This looks so satisfying :o I would run around the home desolder everything all day long

Oh stop. We can tell you like it. You just don't wanna admit it.

you have no idea how satisfying I feel watching this station work! I want to go with it to a dumpster and recycle everything! rofl!

This video very easily convinced me that I need a vacuum desoldering station.

had it for a few years - initially put time in remaking it - but love it now.

I got one of these branded as a Duratool D00672. The main difference is that the spring inside the solder trap is just a straight spring that pushes the filter against the back with a cross shaped metal plate that seems to keep the bulk of the solder off the filter. When I first got it I popped the back open and the spring ejected everything from inside! Took me a while to work out which order they went back in. Otherwise the unit is identical inside.

Great to hear you intend to keep trying to fix the DSA. It's nice to have a good repair video every now and then

I have had this station for a couple of years now. Has not let me down.

I was watching EEVBlog channel as usual while looking over my new purchase of a HAKKO FR300 and this video came on! I can't wait to use this thing! Salvage all the parts!

When using our hakko desoldering station at work, what we do to easily get the solder out of the solder reservoir is stick our solder iron tip through the bottom of the spring and start gently tapping it on metal on an angle and let the melted solder drop out to avoid bending the spring reservoir and is much easier.

Watching that thing in action is so satisfying!

I have had the duratool version of this for over a year and I am very pleased with it. The only problem I have is solder getting stuck at the end of the gun barrel before it goes into the tube, but you just have to give it a clean after use with a high temp.

You are pure entertainment to me. You need your own reality show on a national network TV channel.

Nice review, Dave. I was just writing up a shopping list yesterday and it included cable ties - now I am inspired to put them to use more creatively, as Rhino have done here! haha

Congrats for the new toy, Dave!

I bought this model thanks to this review. Used it for a few months now. Reliable tips, works excellent. Use caution with the heat, it is very powerful. A cool tip i just learned for working at lower heat, desolder with your board at a 90 degree angle instead of flat so you aren't fighting gravity. Two small complaints, its a pain to fit the chamber back when cleaning, and drops the temp after 10 min. of being idle to conserve tip life.

Hi Dave, I bought a Hakko 474 nearly 30 years ago and it is still going strong - and parts are still available , even though quite expensive. One little trick you might find useful - place a small rolled up ball of steel wool in the solder collecting spring and you won't have to work with pliers to dislodge the collected solder from the conical end.

As a result of an electronics project at school and a soldering tip which is far too big for PCB work, I have become a master at using a cheap spring loaded solder sucker reliably

I have a hot air and soldering iron combo, which looks just like your hot air blower in terms of case and aesthetics. Just the other day, the hot air gun's temp sensor went whack and it lit up red hot and melted through the handle a tad. It was crazy.

Glad I watched. After purchasing this unit, mine didn't work either! I found one of the wires going to the pump motor had never been soldered to the motor terminal. Nice. I guess they ever test these units before shipping! LOL. Well, after fixing it the device works fine. Thanks for your review.

You can always use a different holder. I have finally got round t ordering one, I restore vintage computers and salvage most of my parts so I have needed one for years.

I love watching your vids, you're very entertaining and informative :-) I was only ever tinkered in electronics and haven't built a kit for ages... I miss it while I watch your vids!

Impressed with the way it takes all the solder off, even from through-hole pads. I've seen tools costing an awful lot more that couldn't get that kind of clean-as-a-whistle result even on one-sided pads. Larger nozzle could be useful though. Reckon this is going on my shopping list. Will check inside for shoddy construction of course!

thanks for actually testing it in this video, and not doing an exclusive "unboxing" or something first and letting us wait to see it in action :) Seams like a decent product to me, big fan of your videos :)

Having done salvage/repair work for a long time, I'd like to add one thing: never use you desoldering iron's tip to straighten bent pins/component leads! Heat, then use a flat blade screwdriver, then suck away! You desoldering iron tips will thank you for it! :)

That’s an awesome piece of gear haha... love it... I bought an LG linear power supply many years ago that I had to repair right out the box, to its credit though it’s still working after being abused for 15 to 20 years...

i get the feeling that half-way along the video where the tool is working, dave had fun harvesting those parts. now i want one of these desoldering tools.

