Spent $30 on a hot air station from Amazon, nearly set my bench on fire

I figured I'd save some cash and picked up one of those cheap 858D clones for a simple SMD capacitor swap. Worked fine for about ten minutes, then the element started glowing orange and the handle got so hot I had to drop it on my mat. That mat now has a permanent burn mark right next to a board I was trying to save. My buddy who does this for a living told me 'you get what you pay for' and I laughed it off, but now I get it. The heating element wasn't grounded right and the temperature readings were off by like 80 degrees. Has anyone else had a budget tool go bad on them mid-job?

2 comments

2 Comments

leor3710d ago

Did you check if it had a real fuse or just a resetable thermal switch? I remember reading somewhere that those cheap models often skip proper safety components to cut costs.

parkerrodriguez10d ago

Same thing happened with mine @leor37. No real fuse, just that cheap thermal switch.