Hakko 936 Clone issue with hand pieces

[Al Slitter]

Hello All;
I purchased a Hakko 936 clone about 5 years ago the unit does not get anything but light use.
I am for the most part happy with it as I am a Hobbyist doing light solder work.
The issue that has come up lately is the hand pieces, the original hand piece worked well for several years. I then went back to E-Bay and ordered a replacement as the performance of the hand piece was falling short of my needs with it slowing down during the heat up stage and slow recovery during soldering after a couple of months of use. I have now gone through 4 or 5 hand pieces and this is now turning into an issue. Replacement hand pieces can be had cheaply but the failure rate seems high.

Has anyone had an issue like I described and what was the resolution other than buying an original Hakko unit.

 

[davenn]

I have now gone through 4 or 5 hand pieces and this is now turning into an issue. Replacement hand pieces can be had cheaply but the failure rate seems high.

hi ya

the obvious question ..... are you REALLY positively sure that it is the handpiece and notw the control box ...maybe it has a fault and it killing the handpieces ??
how long has it taken to kill 4 or 5 handpieces ?

Has anyone had an issue like I described and what was the resolution other than buying an original Hakko unit.

I have 3 genuine Hakko's ... 2 in my home workshop ( one or the other, many times get left on over night or days when I forget to turn off), .... heavy use
and one in my daytime job workshoplight to moderate use

The 2 home ones are 2 and 5 yrs old, the day workshop one around 1-2 yrs

Never had any problems with any of them


Dave

 

[Al Slitter]

You bring up a very good point.
The three areas that can be causing the issue is the logic board, the transformer and finally the hand piece.
What I can say at this point in time is that the hand pieces are failing. How do I know that? After being powered up for 5-10 minutes the soldering iron tips are cold. I replace the hand piece with a new one and the unit works.
What is causing the hand pieces to fail?
The transformer can be checked and should I believe producing 24 volts at 50 Watts.
The circuit board can be checked as well but the issue could be intermittent and thus hard to get a handle on.
One of the hand pieces that failed seemed to have an issue with the internal wiring as moving the cable up and down would cause the red LED to come on.
I have removed the tips and from the hand pieces and all of the wires that control the current and regulation of temperature where intact.
I am just unsure where to go from here?