Why nobody talks about using a hot air station vs a soldering iron for desoldering

I spent like 2 hours last week trying to desolder a crappy capacitor off a old motherboard with my iron and it was a nightmare. Pulled out my $40 hot air station from Amazon and had that thing off in 30 seconds flat with zero pad damage. Ever since I started using hot air for bigger components I haven't looked back. Anyone else find a specific tool that totally changed how you do one type of repair?

2 comments

2 Comments

harperschmidt12d ago

Same thing happened to me with a stubborn RAM slot on a old laptop last month. Hot air had it off in like 45 seconds, no more fighting with desoldering braid lol.

elizabeth22012d agoMost Upvoted

Did you try flux first?