby level work you have to stop at some reasonable compromise...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-04, 03:06:

Honestly IMO you do not need anything fancy to begin with. I've been using cheap, simple hot air station for a long time and fo […]
Show full quote

Honestly IMO you do not need anything fancy to begin with. I've been using cheap, simple hot air station for a long time and for hobby level work i do not see a reason to upgrade. Lukey 902 it is IIRC.

But IMO it needs to be soldering/hot air station, not a heat gun which is intended for another purpose and is way too powerful and imprecise for working on electronics. It would be like using a sledgehammer with small decorative nails.

For preheating PCBs you'd likely want a hot plate, if you do it with hot air you heat up the PCB unevenly which can lead to damage in extreme cases. That is usually only needed for working with large ICs, but it is useful for any work as with it the risk of doing damage to the PCB is greatly reduced.

This spirals out of control very quickly - there are a lot of very nice specialized tools which make things easier, but again - for hobby level work you have to stop at some reasonable compromise...

Thanks, that is exactly where I am right now. I ended up deciding on buying a Yihua 878D, which apparently is a decent Hakko 878D clone. That should be a good replacement, and double as a decent soldering pen. The one I currently have is not temperature controlled and it gives me issues when I need to use it for more than say 15 minutes.. 😀

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-04, 03:06:

But IMO it needs to be soldering/hot air station, not a heat gun which is intended for another purpose and is way too powerful and imprecise for working on electronics. It would be like using a sledgehammer with small decorative nails.

It really depends on the area where heat is needed. Heat guns have a larger dispersion radius, so they have an advantage when you need to heat a larger area.

I've used heat guns for things like through-hole socket removal where applying heat over a larger area is needed.

IMHO, they both have their uses in electronics repair.

And then there is one more "tool" to consider... one that most of us have in our homes already: the stovetop. 😉
- a powerful and free replacement of a dedicated "hot plate". (Just prop the board you're working onto something so that it's not touching the heating element, obviously.)

At first, it sounds a bit crude. BUT! It can actually be quite nice.
The first place where I tried this was while in college in the apartment we were renting. It had an electric over and stovetop. The stovetop had "curled" heating elements (common for older electric stove in the US / North America). I figured it would work similar to an IR hot plate... and indeed it did! I managed to remove and replace the burned BGA RAM chips on two GeForce 7600 GT cards without issues using that and my hot air station. Doing them with just the hot air station likely would not have worked well.

Then, back after college, I tried a similar experiment, but on our gas stovetop at home. Guess what? - This worked even better! Unlike IR hot plates and IR rework stations, which I've noted always tend to darken the PCB a little after something is reworked, a GAS FLAME does NOT do this and works very similar to hot air... except even better - it's an evenly distributed point source of heat. When a PCB is raised about 4-8 cm away from the flame (or more, if your gas stovetop is too powerful) so that the flame does not touch the PCB, this works exactly like a heat gun / hot air station... and you can get pretty precise control too.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-06-04, 13:22:

It really depends on the area where heat is needed. Heat guns have a larger dispersion radius, so they have an advantage when you need to heat a larger area.

I've used heat guns for things like through-hole socket removal where applying heat over a larger area is needed.

IMHO, they both have their uses in electronics repair.

+1

I have a heat gun and a hot air station (KADA 852D+) and I use both depending on what I need to do.

Hot air is generally for more precise work, like removing smaller SMD and BGA components without damaging the board. But if I don't care about the board (i.e. just harvesting it for parts), then heat gun and heat from the bottom (solder side) *IF* there are no components that I care about damaging there. Keeping a heatgun at the same spot for too long can cause hot spots and even popcorn the PCB. Same with hot air too, but it's much harder, since it tends to give off much less heat and you can control the flow of air and its shape too (via different nozzles.)

That said, I started doing reflows (and sometimes still do it) with a heat gun back when I was learning many years ago, and did actually have good success with it. Key to how I did it is I got a cheap type-K thermometer (Lutron TM-902) and used that to monitor PCB temperature while using the heatgun to avoid overheating the board. Later on, when I started using my stovetop as a bottom heater / hot plate, I was able to remove very very large components from boards and without any damage too (last one was a soldered socket 462 Duron CPU on a K7SEM board.)

So anyways... all of these can be useful tools if you take the time to learn how to use them.
But all in all, I think a type-k thermometer with a thin thermocouple probe (wire) is the most useful when starting into the world of BGA / SMD rework, as then you can monitor your board temperatures to get an idea of how long it takes to heat various stuff up. Just keep in mind that with hot air, its normal for the air temperature to be much much higher than the desired PCB / component soldering temperature you're trying to reach. For example, if I have my type-K meter on the PCB and on a component I am trying to remove, if I blast it with my hot air set to 350C, I would almost immediately see the temperature on the meter jump up to 300+C. But as soon as I pull away the hot air nozzle, the temperature goes back down to whatever the actual PCB temperature is at that point. So in short, type-K meter cannot show accurate temperatures while directly heating the probe with hot air, but can show accurate temperature if you move away the nozzle for a moment or two.

momaka wrote on 2025-06-05, 18:20:

And then there is one more "tool" to consider... one that most of us have in our homes already: the stovetop. ;) - a powerful an […]
Show full quote

And then there is one more "tool" to consider... one that most of us have in our homes already: the stovetop. 😉
- a powerful and free replacement of a dedicated "hot plate". (Just prop the board you're working onto something so that it's not touching the heating element, obviously.)

