I will tell of my own stupidity in the hopes that someone may learn something I obviously did not.
My cheap Yihua reflow/solder station has an on/off switch to power up the transformer in the rear of the unit. Individual on/off switches and temperature settings with digital readouts for each station on the front. I found that when I went to use the soldering iron Sunday the unit was in standby mode with - - showing on the screen. I fired it up anyway, and it overheated and smoked and died. Opening it up, the transformer overheated and melted down. This was obviously a result of my leaving it powered up overnight and then using it without a cool down. Now, I will say that there are 2 wires within the soldering handle that have all the insulation burned away, so something shorted in the handle and this may be the real reason it died. The handle of the iron was very cheaply made, with a plastic male/female thread connection that wouldn’t stay together.
I’m leary of purchasing another el-cheapo unit, but how do I know that a more expensive unit won’t still have these issues?
For the record, I didn’t buy this reflow station. It was in the modding kit I bought from Old-Lumens when he sold out.