For unleaded solder and old work, it really helps to apply fresh solder to the joint prior to desoldering. Liquid or paste flux enhances the experience. Being aware which joints attach to a large ground plane rather than to a single trace influences how long the tip takes to melt the entire joint.

This machine needs a lot of technique! …and I don’t just mean the typical “wiggle and add fresh solder first” advice that everyone says. I don’t have this exact machine but I own one very similar and I know all of this applies to yours too. First, 350° C is just too low for plated thru-holes. You wont be clearing many ground or power pins in plated thru-holes that way. For mine, 380° is minimum with 400°+ for power and ground pins. Second, you have to dwell long enough to make sure it is melted on BOTH sides. Flip the board over and wiggle the desolder gun until you can see the leg and solder moving on the top side. This orientation also takes advantage of heat rising to heat all the way through the board. Third, go ahead and pull while upside-down so you get that gravity assist. Heck, when the solder on top finally flows and you see the component leg moving you might even see the solder start to go down to your tip before you even pull. Fourth, if you didn’t clear it on the first pull you aren’t going to clear it on the next unless you restore your heat bridge, which is the missing solder. You lost your heat bridge to the other side and the flow stopped when you only cleared one side so you must add more solder if you ever hope to flow the other side again. Finally, you might find that the reason you repeatedly fail to desolder certain leads is because the suction doesn’t build up fast enough to fully clear both sides before breaking that heat bridge. It sucks up solder from the bottom side while the motor is still spooling up and the top side solidifies before you reach maximum suction. My trick to avoid this is to pinch/kink the hose while I hold the trigger to build up full suction then release the hose to instantly remove the solder. When I first tried this it instantly cleared several leads I had been fighting with for hours… and I was using every trick in the book. That last one took me years to figure out. Even with every other technique I was almost ready to throw it out since it was practically useless for the kind of thing I bought it for (removing DIP40 chips in plated thru-holes). It’s suddenly very useful! No more of the Bizmuth/ChipQuick removal alloy. :) One other thing to be mindful of but which may not apply to all units: When mine was still less than a year old my suction dropped to near zero while I was soldering with the fume extractor function (runs the vacuum continuously with a pipe above my soldering iron tip). Obviously, it couldn’t be the gun since that wasn’t even connected. I was told to occasionally clean the vacuum diaphrams in the motor but I had to break warranty seals to do that. I had long given up on the desoldering function at that point. Eventually I opened it up to clean and only found a bit of yellow flux dust in the vacuum motor diaphragms. No improvement. The internal hoses were clear and already looked remarkably clean so I fully disassembled the motor to clean every component inside and out. Still no improvement. After nearly pulling my hair out I realized that I should see light through the fitting on the front where the internal hoses attach. I had the external cap and filter removed with the case off so light should have been filtering through the clear hoses, but there was none. I put the end of a water color brush in there and saw a tiny puff of yellow dust in the clear hose, exactly like what was in the vacuum diaphrams. Solved! I still remember the moment when I heard the airflow on my iron’s fume extractor slow down and stop while I was soldering. Even before then, suction was so bad I had to position it such that the fumes almost float into it on their own. Obviously, the low-density foam filter between the internal hose and the cap with the external hose barb did nothing to keep it from building up right there where you can’t see the restriction. I don’t know how much of an issue this could be for a unit that doesn’t double as a fume extractor but it’s worth noting if it saves anyone else the trouble.

Nice video! I noticed on my Yihua station, the unit doesn't function terribly well with non-leaded solder but if the joints are ran with leaded solder, it helps greatly. Also, the tip diameter, of the desolder hand piece, can be slightly large and running the tip in a circular motion around the component leg really helps. Of course, lots of flux makes a big difference. Like yourself, I'm really enjoying my soldering station and find for a non-pro, the unit is fine. Thanks for creating and sharing.

I dont usually subscibe often to channels before watching the entire video, but I had to pull the trigger when you said "you watch the numbers go up, I'll go get what I forgot" I'm f--ng rolling right now, priceless! Anyway I have to finish watching your video, talk to you later lol!

