Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station Review

The Need

In addition to restoring antique radios, I also service household electrical and electronic devices. Recently, I serviced my Magnavox LCD Television, it needed an 8 pin surface mount EEPROM replaced and I didn't have the right tools to replace it. That is when I decided to invest in a SMD (Surface Mount Device) Rework Soldering Station.

The Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station

The Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station​​ at the time of this writing was the cheapest combo hot air gun and soldering rework station on Amazon. At the time of purchase the price was $53.88. You could pay in excess of several thousand dollars for a good SMD rework soldering station and it might be worth it if you serviced printed circuit boards with SMD mounted components on a daily basis. I chose the inexpensive Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station because as a hobbyist I rework printed circuit boards with SMD components on an infrequent basis. The Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station boasts the following features:

• Independent control of hot air gun and soldering iron.
• Uses control circuitry to accurately maintain heat of hot air gun and soldering iron. 
• Hot air gun and soldering iron are fed by a low voltage DC power supply.
• Rapid warm up of soldering to selected temperature.
• Hot air gun rapidly comes up to prescribed temperature then cools when put into cradle. 
• Hot air gun includes four tips sizes to accurately direct the heat only at the required component(s).
• Soldering iron comes with six different tips including a micro tiny tip used for SMD rework.

Note: This SMD rework station displays temperatures only in Celsius, there is no switch to change to Fahrenheit. 

There is a person who claims you can add a jumper inside this workstation to change it to display in Fahrenheit. I will include the link to this later in this blog.

Unpacking

Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station comes in an individual box only slightly bigger than the rework solder station itself.

This rework solder station comes with an instruction manual, four hot air gun tips of various sizes, six soldering iron tips of various sizes, some sort of tool with wire ends that I am not sure what it is used for, and the manual. The manual attempts to instruct you on the operation of Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station. In my opinion, you're better off watching YouTube videos covering operation of this rework solder station. I think you will find them more useful. 

Top view of the rework solder station before I lift if out of its box. The black cable to the right is attached to the hot air gun. Unlike the soldering iron, the hot air gun is permanently connected to the rework solder station. There is not connector that will allow you to detach it.

Here are all the discrete parts in the package. The solder iron stand (blue rectangular object and to the right) is supposed to include a tip cleaning sponge. It is noticeably missing. The hot air gun holder (black plastic piece in the center) needs to be mounted to the rework solder station cabinet before operation.  The rework solder station senses when the hot air gun is in the cradle and turns off the heating element, leaving the fan on until it has sufficiently cooled. 

Quality Control Check

I like to perform a quality control check on dubious branded electronic equipment from China before initial operation. This equipment is typically well designed but hastily assembled. The first step is to remove the machine screws on both sides that holds the cover in place.

The company "ZENY" that assemble this rework workstation uses some sort of red adhesive to keep the wire connectors firmly attached to the main printed circuit board.

During assembly, they never applied heat to the heat shrink tubing that covers the high voltage AC connections. 

This was an easy fix.   ​

I didn't like how they soldered the two ground connections together. They soldered the second ground connection to the first in order to save a lug.

I fished out another solder lug from my junk drawer then soldered the second ground connection to it. I then fastened it back down using one of the screws that holds the step-down transformer in place.

There were no other issues with my rework solder station. I went ahead and reattached the cover then installed the hot air gun holder.

This is how the holder looks with the hot air gun in place.

Some buyers complained that the ceramic heating element in the soldering iron did not make good contact with the solder tip, causing poor thermal heat transfer, this was not the case with the solder iron that was included with my rework solder station.

The soldering iron connects to the rework workstation with a screw on connector and can be easily replaced.

Electrical Testing

I like to perform an electrical test on dubious branded electronic equipment from China before initial operation. The first checks was to measure AC Volts between the rework solder station cabinet and a grounded electrical socket. I did this in my basement bathroom as it has an AC outlet that is most easily accessed. Note to self, install a GFE outlet in basement bathroom in the future. The multimeter measured 2.5 Volts AC between rework solder station cabinet and the electrical socket ground. This is within safe levels.

The next test was measuring AC Volts between the metal tip of the hot air gun in holder and the electrical socket ground. The measured voltage was 0 Volts AC, very good!

The next test was measuring AC Volts between the metal tip of the hot air gun out of holder and the electrical socket ground. The measured voltage as 1.8 Volts AC, this is acceptable.

I measured AC Volts between the metal tip of the soldering iron and the electrical socket ground. The measured voltage was 38.1 Volts AC, this seemed a little high and it concerned me.

Until I performed the same electrical testing on another temperature controlled soldering iron and found it to be close to 30 Volts AC as well.

In use

Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station's soldering iron worked great on soldering a surface mount integrated circuit on the printed circuit board of radio kit I purchased from e-bay.

In addition, I was able to replace this surface mount 8 pin EEPROM in my Magnavox LCD Television using this rework soldering station. Using smallest tip I was able to direct the heat of the hot air gun on the pins of the surface mount integrated circuit then lifted it off the board with tweezers. I was able to dial in the soldering iron temperature where it had just enough heat to solder the surface mount integrated circuit back onto the printed circuit board without damaging the component or the board. 

Conclusion

The Zeny F2C 2in1 862d+ SMD Rework Soldering Station would be a great asset to any hobbyists' workbench who has the occasional need to do rework of surface mount printed circuit boards. The integrated soldering iron with multiple tips can replace your current workbench soldering iron.

Youtube Video 862D+ Celcius to Fahrenheit conversion