Funny, seems to be exactly the same as my unbranded "Duratool" desoldering station bought from Farnell, the gun is the same and the unit seems to have the same components all the way down to the crap LCD, mine has a completely different casing and proper mains earth though. A friend had his SMPS break in one of these, if that happens to you it's most likely the SMPS controller chip according to the local reseller. They sent him a new controller and his works again.

Fantastic ! Tks a million for the recommendation.

Sweet video Dave! Another kickass one. #lovingit

That looks quite good for the money. I also no longer had a desoldering station (always used the company one) so bought a Den-On SC-7000Z a number of years ago. It works really well, is self-contained, and isn't much bigger than this station hand piece.

Haha :) I can recognize that build quality! Bought Zhongdi ZD-939L hot air rework station (same as Rhino) couple of weeks ago and luckily took it apart before first use. All the plastic PCB holders was cracked and 230Vac mains board floated freely inside the case. But after all, works great after a little repair.

A couple of years ago I picked up a cheap 3-in-1 station. Worked great for a while but then it stopped recognizing the soldering iron. I thought it was the iron itself that went bad so I ended up just using it for desoldering and hot-air stuff but after watching this video, I decided to finally open the thing up to see if I the problem was inside. It was and I have it working again now. Woo.

Great video, entertaining as always :D For anyone in the UK etc this unit seems to be available as Duratool D00672 Desoldering Station for about 80 quid or so.

Awesome Dave thanks for the review. I think I may give it a go. I need some light use of a desolder gun and this looks like a good cheap unit that will work.

I used to have a similar tool back in the 90's (footswitch for vacuum) and it really was a joy to use... hmmm I don't do a lot of desoldering but... tempted...

This is by far the most innuendo filled EEVBlog yet! The sheer innocence of Dave's tone as he says; "where you're sucking stuff all day, spend the money and get a name brand"! Love this crazy aussie bloke!

I used a vacuum desoldering station back in the 80's.. It had a glass tube (a buck or two) ... cotton plugs for the tube, a controlled temp hand held (not gun shaped.)-- and so on.. Great tool with almost identical sound. Made in the US, because that was well before the move of production to china.. Was a LOT smaller as well. Super reliable.. Did rework on 4 and 6 layer boards with it regularly... I had been looking for something similar now that I'm retired.. that may be something to buy this year...

Thank you Dave for the VERY informative video on this type of budget device!! I have had to use my hand pump tool for so long and it is tedious work. I have been looking for something like this but do not have the coin to throw out for a Hakko. I wish I did, because I love my Hakko tools and soldering station. But I'm not a salvage beast so cannot warrant the cost of a Hakko. This gives me an option. Maybe some home-made fixes to the design (other than out-of-the-box repairs lol) like the stand. The hand unit seal. Etc. THANKS!

If you grease an O ring, use only silicone grease - oily stuff eats the o-ring

@ 14:00 those connectors are first unscrewed, then twisted to release the metal housing from the plastic struggled with it myself a bit when i had to cut down and reconnect the plug after a lead went bad on an old station i was fixing.

They sell these everywhere, I think. I used to do repair and rework for a time (xx years back) and we had these massive ERSA stations (about the size of a Midi-Tower-PC), which were great and had a soldering iron, desoldering iron (not gun-shaped, but inline) and some heated tweezers for SMDs. Worked excellent and saw a lot of use. So, as I wanted something similar, though not as expensive, for myself and I found the ZD-whatevers on the web, i ordered a whole bunch of the stuff: a combined soldering/desoldering station, a hot air station, some SMD-Tweezers and a whole lot of spares (you can even get spare heaters). The soldering/desoldering station is a bit flimsy, when you open it up, but it worked and worked pretty well for the work I've done with it. The hot air station (with different nozzles) works great, too. I've even used it for heating plastic for bending :-) I haven't tried the tweezers yet, but I'll have a go at it soon. It's not a station, just more or less two soldering irons with a hinge and a spring. We'll see... Anyway, this stuff isn't bad for infrequent home use, so far.

a little trick to make emptying the solder from the spring easier and also helps make the filter last longer, is to tear off a small piece of paper towel and push it to the bottom of the spring with a pen. You only need a piece big enough to cover the tapered area of the spring. if you have used a hakko (we have a 474 and a 701 here) or other similar de soldering stations you will find after a few times of emptying the solder from the spring it gets harder and harder to get the blob out of the tapered area. This eliminates that problem and we haven't picked up on any noticeable suction difference with the paper fitted. And we get so much more out of our ceramic filters and the filter springs