At first, it sounds a bit crude. BUT! It can actually be quite nice.
The first place where I tried this was while in college in the apartment we were renting. It had an electric over and stovetop. The stovetop had "curled" heating elements (common for older electric stove in the US / North America). I figured it would work similar to an IR hot plate... and indeed it did! I managed to remove and replace the burned BGA RAM chips on two GeForce 7600 GT cards without issues using that and my hot air station. Doing them with just the hot air station likely would not have worked well.

Then, back after college, I tried a similar experiment, but on our gas stovetop at home. Guess what? - This worked even better! Unlike IR hot plates and IR rework stations, which I've noted always tend to darken the PCB a little after something is reworked, a GAS FLAME does NOT do this and works very similar to hot air... except even better - it's an evenly distributed point source of heat. When a PCB is raised about 4-8 cm away from the flame (or more, if your gas stovetop is too powerful) so that the flame does not touch the PCB, this works exactly like a heat gun / hot air station... and you can get pretty precise control too.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-06-04, 13:22:

It really depends on the area where heat is needed. Heat guns have a larger dispersion radius, so they have an advantage when you need to heat a larger area.

I've used heat guns for things like through-hole socket removal where applying heat over a larger area is needed.

IMHO, they both have their uses in electronics repair.

+1

I have a heat gun and a hot air station (KADA 852D+) and I use both depending on what I need to do.

Hot air is generally for more precise work, like removing smaller SMD and BGA components without damaging the board. But if I don't care about the board (i.e. just harvesting it for parts), then heat gun and heat from the bottom (solder side) *IF* there are no components that I care about damaging there. Keeping a heatgun at the same spot for too long can cause hot spots and even popcorn the PCB. Same with hot air too, but it's much harder, since it tends to give off much less heat and you can control the flow of air and its shape too (via different nozzles.)

That said, I started doing reflows (and sometimes still do it) with a heat gun back when I was learning many years ago, and did actually have good success with it. Key to how I did it is I got a cheap type-K thermometer (Lutron TM-902) and used that to monitor PCB temperature while using the heatgun to avoid overheating the board. Later on, when I started using my stovetop as a bottom heater / hot plate, I was able to remove very very large components from boards and without any damage too (last one was a soldered socket 462 Duron CPU on a K7SEM board.)

So anyways... all of these can be useful tools if you take the time to learn how to use them.
But all in all, I think a type-k thermometer with a thin thermocouple probe (wire) is the most useful when starting into the world of BGA / SMD rework, as then you can monitor your board temperatures to get an idea of how long it takes to heat various stuff up. Just keep in mind that with hot air, its normal for the air temperature to be much much higher than the desired PCB / component soldering temperature you're trying to reach. For example, if I have my type-K meter on the PCB and on a component I am trying to remove, if I blast it with my hot air set to 350C, I would almost immediately see the temperature on the meter jump up to 300+C. But as soon as I pull away the hot air nozzle, the temperature goes back down to whatever the actual PCB temperature is at that point. So in short, type-K meter cannot show accurate temperatures while directly heating the probe with hot air, but can show accurate temperature if you move away the nozzle for a moment or two.

Honestly as much as i understand and to a degree like whole "improvised tools" approach - nowadays some things have changed. Yes, you can do a lot using improvised tools, given skill and experience. But it is possible to get hobby-grade tools for extremely cheap and ultimately proper tools, even cheap ones, are better then improvised stuff.

Yes, you can use a stove, but proper hot plate with temperature control and everything can be bought or built for so cheap nowadays - is it really worth doing?

I am not saying that what you are describing is bad, but IMO someone new should always look at how much hobby-grade tools cost and consider if improvising is worth it or not.

At the same time - i've seen a few people who acted like "i want to learn how to solder, i am going to buy all the tools", then spend a few thousand $ and never go beyond soldering a couple of wires together. That's not a good idea either...

Over the years I've had a few...

--- Desoldering:

My first (got in 70s or 80s) was a simple "pencil" soldering iron with
a hole up the center of the tip, and a tube long enough to go back over
the grip (and dissipate heat) ending with a rubber "suction ball".
Turns out I still have it and it says "Radio Shack" on the label.

Later on I got a Weller DS600 desoldering station that a company I worked
with was "tossing" because it "didn't suck" - I took it apart and found
that it had an inline filter in the suction hose which was completely
blocked - I came up with something else to filter, put it in the
filter housing and it worked quite well... Eventually the tip (I had
only the one) got so bad it wasn't great to use, and the thing
was so old - new tips were hard to find/expensive - so I gave it away...

