YIHUA 948 Standard

This unit is Amazing. I'VE been using this machine for a year or more and it works Florlessly.

TLDR up front… Buy it. Well worth the money.Alright, for everyone else that wants details…I have been wanting one of these for a while now, but couldn’t part with $250-$400 for the ones I saw everyone else buying. I found this one while watching a random YouTube video. Looked ok and figured for the price, I would give it a shot. Let’s just say, I have NOT been disappointed. This desoldering vacuum has done everything I have asked of it. I usually use the plunger desoldering pump and desoldering braid. This unit makes short work of desoldering components. The basics operation is as follows:1. Let it warm up (it won’t vacuum until it’s heated to your preset temperature).2. Place the tip onto the solder side of the PCB of the component you want to remove.3. Hold until the solder melts.4. Pull the trigger and let the vacuum do its thing.That’s it in a nutshell. The vacuum isn’t timed, so it will vacuum as long as you keep the trigger pulled. It will remove a good deal of solder before the tip cools enough that the solder stops flowing, at which point, you simply remove the tip and let it reheat a bit. I have removed copious amounts of solder in one pull.The unit was packaged well. Included in the box was cleaning tools and some spare tips, filters, and misc. items.Tip cleaning:You will have to occasionally clean the tip to remove any buildup. You will know cleaning is necessary when it no longer sucks up solder. There are 2 different size tip cleaners, one small and one large. Make sure the unit is preheated and then insert the small one into the tip. Push slowly to remove any clogging, then finish with the large.Vacuum gun cleaning:The vacuum gun has a spring inside to catch the removed solder. Over time, this spring will accumulate solder and require cleaning. To clean, press the tab at the back of the gun. This allows the glass tube to be removed. Inside the tube is a rubber plug, gauze type fine filter, thin black coarse filter, solder capture spring, and a front rubber plug with a small tube. To remove the internal components, simply remove the rubber plugs. The instruction manual has a breakdown of the assembly if you forget how it goes together. I am only going to concentrate on spring cleaning here, because the other parts aren’t serviceable, only replaceable when past their service life. To clean the spring, grasp and hold one end. With your other hand, pull the spring and release, letting it snap back into place. The spring is stainless steel and while some solder may stick to it, the majority will flake off. If you clean it between uses or (depending on how many removals you make each time), you shouldn’t have any issues. I have had massive globs and most would come out. To remove stubborn stuck on solder, I used my soldering iron to heat up the spring and snap it as above. This WILL shoot hot solder, so be prepared with the proper safety equipment and watch the direction in which you aim. I did ruin a spring by trying to over-stretch it and by trying to “unwind” it from the blob… neither of which worked.All in all, after a slight learning curve, I absolutely love this machine. Replacement expendables are available, as well as the complete gun (which I did have to replace because I did something stupid). If you remove components frequently or do kind of electronics repairs, then you need this tool. It is a major step up from plunger type solder suckers, desoldering bulbs, and desoldering bulb type desoldering irons. Through-hole insert desoldering is where this machine shines. The plunger type has a finite amount of suction and I often needed to do the process 2, 3, 4 times before I could remove enough solder to remove the component. With this unit, the vacuum pulls as long as you keep the trigger pulled. Very rarely have I not been able to remove all of the solder in one pull. I am very happy with my purchase and would buy another in a minute if needed. I do a fair amount of desoldering and the time and aggravation it has saved me is well worth the cost. Hope this helps!! Thank you for reading if you got this far.😊

This is the second Yihua device I have purchased. The first was a soldering iron + hot air rework station. That unit has always worked pretty well and has never had any problems. So I purchased the Desoldering Station (Yihua 948). I have used the Desoldering Station a total of five times since I purchased it in June of 2024. The unit has mostly sat in it's original box in the closet. I just used the Desoldering Station (for the fifth and final time) and the main unit started smoldering and smoking each time I tried to use the gun. It would only smoke while holding the trigger, not during idle. This unit is clearly defective. I will be contacting the company. Will update this review if needed.UPDATE: Yihua was quick to take care of the problem. They are in fact a reliable company. I won't hesitate to do business with them again in the future. I have appropriately updated this review from 1 Star to 4 Stars. It would be 5, but I shouldn't have had to deal with a defective unit, the return and being without a desoldering gun for two weeks.

First off, assembling this was not hard at all. Quick desoldering provided you use the correct tip. Cleaning is a breeze and while I lack proper desoldering skills (for now) this made the work so easy a monkey could do it. 2nd best thing is the value proposition this has. Bought it for $135 and I couldn't be happier! Build quality is nice as well. It feels nice and sturdy. Though, it does get tiresome holding it in your hand for a few. All in all, EXCELLENT deal! Money well spent!

The desoldering gun works pretty well. I love being able to clean solder joints so quickly. Left me wondering why I waited so long! That said there is a cost to all this convenience and that is the gun requires some extra maintenance. You got to be constantly poking the nozzle and spring filter in during use with the cleaning pin or else it will clog up and lose its suction power. I also found it helps to remove the spring filter after use and remove as much of the captured solder as possible. This is not as annoying as it sounds but be aware there is additional cleaning involved.As mentioned by another reviewer you got to wait a few minutes for the gun to pre-heat. When it's ready the station emits a loud beeping noise letting you know. After 5 minutes or so of inactivity the station turns itself off. The product includes a few replacement nozzle tips and replaceable parts (e.g., spring filter, cleaning pins and filtering pads). I like these consumable parts can be bought separately from YIHUA. I am sure I am going to need them.Initially I was going to buy the ZD-915 from Pro Digital, but then found this model for less. I already had a positive experience with a YIHUA soldering station so this (and the availability of replaceable parts) made more sense to me. So far I've done a few projects and this gun has made desoldering so much easier. I know there are more expensive choices but for my needs this product has met my expectations.