23:50 you could use a soldering iron to apply some extra heat for pads like that. Also for 26:00

Sometimes cheap pieces of crap work very well, they just don't last very long. That's why cheap and SERVICEABLE are a win for me, lol! ;)

I've been using soldering tools for 30 years. I know what is junk and what is not. The reputable brand names last, the cheap junk usually doesn't. That's a fact. That is precisely why companies and products get a reputation, because their products have proven themselves long term in the industry. Bullshit that wire failed because I opened it, it was a BAD solder joint, it would have failed in time with the vibration.

it is a fantastic machine , it's a dream,i like it to see how easy it works.

The company I work for provided me with a Pace ST115 desoldering station. I think it works really good. The build is all metal and overall well done. I think I prefer the handle of the Pace over the pistol grip style others make. I did a search for pricing once and found that particular model is around $800 US. Not cheap, but worth it if you get into a lot of repairs like I do at my job.

When I was doing a lot of this stuff, we used Royel brand irons and desoldering tools

Love your reviews!

btw the reason they have cable tied the motor thing on the back is that they use the same assembly without it in a different case as a normal tempco solder station (e.g. zd 931)

Bit late to this party, but just got this and it's bloody good for about 3 joints and then the mechanism at the back of the glass tube for the vacuum pipe just jammed open and I can't wait to have to fix it 🙃

those plugs are the same as radio microphone plugs, you undo the little screw and then push in and twist the black end(bayonet style).

One of my buddies bought me one of these in exchange for some auto work, and they are indeed cheap. I've had a few problems with mine, with the most irritating being that the gun nozzle clogs constantly. I can only use it for about 3-4 suction cycles before the back of the tube inside the collection chamber completely clogs. The unclog sticks it comes with are too flexible to remove the clog alone so I have to end up precariously balancing a soldering iron in one hand, this gun in the other and somehow push the unclogging stick down the nozzle at the same time to unclog it. But the problem is that it doesn't remove all of the solder from the tube so the process starts all over again with solder buildup at the back of the tube. If they had put a heating element through the length of the tube so the back also was hot enough to keep solder melted then it wouldn't clog. The other issue with mine is the temperature setting glitches. I have mine set to display Fahrenheit, but after probably a half hour of usage, it will revert back to Celsius. This wouldn't be a problem if it used the same temperature. I keep mine at about 536F and it should revert to 280C, but it drops down to like 160C or about 320F which is too cool to melt the annoying ROHS solder. I have to press the C/F conversion button a few times and it will heat back up to the proper temperature, but it's still annoying it happens. If you don't expect miracles and just need something for occasional projects then this station works alright if you're on the cheap.

hypnotizing!!!!

Fantastic video by the way.

Dave, I know its a bit late, but, that multi pin DIN type connector for the wires to the gun from the front panel, twists a little after you remove that small screw. Those plugs are commonly used for Mic connectors on transceiver equipment. All the hams were probably screaming at you to "Give it a slight twist Dave".

Hi, Well I did most of my time in the RAAF using a ROYAL made in Australia de-soldering station . When I pulled the pin with the RAAF in 1992 I bought a Royal de-soldering and soldering station for $1200 which lasted about 5-7 years then the gun fell to bits and as ROYAL were out of business then that was the end of that. I bought a ZD985 and later several ZD917's ,3 in total I think it was, these are de-soldering & soldering stations. My problems with them were one switchmode power supply going U/S under warranty, several de-soldering iron barrels blocking internally due to the barrel collapsing, some going o/c in the heating element, this happened with the soldering irons too. The main supplier is Radio Parts in Melbourne, they even supply Rhino Tools. The tips get stuck in the barrels too, graphite may work ? I have destroyed a couple of irons trying to get the tips out. At present I am waiting on spare parts to repair some de-soldering guns and a couple of spare irons, irons are so cheap they are not worth repairing. I may have caused the desoldering barrel collapsing myself as it doesn't seem to pay keeping the desoldering station on too high a temperature, 350 deg seems to be max but 300 would be better in standby. By the way the ROYAL wasn't made that well either. I am at present semi retired having started in the trade in 1965 at BHP Newcastle, joined RAAF in 1972 and started repairing camcorders in 2000. The RAAF used to run a NASA standard soldering and de-soldering techniques course of 3 months full time as part of the Radio Trades course. I taught electronics at the RAAF School of Radio way back from 1987-1990.

