solder/desolder/air station -> Turned to Hakko FR300 / FX888D, Pro'sKit SS-969B

[neslekkim]

Since you got the FR300, which datecode does it have?

[nanofrog]

So far I've just tested the FR300. Works great for simple PCB, but not really efficient for multilayered boards like computer's motherboards unfortunately.

With all of those layers, pretty much anything you try by itself will struggle (iron, desoldering iron, or hot air). Preheat the board first (say 125 - 150C), and see if that doesn't improve your results and make life easier. 

As per what to use, a used or cheap hot air preheater plate would be ideal (I've a 110V version of an ATTEN AT853A that ran me ~$62 shipped using a discount code <Tenma label on mine>)*. But if you can suspend the board somehow (I use a Panavise), you may be able to rig some way to direct the output of your hot air station to the underside of the board. Another potential solution would be put it in the oven (parts on both sides prevents using an electric skillet).

* Added link.

I was disappointed to see a broken piece of plastic on the FR300 just after unpacking it. It's a very little and useless one, close to the heat gun, but on something at this price it's not really pleasant !

I'd feel the same way.

Contact Batterfly and/or Hakko and see about getting a replacement part sent to you instead of sending the existing unit back for replacement. 

Again, thank you all for your advices and especially to nanofrog

You're welcome. Glad it helped. 

[RichardFr]

neslekkim > I'll have a look on it and tell you. Where is it usually written ?

nanofrog > I don't think it worths the effort. The piece is almost useless I think and I have already bothered a lot Batterfly .
It's well visible (intact of course) on this picture : http://www.batterfly.com/shop/image/data/pic%20hakko/fr-300/IMG_0039.JPG
On the right of the pic, it's the little piece of blue plastic, just at the left of the cylinder where goes the tin.

For these boards, preheating was one of my options . Clearly, desoldering on those multilayer boards with very little holes and massives ground planes is incredibly troublesome.

[neslekkim]

neslekkim > I'll have a look on it and tell you. Where is it usually written ?

I don't know, but it was discussed here, due to some problems with the heating element of some earlier models:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/hakko-fr-300-desoldering-tool/msg620988/#msg620988
I want to get this kit, but batterfly did not answer, and ordering this kit abroard is not funny if you get this kind of problems.

[RichardFr]

Hello,

I've read reviews relating early failure of devices but I (naively?) thought it was fixed since. I see in your topic old versions are still very present on the market .

The manual of mine tells "2014.4", so it could be an old version.
But on the device itself I see a silver sticker with : "2015.02 2", which lets me hope ! I bought it in first days of march, so I'm lucky (and surprised !) if it's really from february.

There is also a model# : FR300-15 (maybe the 15 is a revision ?) and a serial# (which probably doesn't help)

Richard

[nanofrog]

There is also a model# : FR300-15 (maybe the 15 is a revision ?) and a serial# (which probably doesn't help)

FWIW, what follows the dash is usually the voltage portion of the part number. Take the full part number FX-888D-23BY for example, where 23 indicates US voltage, and BY is the color scheme.

In the case of the FR300 desoldering tool, I keep seeing FR300-05/P as the full P/N for the US version.

[RichardFr]

Ok, thank you for the precision. Mine is 230V edition with french/italian/belgian (and maybe others?) plug.