And bought... The one I use now as a "AOYUE 474++" - decent vacuum, good
temp adjustment and several different sized removable tips. I'm fairly
happy with it (but don't do all that much rework anymore)

--- Heat gun:

At one point I had a small heat-gun which worked OK - but was cheap
and I decided to replace it with:

W.E.P 858 SMD Rework Station
Good temp/air control, lots of tips, and has worked well when I've needed it.

---
FWIW: None of these were terribly expensive and not what some would consider
"professional" quality - but when I've needed them, they've performed quite well!

Im deliberatly posting a link to an ebay auction as #i know it will disapear in time and while this isnt time limited the item will be as it will be replaced in time.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374353955292

I have one of those, it is small, cheap and more than enough to take on any hobby soldering and SMD rework.
It has the heat gun and it has a soldering iron.

The guys here seem to be under the impression you are talking about one of these
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/167552178350?
Which I dont think you are.
If you are then that isnt what you should be thinking about except for some spercific jobs, which if you were doing you wouldnt be asking here about it.

Anyway the SMD rework station I linked above it affordable and it works well for me when Im on my travels.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2025-06-06, 02:48:

... The guys here seem to be under the impression you are talking about one of these ...

No, don't think about going there - I have one of those as well, and it's big and hot - lots of times I need it for
other things, but the only (few) times I've used it on circuit boards is when I didn't care about the board and
just wanted to pick off certain components as I blasted it from the bottom...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-06, 01:28:

I am not saying that what you are describing is bad, but IMO someone new should always look at how much hobby-grade tools cost and consider if improvising is worth it or not.

Oh, I totally agree with that point.
I was just tossing the idea "out there", more of a as "try at home before you buy" alternative.
As far as I am aware, most people do have a stove at home, so I DO think it's worth trying... especially for people that may fall in the situation you describe: they buy all of the tools, use them maybe once or twice, and then decide they are no longer interested.

Yes, it is an improvised method, but quite easy to setup and use. Of course, I do want to note that this is *not* a replacement for a proper hot air station - more of a supplement to it... or rather, a decent and inexpensive replacement for a hot plate... if you don't intend to do SMD rework too frequently with it, that is.

Sure, even the cheapest of hot plates come with temperature control... but that's really not needed, actually. The reason being is that temperature control only works when you have a closed system with a closed loop. A hot plate with an open top is *not* an example of a closed system - the object you heat will continuously cool off to its surrounding environment. In other words, the temperature of the hot plate might be set at a certain value, but this does not mean the object you heat (above) with it will reach that temperature. Rather, depending on the size, shape, thickness, and other physical parameters of the object, this will affect how it dissipates heat to its surrounding environment. So the final temperature it reaches may be completely different than whatever you set on the hot plate. This is why you *don't* really need temperature control for hot plates as much as you need power control - i.e. to adjust how much heat (energy) you will be dumping into the object, so that you get it to a level where it offsets the amount of energy it is loosing to its environment. When you get to that level, that's when the object will reach and stay at a certain temperature.
In any case, regardless of whether you use a hot plate or the stove, you will still need to do some experimentation to determine how different sizes of boards / PCBs heat up.

So IME, it's not that much more work... at least for the occasional SMD rework job that requires hot plate / bottom heating.

And in cases like my K7SEM motherboard, where I had to remove a dead soldered socket 462 Duron CPU, good luck getting that off with just a small hot plate and a hot air station. Probably still doable, but I'd be a little worried about damaging the board from uneven heating. On the other hand, I had not problems getting it off using mostly my (gas) stove as the main source of heat, with a heat gun heating from top on high only occasionally (while watching my type-k thermometer.) Easy, clean pull. Now board is ready for a socket... and with a bit of luck, maybe it will work too (it was damaged by a PSU going haywire from bad caps.)

DaveDDS wrote on 2025-06-06, 02:42:

My first (got in 70s or 80s) was a simple "pencil" soldering iron with a hole up the center of the tip, and a tube long enough t […]
Show full quote

My first (got in 70s or 80s) was a simple "pencil" soldering iron with
a hole up the center of the tip, and a tube long enough to go back over
the grip (and dissipate heat) ending with a rubber "suction ball".
Turns out I still have it and it says "Radio Shack" on the label.

I have the newer (I think) Radio Shack version of that - their 40 Watt "bulb sucker desoldering iron".
It's quite a nifty tool for doing desoldering... though not so much for modern multi-layer PCBs. Rather, where I find it most useful is for removing large through-hole ICs or multi-pin components on single layer PCBs (or the occasional dual-layer PCB if it doesn't have very thick traces.) Also useful for removing flyback transformers from CRT TVs and monitors.
That said, I can't say that I use it too often - actually for very very specific cases only, like mentioned above. My T12-based iron does about 95% of the soldering/desoldering work - even the simple SMD stuff too (e.g. ceramic caps, MOSFETs, and etc.). I whip out the hot air only for BGA and large TSOP (RAM) chips, which I very very rarely do anymore.