Review on 🔧 YIHUA Soldering Station: An Innovative Industrial Power & Hand Tools Solution with Multiple Functions by Brandon Skeet

I was looking for a new station as the hot air part of my old station had died. I didn't want to fix it and I had certain criteria that led me to this device. I have limited desk space as I am currently sleeping in my lab (student life). I need a soldering iron, heat gun and power supply, preferably in a small footprint device. Major components must be interchangeable. The last criterion was very important for me. At my previous station the hot air pump was built into the unit itself and when it failed it was bad and costly beyond repair. This new one was to have a replaceable heat gun with a pump/fan built into the gun itself. This device fit the bill, but the price and lack of detailed reviews made me a little nervous about buying it. Only when I saw a good review of other Yihua products from eevblog on YouTube did I decide to buy it. After a few months of light use every week or so I'm happy with my purchase. I've used all the features at least a few times. DC power supply is good, I used it to test motors with gearboxes before full assembly. I can see the current draw of the motor without having to hook up a separate multimeter. I wasn't expecting this little feature but I really like it. I had to work hard to find the stall current for my transmissions. It also comes with some adapters to power laptops and other universal DC ports, which is another nice bonus. The soldering iron is amazing. It has a quick heat-up time, about three seconds. It holds temperature and can get very hot when soldering ground planes. At first I struggled with the pace but found myself on a ground level. I raised the temps and the thing handled it with no issues. Iron is also interchangeable. The cord for the iron is made of silicone, which is great to work with as it's much softer and doesn't pull on the iron when working with SMD components. It is also heat resistant should accidents happen. The hot air gun has worked great so far. I used it to unsolder the USB-C connectors and replace them with working ones. If the gun fails, it is easy and inexpensive to replace. If you can stick something in the wall, you can fix it. That's not to say that anyone who works with a soldering iron shouldn't be able to fix something. The heat gun cord is not silicone and I don't know if it's heat resistant. The unit also comes with some spare gun heaters for future maintenance. The stand for the iron and heat gun is a single solid block of cast iron (or steel I think). It looks very fleshy and heavy. This is great as I'm sure I won't knock my iron/gun over by sneezing like you can with other easier poses. Also, there are some other accessories that come with the device that I think I haven't mentioned, but they are basic free accessories that will help you have a good first experience. Things like solder, wick, chip buttons and other things. The manual is also well done, with very few translation issues. They have a detailed list of parts and accessories that can be used with the device, with names for easy ordering. Many of these parts are usually regular parts that can be ordered directly from Yihua or third-party suppliers. I don't remember if there were any plans for repairs like you can get on some high end models. The only downside I've found so far is that the front of the device is made of plastic. The body of the machine is made from stamped sheet metal, but the actual place on the front where your hands rest is plastic. I don't know if it's heat resistant as I don't really like the idea of permanent marks from a hand slip, but that's part of life. Does the instruction also tell us to switch off the device if it is not used for a long time? I find it strange. It has a literal switch on the back of the unit that shuts off the main circuit, so I'm not sure why that is. If anyone knows, please let us know. So in summary I enjoyed my purchase and feel I can recommend this device. I bought a four year warranty as additional insurance and I will update my post if I ever need to get to that. 😊