TOOL: Aoyue 852 hot air station
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The Aoyue 852 is a dedicated hot air rework station. Hot air is probably the easiest way to remove soldered parts from a PCB, especially large chips with 100+ pins.
We recycle parts between prototype versions. It’s cheaper and produces less waste, but most of all it saves times because the correct parts are ready to go. Hot air is the fastest and easiest way we’ve found to strip down an old board.
We bought the 852 when the hot air part of our trusty 968 went on the fritz. A dedicated hot air station was cheaper than a new 968, and the 968 was on backorder.
Temperature and air flow are adjusted with knobs. A display shows the set and current temperature, up to 550degrees Celsius. Air flow is shown on a not quite helpful ball gauge.
This is the cheapest Aoyue with digital temperature control. Set the working temperature and it will stay there automatically. An 850C is a few bucks cheaper, but the temperature is set manually by referencing a series of graphs.
The hot air tool is lighter and easier to use than our old one, and the pump is significantly quieter. Our 968 is 5 years old though, new units may have the same upgrades. This has been a great addition to our workshop, but we do miss the extra table space.
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This entry was posted in tools and tagged Aoyue 852 hot air station, tool.
Comments
I’m surprised there are not any multimeters! adding a book/suggested reading section would good idea too.
The new 968 are still very noisy and vibrating.
I’ll get to small tools like multimeters and logic analyzers eventually, these were just bigger lab equipment so far.
This one is a nice value-for-money hot air station.
Yes, it makes some noise, but it will certainly work for the occasional PCB.
It will keep pumping until the heating element is cool enough, so don’t be surprised when the unit won’t turn off immediately when you switch the powerswitch.
The 968 gives a bit of warning about the cooldown phase, but the 952 is a little shocking to flip the giant power switch and it stays on anyways (with the display showing the SET temp, not the new 90c cooldown goal or the actual temperature).
many of the rework stations i have used have similar features, i can only assume it is a safety feature.
Hey, I came accross your site searching for reviews of Aoyue 852 , do you still recommend this bit of kit after these months since you are using it? Is it still trusty? Thanks.
Still loving it, though any clone will probably serve you well. Quick, Atten, etc are all fairly well known too.