yihua 936

Well I purchased a Yihua 936 from a seller on ebay. Went to use it today, within a 1/2 hour I smelled something funny, then smoke starts pouring out from the station. I just about burned my hands , took it outside, and threw it in the snow. I was going to get one from hobby king but they are on backorder. When it was working, it performed well with a nice tip I picked out. I guess you never know, ebay or anywhere else. I ended up spending a nice chunk of change on a nice Hakko.

Wow, this one?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360764230996

I was seriously considering it.

I bought the Yihua 937D a year ago Christmas. There was a cold joint on one of the solder connections in the wand. Once I fixed that the “E5” went away and it’s worked flawlessly since. Of course, it should have worked flawlessly when I got it.

The actual Hakko this is copied from is still available used for roughly the same amount and is an ultra reliable performer. Most of these: Ayoue; Yihua, Kendal, etc. are essentially Hakko clones or clones of clones. Quality is hit or miss. If you get one without cold solder joints and no internal connections reversed and everything plugged in and/or screwed down, they can give decent service. Most serious users who buy one of the ‘tribute’ models will pop the top and give it a quick look see to make sure everything is snugged up. Some of the initial smoke may come from assembly lubricants burning off.

Sorry to hear that, gitira6. How long ago did you buy it? Maybe it’s worth contacting the seller. I got mine from a German retailer, though it’s been fine.

I think the general rule is you can go budget on the equipment but don’t go budget on the tools if you’re serious. The better you’re able to use the tools because they’re quality units the better you can make those budget equipments reliable.

Try running an auto repair shop with harbor frieght tools and see how far you get before you start stripping bolt heads from loose or worn out wrenches or simply failing tools.

Even if it’s not temperature controlled one of my favorite soldering irons ever is the Hakko Presto. The 120w turbo button can get it up to temperature in like 30 seconds and if you need tons of heat like unsoldering pills the turbo button works great.

I’ve even soldered 4 gauge automotive cable with it with liberal use of that turbo button, though I don’t really recommend doing that. I did modify mine though with a fat chisel tip and doubled up on the heat conducting shim between the heating element and the tip to transfer heat quickly letting me use the turbo button without burning up the element.

So I actually have two of these. One with a fine tip that can be exchanged and the chisel tipped one is pretty much permanently sutck now. Luckily Hakko tips are some of the longest lasting tips I’ve used and don’t pit as long as you take care of them. Whereas Wellers will just corrode and pit after a few dozen hours of use.

You would be surprised how many broken Wellers we had at the place I used to work (I was). Professional equipment can and will fail routinely. It was probably cheaper to buy new stations than take the time out to repair them.

What is the model number of the Hakko it is copied from? I was going to get one of these Yihuas myself.

The model numbers are the same, e.g. 936.

Nah, the 936 version analog dial they sell on Hobby King

I guess it would have been a good idea to check out the station(internals), but in reality I shouldnt have to. A little smoke from the lubes at first, that is what I thought, then turned into alot of smoke and was hotter than a light head at 10 amps. I bought a good one regardless, should have done that in the beginning. You get what you pay for, I found that out with uf 502b’s. Depends where you buy them from.

I agree with you 100%.

Have a basically unused Yihua 936 that was used to build one light and worked great. That was over a year ago. Got it out to use again and the pen won’t heat up. Light comes on but pen won’t heat. Fuse is good. Any suggestions?

I’ve never replaced a heater element, but essentially it should be the heating coil/resistor plus a thermistor.

I’d check this: is the thermistor in the heater giving OK values? Is the heater element working? Are the wires going towards the heater providing correct voltage?

If all yes then I would somehow find/create a resistor to check if there will be enough current to heat it. If still yes, then it is probably the heater element.

If test resistor is not heating, it’s probably the thermistor or power supply.