Industrial reflow ovens basically work by convection. Convection FanĪ circulating air fan is not needed but it may help to improve heat consistency across your PCB.
If you live in a country where the outlets have a standard rating of you can’t draw more than 1500W and you cannot modify your oven unless you ask your energy supplier to install a 220V/230V power line. If you really need to use a larger oven you should consider modding it to add some more heating elements but before doing any modification check for your power outlets power rating. Something around 1500W for a small oven is almost perfect. In other words they have much more “ thermal inertia” which is ok for cooking but definitely you want to minimize it for reflow soldering.īecause of that, you may want to start searching for the smaller oven with the highest power rating you can find in the market. Dimensions and Power RatingĪs a general rule, keep in mind that, since larger ovens have more mass, they tend to heat and cool down slower than the smaller ones. If this happens, you will have no other choice than open the oven and bypass the thermostat control knob. If you want to reflow with lead-free solder paste there is the possibility that the thermostat of the oven will shut it down before the temperature you need to reach. If do not plan to open and modify internally the oven make sure that you can turn it always on with the supplied knobs.
You are not going to use those controls and you can save some money by getting a basic one with only manual controls.
ControlsĪvoid the new electronics controlled oven with cool displays and touch buttons. If you have an unused oven lying around you can try to use it before going out and buy a new one, but if you need to get a new oven there are some things to keep in mind when choosing it to buy the best you can for your job.
Since you will be cooking some nasty things inside your oven you are going to need a dedicated oven for your reflow soldering.