Hi Dave, nice video - thank you! Funny to see that i had two of exact that boards out of two old UPS. And: i desoldered and kept almost the same parts as you do - the MOSFETs are really nice: 60V, 50A and fairly low input capacitance for its performance. Oh, maybe you could do a blog about input capacitence / gate charge of MOSFETs vs. fast switching applications. I am currently working on a switch-mode power-supply using these MOSFETs, driven by a dsPIC with SMPS-PWM and an LM5104. Cheers!

Like your video a lot ,for this test it would have bin fun to see you try to remove led on a few extremely bent pins to see what it would have done to , keep the videos up they are very informing and professional with a touch of humour that you put in them to.. ...

"Clean the shaft to get some gunk out" ~David Jones 2013

Thanks to You i will buy it!

I got a cheap soldering station with 2 spare heating elements and about 20 spare tips all together so I wouldn't have to worry about parts for a few years. A few years later now and I can't find anything for it, but I still have my own spare parts. :)

hey dave. i have the ZD917 (told uses same desoldering gun as ZD985) and parts are also avaliable from RPG fairly cheap as well, only problem i've had with this desolding station is when doing a few chips at a time the spring heats up fairly quik. however if i keep it clean and let spring cool often seems to work just fine

*Hey thank you EEVblog, good video*

34:16 - very good idea. The heater on mine has just blocked completely, and no amount of prodding with the cleaner will unblock it (even with the heat up to 480C). It had lasted about two years of occasional use. Not fantastic really, but my fault for not cleaning it more often (I'd lost the prodder things until recently). A new heater was only £10 though, so not too bad.

Great review as always. Just a point worth noting, having a floating ground is not a bad thing, as long as it shuts down the current to the heating element should there be a insulation failure. Having a 'real ground' may cause a unwanted short on the component being worked on, e.g. on board batteries and charged caps etc, which could, if a real ground was evident, cause component failure. Thanks again for the review..

Have the same product with another brand. Works fine at first, but if you use it much it will end up clogging even if you clean it. The tip heats, but the solder can cool in the tube on the way to the chamber, either because it doesn't heat or doesn't get hot enough. Ended up getting a Hakko.

Good review! Thanks

Dave, put wire strands in the back of the spring for easy solder removal, or some brass wool from a solder sponge. I've seen units where the spring was so precisely wound it formed a seal once solder blocked the end, sometimes it is necessary to slightly deform the spring. You'll also want an extra long drill to drill it out when clogged. We use several ZD917 for a couple of years now at work (development not production), and it beats the pro units like DENON hands down.

I liked that video so much I bought one on amazon £84.84p delivered. Thanks dave I never seen one of these b4.

at 19:10 I was ready to do a joint also :) do you need anything for lead vapors and can you use something like a coffee filter for the filter?

Might grab one knowing the quality - as I seldom use one but could have used one yesterday to remove a metal shield can in a ham radio to get at an SMT transistor which had died. This would have saved me 1/2 an hours work desoldering the can shield the old fashioned way like you mentioned at the start of the vid - soldering iron and hand held solder sucker :)

Found a VERY similar unit under part number AT-915ESD. The control layout is different on the front panel but the enclosure & gun look identical.

Spend time testing everything now, or only test when and if you use it? I'll pick the latter.

Wow, how often do you get a device and are absolutely delighted? Just picked one of these up, and had parts falling out in my hand. I'm wondering if Dave is still using this and how it's been holding up.

Varies depending on the type of pump. Vacuum cleaners use a centrifugal pump, and blocking the intake means that the vanes are spinning in less dense air, so there is less resistance to their movement. Hence torque goes down, the motor speeds up, and the current reduces. A piston (or diaphragm) pump is a positive displacement pump. Block the inlet, and the piston is pulling against a vacuum, so the load goes up. Think about engine braking. Or block the inlet to a bike pump and extend it.

I have the Aoyue 474A++ which was under 100 GBP here in the UK. When it works, it works well, I do computer repairs (including vintage computers), so I do quite a few through hole dip packages. The only problem is the tips seem to disintegrate quite quickly, then end breaks away and you no longer get a decent seal. I am now having trouble locating replacements.

If you get a couple of years out of it before it breaks, I'd say worth it! Great video, thanks.

