Just realized my hot air station was 50 degrees off for a whole year

I bought a cheap 858D off Amazon like 2 years ago and never checked the calibration. Last month I was trying to reflow a BGA chip on a motherboard and kept burning pads. Finally pulled out a thermocouple and tested it. The display said 380C but the air coming out was actually 430C. Has anyone else found a big temp gap with those budget stations or is it just me?

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victor_carter514mo ago

Friend of mine had the exact same thing happen with his 858D. He stuck a thermocouple in front of it one day and found the real temp was always about 40-60 degrees higher than what the screen said. He ended up buying a cheap PID controller and a solid state relay from eBay, rewired the whole thing in one weekend. Worked perfect after that, no more mystery temps. Makes you wonder how many boards got cooked before we all started checking.

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nora544mo ago

Totally agree with @victor_carter51, I did the same PID swap on mine and it was night and day.

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