SainSmart Soldering Preheating Station

Too good to be true? Operates better than advertised. Large traditional hotplates require long heat-up times to reach temperature, produce excess heat that prevents close-up work, and can't direct heat to small areas on a circuit board. The MHP30M is smaller than a saltshaker, so detailed rework or assembly with high heat can be done under a boom-mounted microscope. Potentially dangerous, but turn off the default tilt protection safety setting to position it on top or the side of something requiring a lot of localized heat (to 350C). I use it to attach or remove an Integrated Circuit (IC) with a center thermal ground pad without dislodging or damaging nearby components. Temperature is always displayed during operation (missing line of display pixels is result of scan refresh when picture was taken), and LED color under the plate indicates temperature range status even in standby mode. Temperature accuracy was verified with a thermal imager. Not one to review products - this one's worth mentioning.