Unboxing and initial review of the Saike 909D 3-in-1 hot air rework station.
you know what it's like when you go search for the cheapest hot-air station on the 11-11 sale; think well, I may as well get one of the better ones; and since the price not that much different I should go for the 3-in-1 instead of the 2-in-1, then have to sneak it home past your partner? ... well, like that 😃
I've been wanting a hot-air gun for a while, and I found a good deal on a Saike 909D recently. It is actually a 3-in-1 unit, comprising:
- hot-air gun
- solder station
- DC power supply
It can usually be found sold with a bundle of supplies and attachments.
The TL/DR review: very good value for the price. Happy!
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| AC Supply | 220V, 50Hz |
| Work environment | 0 to 50°C |
| DC Power Supply | |
| Output Voltage | 0-15V DC, <0.01 ±2mV |
| Output Power | 15W max |
| Soldering Iron | |
| Output Power | 50W |
| Temperature range | 200-480°C |
| Temperature stability | ±2°C |
| Tip-ground voltage | <2mV |
| Tip-ground resistance | <2Ω |
| Heat Gun | |
| Air flow type | Brushless fan |
| Air flow | 120l/min (max) |
| Output power | 700W |
| Temperature range | 100-450°C |
| Temperature stability | ±1°C |
This is the main feature I bought the unit for .. and it works perfectly. I grabbed a few faulty boards and was unmounting surface mount components within seconds. The warm-up is very fast.
The only problem I encountered was with one of the nozzle attachments. Poor quality construction - one of the adjustment lugs just fell off in my fingers:
The other nozzles are fine. Maybe I can get the seller to provide a replacement, but if not then no great loss.
The built-in supply is very convenient to have on the bench built-in to the unit. It comes with full set of probes and power connectors (including USB socket).
It can supply 0-15V at up to 1A:
- digital voltage display at 0.1V precision
- analog ammeter, 1A full scale. Of course not much use for mA circuits, but fine to highlight a large power drain.
- has an isolated floating ground. There is ~0mA leakage when grounded to earth.
It can also operate as a crude voltmeter.
A quick test:
One thing I've noted is a flyback surge when the main power is switched off.
The surge appears on the PSU outputs regardless of whether the PSU is turned on or off.
The actual spike is variable .. somewhere between -15V and +15V.
Here's an example of the voltage on the PSU output when the master switch is turned off (with the PSU itself turned off):
I already have a "favourite iron", so the solder station is kind of an unnecessary bonus.
In my first test at 300°C I was having a hard time getting the solder to flow. I thought it was either taking a very long time to warm up, or it was just unable to deliver sufficient power.
After a bit of research - finding posts like this - I suspect it is just not calibrated correctly.
I'll ask the seller before cracking the box to see if I can figure it out..
- Saike 853D/909D Manual
- Saike 909D - from a seller on aliexpress
- SAIKE 909D Review – Soldering iron, heat gun and DC PSU
- SMD rework station temperature not accurate - seems to report the same problem with the soldering iron temperature as I've seen, and a possible solution.
- ..as mentioned on my blog