Zephyrtronics provided me with excellent service

[stuartk]

I recently realized that I needed a pre-heating station for easier solder reflow. Since I’m doing double sided boards, the toaster oven method didn’t make any sense as components could fall off. Either did a hot plate as scorching components didn’t sound like fun and my boards would not be able to lay flat due to the irregular height of these components.

This led me to either the Hakko FR-870B
http://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_fr870b.html

Or the Zephyrtronics ZT-1-CLS-DPU Airbath.
http://www.zeph.com/smdpreheater.htm

The Zephyrtronics offerings seemed better thought out and I hated the idea of peering down into the intense glow from the Hakko while using my hot air station to reflow under a microscope.

There were some poor reviews online of lackluster customer service with emails and the phone not being answered or orders shipped in poor condition in 2014.
I decided to email Zephyrtronics with an innocent question as to how long their solder paste kept on the benchtop vs. the fridge. I received an immediate response from David Jacks the President of the company. After my numerous questions became too lengthy to write by email, David suggested that I call in to talk with him. He was approachable and provided me with valuable advice. He was very passionate and knowledgeable about soldering.

As my phone calls and emails were answered promptly and professionally I decided to order one of their packages. Unfortunately the package didn’t have exactly what I wanted and they were willing to make a custom package for me.

They have to ship their solder paste by UPS given hazardous material concerns. Anyone who lives in Canada knows that UPS is by far the most expensive way to order from the U.S. The staff at Zeph, split my order, shipping the expensive equipment via USPS, and the paste by UPS, saving me a wad of cash. They even charged me half price shipping for each order so that I wouldn’t have a double shipping charge!

To boot, they upgraded my PCB cradle to the more expensive model for free and even threw in a free solder roll dispenser for my trouble, though in truth I was trouble to them!

They sent me a personal email to see if I was satisfied with the equipment and if everything arrived in good shape.
I just deboxed the items today, everything was obviously brand new, professionally packed and shipped.

Here are the stats of my shipment: (They only charged my CC on the day of shipping)

Carrier           Order price CDN$   Customs Fees and taxes   Percent of order paid in tax   Time from shipping to delivery
UPS Ground        $330                       $81                                 25%                                          9 days
USPS Ground      $2,663                    $132                                5%                                           6 days

Given the excellent service, I don’t have any concerns with ordering from Zeph.

Regards to all,
Stuart

[helius]

If the solder paste is leaded it probably has a hazard class 6.1 and is therefore prohibited from international postal mail. In the contiguous US such articles can be mailed when properly labeled.
My budget doesn't permit me to purchase them new, but Zephyrtronics preheaters are very well built units. I believe they could be engineered to be much less expensive to make in larger quantities: they use COTS blowers, PID controllers, and SSRs that don't look cheap at all. They also have a capability that IR preheaters don't, to blow room-temperature air on the PCB to cool it after the rework cycle.
I also really like their their PCB cradles. The hot air and vacuum pencils are less remarkable, there are many comparable products like these.

[John_ITIC]

I am here in Southern California, as is Zephyrtronics and have done some business with them. I ended up buying my ZT-7 rework station elsewhere since I found a brand new one on Ebay for a much lower price than new. I have bought some supplies from them including heat nozzles for my ZT-7. David Jacks does talk a lot so you occasionally have to steer the conversation back on track!

I have both the small and "big" airbaths and I suspect the small one (same as yours) is too small for *evenly* pre-heating anything than the smallest cell phone PCB. The idea with pre-heating is that the whole PCB should be heated up gradually with some 1-2 decreed C until it has reached about 150 Deg C. Then the upper heat source is turned on for soldering/desoldering. I have read that having a too concentrated pre-heat can result in warped boards. Perhaps, though, the small airbath is okay for PCBs with not too many solid ground/.power planes that wick the heat away (my boards tend to be 8-10 layers with many GND/PWR planes - although not too large PCBs). I got my ZT-7 so I could rework even larger BGA FPGAs during prototyping.

Even with a pre-heater, be careful not to apply too much heat from the top since this can easily cause laminate separation. This is the reason i bough the ZT-7 rework station. It has a controlled heat profile and mechanically will hold the nozzle with a fixed distance from the PCB. Both the air-bath and the ZT-7 rework station will supply cold air to heat down quickly after soldering. This is very important when soldering BGAs; the solder joints can otherwise be less than good.

I also found that the ZT-7 doesn't actually use a "normal" reflow temperature curve. It simply ramps up and down with a temperature profile that looks similar to charging/decharging a capacitor. In practice, it apparently doesn't matter too much when reworking...

Overall, I would say that I'm happy with the Zephyrtronics gear (although overpriced as some would say).

/John.

[Bud]

Since I’m doing double sided boards, the toaster oven method didn’t make any sense as components could fall off.

Did you try and they fell off? What components ? 10 years here with a toaster oven and double sided boards, yet to see any single lost component.