ECO-WORTHY T962AHLHJ DC House T962 Automatic 800W 110V Reflow Oven Infrared IC Heater SMD BGA

After modifying this oven with the well-documented hacks/improvements [...] it works pretty well.WRT the oven itself, it does the job. I did a lot of test runs with an 3 external thermometers to calibrate the unit. I was not able to stop it from slightly singing the silkscreen on some boards, but this may be due to the higher temps required by the lead-free solder paste I use. The temps are a bit higher than the unit reports (use the gain & offset controls in the 3rd party firmware to calibrate), and the thermocouples show fairly different temps, which fairly accurately reflects the temperature variation in the oven, which is not as even as I would like. I plan to replace the 2 thermocouples with 4 and use MAX31855 controllers to manage the sensors in a future project.The only alternative for hobby use (besides the larger unit) is massively hacking a toaster oven, which I considered, but I'm glad I went with this. Far from perfect, but I never thought I would be doing reflow soldering at home and now I am! Satisfied overall.

This oven is great WHEN you apply several modifications.After modding the oven -*masking tape -> kapton tape*transistor for fan*internal temp sensor*ground wire*firmware upgradeThis thing turned into a 5 star reflow oven.I've baked several boards with ZERO issues. No burning, no under cooked, no over cooked :)It's nice - sort of compact - and gets the job done. Great for home based or proto surface mount projects.

The positive I can say is that it doesn't smell as similar reviews have stated, however :The temperature monitoring - the most important part of the product - is totally off. It won't effectively reach the temperatures on the readout evenly. Heats in the center of the tray very well, but outside of about a 1 inch radius in the center it doesn't get hot enough for the reflow profiles advertised. I've tried to preheat the oven before putting the boards in, and even put a single sided FR-4 on the entire tray to try to retain heat and it doesn't fly. Buy one of those modify a toaster oven kits instead of this trash.

After completing the mods described by Unified Engineering, the oven works great. Very satisfied. I added the cold-junction compensation temp sensor and the transistor to control the small fan for cooling the electronics, which really isn't necessary most of the time once you have cold-junction compensation that accounts for a higher ambient when calculating the oven temperature. The electronics don't actually get that hot. I also removed the masking tape as noted and replaced with kapton tape. Overall an easy mod, took 2-3 hours.The updated firmware is easy to use and has several default temperature profiles, as well as custom profiles that you can adjust on-screen without re-flashing. The buttons also work better with the new firmware -- no issues with double presses as some report on the stock firmware.

I am using the oven right out of the box, and I have been getting good results. I found that the choice of solder paste matters; I used a lead-free paste initially, and the solder joints did not form correctly. Then I switched to a leaded paste (MG Chemicals 4860P-35G Solder Paste, Sn63/Pb37) and all is well. I have only used the default temperature curve [F1] so far, as it produces quite professional-looking boards. I will say that the unit looks a bit cheaply made, and it gives off a smokey smell when operating. But this is a very low-priced oven, so I am willing to overlook these minor issues. My only real complaint is the loud whine it emits after the cycle is finished, which seems to keep going until you manually stop the cycle or just turn it off.

Works great once you figure out the menu system. I've been using it for over a month and baked over 100 circuit boards in it. All of them turned out exactly as expected. It's menu system comes in all Chinese and you have to watch some youtube videos on how to get it in English and use it in America. The manual is useless. If the menu system and manual were better I'd give it a 5.

Great little oven for leaded solder. It works and gets boards done. It's small on the outside but good enough to fit a few boards at once if they're not giant. Press one button, wait 7 minutes, out come boards. I can't vouch for fancy lead free solders, obviously this isn't for production but nice to make a batch right after your first board is assembled and tested.