YIHUA 948D-III 2 in 1 Desoldering Station and Soldering Station

Used this while repairing a control board for a built-in fridge. The fridge was going to cost roughly $10,000 to replace due to parts no longer being available. The repair went great and the solder sucker was quite effective. This thing heats up so quickly and the design was very user friendly. I can't believe I used an old school soldering iron when something like this exists for so little money. Overall, I consider this to be money very WELL spent!

Not worth de soldering without one. Made joystick replacement a breeze. highly recommended, high quality for a decent price.

I bought this primarily for the desoldering tool, However, it's quite useful to have both tools as contacts sometimes need re-soldering to get a good draw from the desoldering tool. My old soldering iron was a Hakko 936 - this remains my preferred tool but mostly because the tips I own for the Hakko are better than the included tips for the 948D. The desoldering gun was a revelation for me - how did I live so long without one? The only drawback seems to be the collector spring in the vacuum chamber - the solder has a tendency to adhere to the coil. However, I can usually manipulate the spring to shake the solder, but if that doesn't work the soldering gun works quickly to release the solder. As such, I've been able to use the gun for almost two months now, without needing to change the spring. My recommendation is to clean out the vacuum chamber frequently - that way it isn't as prone to clogging the spring. Overall the tool is intuitive, easy to use, and comes up to temperature reasonably fast. It won't let you desolder until the tip reaches operating temperature (a minute or so). The station also comes with spare tips for the guns, spare springs and parts for this machine are commonly available both on ebay and on amazon. After several months of use I really don't have any complaints. I'm not a 'power user' but this certainly meets all my needs. Good value for money.

I purchased this back in January as my first ever soldering/desoldering station. Out of the box, it works beautifully and feels very nice. The temperatures seem to measure accurately, and it warms up quickly, especially the soldering side. I have no issues at all with the soldering side of the station. 5/5 there. The desoldering side is nice but has some caveats. You have to be absolutely obsessive with cleaning it out after every session, or even mid-session if you're soldering for a long time. If you don't, then old solder will harden and get stuck in the nozzle, becoming an insane PITA to unclog. A pro-tip I learned is to always keep the longest pin/poker that comes with the set handy. After every 3-4 traces you vacuum up, take the pin and slide it in and out of the front of the desoldering gun a few times while holding down the trigger. I wouldn't want to use this thing if I was more than a hobbyist. It seems like during extended sessions it tends to start overheating and just feels less reliable. Look elsewhere if you are going to use this for more than a couple hours a day a few times a week. Parts are easy to find and the Yihua customer service, although with some slight language barriers, has always been very responsive through the Amazon messaging system. I would happily purchase this again.

Amazing through hole solder remover station. I have not used the solder station side as I have many but this is far better than the Anesty desoldering station that I have purchased two of two years ago. The anesty unit is no longer available and the DIC SC-7000Z Desoldering Tool with its compact pistol design is too hard to find and a bit of a PITA to clean and maintain. This guy will heat up in about 2 minutes on 120 volts and has a warning that is is not ready yet AND the pump will not pump until it has reached setpoint. As for continence and ease of cleaning, I will work on this but it seems the best way may be to use a small propane torch to heat the solder blob and tap the built up solder off the spring. The power is spot on as is the functionality as the pistol is comfortable to MY hand AND the vacuum pump is the strongest I have used to date. I repair boards and probably replace close to 100 components per week so I feel my word is pretty good AND at this price, I will buy a spare to back this one up so I can find/fix this one when/if it plugs up.