Teardown And First Test Of A Soldering Hotplate! (946C First Look)

Taking a look at this Banggood 946C hot plate for soldering, desoldering and general heating tasks. I take it apart and there are a few safety flaws - but some cool concepts as well, as well as some cool soldering footage!
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[@sorcererstan]

That's a much better heater setup than my unit (which looks exactly the same on the outside). Either I got a cheap copy or they have changed the design. Mine had a one-piece heating pad held against the top plate by a large metal plate -- which was painted (and burned, as I commented before). Anyone who gets one should check the heating element setup to make sure they got the right kind.

[@RandomTorok]

In a former life I worked as a heavy equipment mechanic. We would never put wiring through a metal plate without some rubber grommets to protect the wire from rubbing on the metal.

[@TheDefpom]

I have the same hot plate, only mine is grounded LOL. Aside from that it’s a good tool to have

[@Franktek12]

It seems like they were thinking that the bottom plate and transformer would get grounded through the mounting screws.
Possibly adding star or lock washers would work.

[@djmips]

Scrape away some of the blue coating.

[@AJB2K3]

A video on mods and upgrades for those would be nice!

[@lebronjericho6008]

Nice video I used to use these hot plates when I worked repairing phones

[@EricCarter-dd3dm]

Very good observations on the grounding deficiencies of the Reflow Hotplate. I just received the one I purchased and will make those corrections.

[@DevelopWithDan]

Very cool. That 110v ac you feel when you turn the thing over and it's plugged in is just a reminder that there are no user-serviceable parts inside.

[@bwselectronic]

Might be interesting to see how and why you make sure that's properly grounded.

[@readdaily5680]

Awesome video. I definitely would like to see the upgrades.

[@mic03311]

I am considering this hot plate would be great to see a mod/safe work on this product. Thanks 👍

[@satcomhdtv]

what was the problem to put a piece of thick wire from the side to the bottom? besides there were extra few holes?

[@djmips]

I think another potential use, is to heat up a phone to a temperature that allows you to more easily remove the glued on parts like the screen

[@yurkshirelad]

Any thoughts on the mini hot plates, eg 10cm/10cm? I know about the mini ware one but that’s a lot of Canadian bucks for such a tiny thing.

[@byugrad1024]

A much simpler mod would be to sink an additional self-tapping screw from the bottom into the flange of the sides. Two for redundancy if you want. First scrape away a little paint if you're paranoid, but the self tapping screw would be totally sufficient.

[@futuregadget_v2.1]

Is it possible to use this Hotplate for reflow soldering at 265°C?

[@sarahjrandomnumbers]

Been working on some old Nokia RF amplifiers and this is perfect for them.
They're a PCB soldered onto an aluminium heat spreader, so trying to solder anything onto them just rips the heat from the iron.

[@punpck]

would have been interesting to see the heat distribution. I saw another version of the 946c that was totally different inside. Hat flat broad heating elements and distribution was really good. Not sure about this one.

[@SimpleElectronics]

Sadly I dont have the equipment to properly test that

[@voxpathfinder15r]

I just got one and I don’t understand the directions, it says not operate hotter than 110 degrees Celsius- or the lcd screen may be destroyed. Can I pump up the temperature for smd soldering, or should I just leave it at 100 degrees and use a hot air station to bring it up the rest of the way?

[@AJB2K3]

4PTC heat cartridges?

[@mimivrc4148]

why was the bottom plate not grounded if it was screwed to the rest of the case that was grounded?

[@techdoc.repair]

would thermal paste between the heating elements and the plate help to maintain constant temps? or heat up faster? Also, most of the 946c models come with heat shrink wrap on all the terminals, but obviously worth checking after seeing how yours came, ohh and most versions are grounded. Yes I'd like to see how you modify yours! nice vid, thanks:) you get a sub so I don't miss your mod video.

[@SimpleElectronics]

This one is grounded - minus one panel. I think thermal compound would make it heat faster and maintain easier unless it was tuned without that - but I doubt it was tuned at all!

[@thomasw6169]

Be careful with LEDs. The manufacturer soldering recommendations have surprisingly low temperatures and short times.

[@rosi6144]

Hi, i want to buy this unit to replace bad LED's on TV backlight LED strips. Do you still have the unit? If so, is it still working good? Are you still satisfied with it? Hope to hear from you soon. Many thanks in advance

[@berberger4814]

A guy on a gpu repair discord recommended it to me, saying he did 1200 graphics cards on this combined with atten 862d hotair

[@rosi6144]

@@berberger4814 thanks, but do you still have the unit and If so, is it still working good? Are you still satisfied with it?

[@Okurka.]

Should've added thermal compound while you had it open.

[@SimpleElectronics]

I wanted to test it as-is and I have no high-temp thermal compound unfortunately

[@TheDradge]

With four self tapping sheet metal screws going through that bottom plate, it's hardly not going to be grounded if, as you demonstrate, the sides of the metal case are grounded. Probing the powder coating doesn't really prove anything because you'd expect that to be an insulator. And to want to put heatshrink tubing on the spade connectors in case they fall off seems a bit obsessive and highly unlikely. I bet you couldn't shake the entire unit hard enough to get those spades to fall off the switch. You seem to be extremely critical and looking for any kind of negative (the holes seem to be drilled by hand being one of several examples).

[@neiliewheeliebin]

Its a good hotplate but it takes a very long time to cool down which i dislike, it does handle high temps for extended periods of time but i urge people to check its internals first for any Chinese mains device

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

14:42 - R16 - "Nope, I'm out"

[@djmips]

Sharp eye!

[@fredflintstone1]

Nice review of the product and strip down shame that after commenting that there was not thermal compound you did not add some?? the clips on the socket are captive with a sprung tab of metal China has never understood earthing even in their plug tops🙂

[@andymouse]

Super fast SQUEAK !!!!!!

[@fredflintstone1]

@@andymouse double Cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@SimpleElectronics]

I wanted to test it "as is" first - and I don't have any super-high-temp thermal compound - the best stuff is from Slice Engineering and I can't afford any at the moment - and CPU heat sink compound isn't designed to work above 100c

[@math3390]

Anyone ever tried to use this plate to change LCD glass on the smartphone?

[@electroniquepassion]

Salut,
Super appareil pour chauffer les plats 😀 peut aussi servir de chauffage 👍

[@y_x2]

They should remove paint under the lug and use star washer. This will never pass any approval test.

[@xephael3485]

You need to let it rust more for proper grounding.🤪

[@BradMillsXRP]

Not Grounded Easy!
Then Ground Them