Buying reflow oven QS-5100 vs LY962A

[sairfan1]

Hi, I'm planning to buy reflow oven for smd soldering, while looking around the net i got better reviews/feedback regarding QS-5100 but when i compare it with LY962A has way better specs and price difference is not significant. but unfortunatly i did not find enough reviews regarding this oven.

Basic comparison is as below
QS-5100
Area: 18x12cm
Power: 600w
Size: 300x250x160mm
Price: CA$310

LY962A
Area: 38c32cm
Power: 1800w
Size: 550x400x180mm
Price: CA$360

If someone has some experience regarding these ovens, please share your thoughts about which one is better choice.
thanks

[FotatoPotato]

When it comes to these "low cost" Chinese ovens they are all basically the same. Most of them require some modding to work well and there are quite a few videos on doing that. It might also be cheaper to just buy a nice toaster oven and a temperature reader and making your own oven. Most toaster ovens will go up to 250c which is just enough for lead solder, so you should be good. 

Good Toaster oven: https://amzn.to/2uG0YtY

Temp reader: https://amzn.to/2pZMAYM

[Eka]

If you go the toaster oven route, make sure your toaster oven has two elements each in the top and bottom. That provide more even heating. Consider one that also has a convection fan. You can also use a RC servo to open the door at the end to vent heat faster.

[rstofer]

I built a reflow oven out of a Black & Decker InfraWave toaster oven (no longer in production?) using:
http://www.rocketscream.com/shop/reflow-oven-controller-shield-arduino-compatible

I buried the solid state relay inside the right side walls and mounted the electronics on top of the oven.  This was convenient to wire by just disconnecting the leads from the original front mounted controls.

It seemed to me that the heating time was too slow so I added some high temperature sheet insulation in the gaps between the inner and outer panels.  This helped a lot.  I got it from McMaster-Carr but I don't remember which product it was.

I can do SMD without using a stencil but I haven't tried BGA.  My projects are just ICs, resistors and capacitors.  I typically use 0805 size devices because they are easy to handle.

I ran the thermocouple lead through the back wall of the cabinet.  When in operation, I push the thermocouple into a via on the PCB.

[sairfan1]

As I'm hobbyist, after my job I do not have enough time to build things that's why I prefer to buy tools to save my time and work in the lab rather than preparing things, I have been gone through some videos on youtube regarding converting general purpose oven to soldering ones, mostly i saw avg. reviews on that and it needs time.

I was thinking if any of you guys have been using any of these chinese ovens? reviews on youtube and web sites rather confused me a lot, one person recommends it and other says stay away from it.  I thought to discuss with you guys may be some of you already using those.