I have the Yihua 948-II, which includes SMD rework tools. It's a humbler workhorse at a really good price IMO, and I would certainly recommend Yihua products to others if this is representative of their range.

Got tired of suffering with spring loaded suckers and saw your review on Amazon. Great video, thanks for uploading. Hopefully sometime here soon I'm not lifting pads while trying to remove simple components!

The best one I've used is the Hakko FR-301. You can get different size nozzles and replacement parts are plentiful. Only about $320-50, but well worth it.

I call them Yeehaw. They are an ODM self competitor. Meaning they let others rebrand their stuff, and build other brands supposedly unique designs. I bought some X-tronic stuff of which they have Yeehaw make for them. So a person can see how almost cloned the products are. The difference is the location and access to parts and customer service. I once had a manual solder sucker fly apart as I pressed the actuator. I have an electric manual solder sucker as well. Although I think it gets too hot for most things and the tip hole is too big. I ended up using a spare Weller Wlc100 station to control the heat.

I’m still waiting on mine, but I’ve seen other demos where you wiggle the de-soldering gun whilst operating the pump.

I’ve just bought one hopefully it’ll do what I need it to dunno if I can get smd tweezers for it tho.

The tips come clogged with solder to prevent oxidation. Its normal.

I’ve had this unit for about three years… the best word to describe it would be… cheap. It’s really annoying that you can’t have the soldering iron and the desoldering iron at the same time. The desoldering iron parts don’t feel like they match up correctly. Big tip: use the long wire to clean out the nozzle before turning off the desoldering iron. If it cools down with solder in it it is extremely hard to get unclogged again. Overall it’s not worth the bother. I’ve regressed back to my Weller with a standard “old school” solder sucker.

A little surprised that you failed to immediately note that the spring has a purpose, and there's a blue switch on the back of the gun to initiate a spring-load suck , then immediate re-set. This may minimize the amount of time wasted inserting the long clear-probe. Otherwise, thank you for your video! P.S. My 948 arrived set up differently- and contained no soldering gun. Fortunately I already have their Yinhua 926LEDIII...but not cool feeling ripped off, or that someone stole it during packing...

For occasionally unsoldering job simply use a blue sucker.

Does the desoldering gun still functioning after one year ?

360c might be a better temp love the video. just got the same unit

Do they make different soldering tips for the 948?

Nice machine.....wish i could afford one. Yes, as wookie says, from what i have seen, the gun needs to be moved around a bit when sucking and then it removes all the solder around the component. If you ever watch Haseeb Electronics use his, you will see the technique.

What about the blockage??

Wow.. Very good device! Excuse me, how much it is?

Do you have a review after some months?

Hey C.K., it’s pronounced “yee-HWA”. I’m considering one and thought you might be interested.

Did watching this guy fumble around with the hot soldering iron give anyone else anxiety?

Save your money, get the S 993a or splurge and get the Hakko. This machine is barely adequate. Takes longer but eventually gets the job done. I found the key is letting the solder heat up about 5 secs before suction, move it around to thoroughly melt the solder. The good thing is the gun is smaller and lighter since the suction motor is inside the machine, but you have a hose and wire, compared to just a wire.

sorry to be a bother but please lock the focus/disable autofocus on your cameras good video otherwise

Thank you for the video, bought one too! Maybe yiu can change the title of the video to the correct spelling-Yihua 😅

Здравствуйте

For the love of God, use manual focus so it doesn't constantly keep changing focus. I got to 7 mins in and had to turn it off. Too bad too because I wanted to hear some reviews on this unit.

Pronounced YEE who wa

Turn off auto focus FFS!!!!,

can you review this YIHUA 948D basic version high frequency desoldering gun suck tin station vacuum desoldering station

i tried this,,,,,,, its so hard to remove solder on big relays

All the throughole desoldering tools requiere a lot of time for cleaning. I have one Hakko 808, one Hako FR-301, one Yihua 948, one ZD-985, one S-993-a and one S-998-p. Next list is from Best to worse Hakko 808 I love it. Hakko FR-301 Excellent ZD-985 Excellent Yihua 948 works very well S-993-a complete garbage S-998-p complete garbage Best Regards.