I have had a ZD929 soldering station for over 10 years now. With a decent tip it's a good tool for the hobbyist on a budget. Not great, but it gets the job done. It says "Ningbo Zhondi Industries & trade co. ltd." on the bottom.

... looks far better than I expect, but you're more patient than I.

I've got a old ERSA ELS8000 and I'm very Happy to have it, cause it also has a Footswitch :-)

Is oxidation a problem on the tips? I have an Aoyue 8800 and one of the brand new tips lasted a total of 10 minutes before it turned into an unusable oxidized mess.

Zongdi make different models for 220V and 110V. Must be some reason for it, maybe optimisation of the efficiency or something?

Whichever tip you like the least you may be able to drill out to 2.5 mm or whatever if you want to do a bunch of heatsinks?

How about the longevity of this thing? Did you use it often? Is it still alive 3 years later?

This thing is DANGEROUS! If the temperature readout fails, the station enters a positive feedback loops that keeps on heating the gun until it glows red hot. It happened to mine; the metal has turned a blue color.

I've done a video on noise and the DSA.

My ZD-985 seems to have extremely weak suction power, before I rule the unit out as defective, is there anything I could be missing about it? I even tightened the tubing to the main unit with a zip tie and I'm verifying the gun and it seems to be fine. Got it in the Italian eBay shop.

It's video in very good performance machine, I use goot make but not clean this type desoldering component. Sir, this bit size? R you all component one bits?

Yes - I have a Hakko 808 and it was about $200. However, I find that it doesn't work all that well. It works well for true single-sided PCBs but plated-thru-hole seems to be a problem. It usually doesn't manage to melt the solder all the way through the hole. Have you had that problem, too?

you should probably start turning things on before you open them... since now you dont know if it was you of them.

Hi , Great demonstration and wonderfully explained. I just wonder, why u didnt prefer to use the solder paste/flux on the pins , specially towards the end , the grounded pins of caps . I think it would enhance the removal rather than to pump up the heat much . Whats your take on it ? . Once Again thanks a lot for such a wonderful video . Cheers !!

Rhino don’t stock this model anymore since their website says no longer in stock…For us people in Australia, Jaycar Electronics have started doing a similar product - CAT No. TS1513 and they do keep the nozzles and filters too…As for your review, I feel you're a bit over critical at times and although a little on the crappy side, it sure beats using a rubber ball solder sucker…Not everyone has the financial resources to buy a Hakko 474, especially the hobbyist. UPDATE: I went and purchased the TS1513 de-soldering station from Jaycar Electronics only to find that the vacuum pump didn't work…The gun switch tested ok so I proceeded to remove the cover from the main unit, only to find that a wire had broken away from the vacuum pump terminal, leaving a piece of heat shrink sleeving sitting in the bottom...Although an easy fix, it points to poor assembly and quality control, but I was ready to proceed and try it out...Hmmmm, the temperature was climbing but no bloody vacuum, despite the pump racing away!...Next I had the gun disassembled, only to find that the earth wire to the element isn't silicon coated and the tube running through the centre was bent downwards, so I carefully straightened it using a suitable drill bit down the middle, being careful not to exert too much pressure and buggering up the element...After reassembly, the gun still didn't suck due to a heatproof rubber washer being absent, smirking at me from the area of the floor...After much cursing, I tried again and ‘voila’ it was working, I very nearly peed myself with excitement!...Before I knew it, I had a pile of electronic bits the height of Mount Everest…I could have returned it but I couldn't resist the challenge but when this thing finally shits itself, I'll buy something of better quality!

It be pretty cool to design a temp sensor converter since these use ptc in gun I have and most irons use thermocouples and some use ntc be handy to have a universal converter for irons and stations

As my skills seem to be mainly in repairing stuff, I am looking to get something like this... maybe when I've got some spare money. Not sure it would be exactly one of these, though.

so satisfying

I picked up the ZD 915 in the UK for £83 much the same design & build but 140w unit so a little extra oomf for those big multi layer boards.

Just for info. I am in the UK and found a very similar item on ebay with the ZD 915 model number. Seems to be almost the same item and has a better/stronger stand. I have one and it performs just as well as this one but seems to heat up a bit faster. Only drawback is that it has quite a noisy fan.

10:25 It doesn't work on both sides because it's basically a slimmed down version of their rework station (ZD-917), which has a soldering iron on that side, and it's the same part in both. I think.