Desoldering is a common task in electronics, especially when repairing or reworking a board. During circuit development and prototyping too, components often have to be replaced to try out different values, which can mean desoldering them. Of course, you can do this with simple means and a lot of fiddling, like a manual desolder pump and solder wick, but a proper desoldering tool will save you time and frustration. Also, it will decrease the risk of damaging the board.

The Zhongdi ZD-8965

The ZD-8965 from Zhongdi is such a tool. It is an affordable and easy-to-use desoldering station, compact enough to sit on any bench. It doesn’t have many special features – basically, all you can do is adjust the temperature and toggle between °C and °F – but then again, what more do you need?

The ZD-8965 is quite stylish with its shiny black, fake carbon look and gold print. There aren’t any buttons on the front panel, only two sockets, one for the heater and the other for the pump, that both connect to the desoldering gun. On the backside is a power switch. When you switch the unit on, a blue 7-segment display appears, and the gun starts heating.
 
zhongdi zd-8965 on bench
The Zhongdi ZD-8965 is the kind of tool that you want to have available at all times, so it needs bench space.

Adjustable Temperature, That’s All

You can adjust the temperature at any time, just tap the Up/Down touch-sensitive icons. With the ‘M’ button, you can set a preset temperature. This lets you quickly return to your preferred desoldering temperature after having adjusted it for some reason.

The desoldering gun has its own stand with a little sponge and brass wool compartment. Its ‘leads’ are about one meter long, which is a bit shorter than normally found on soldering stations. The 140 W gun with its gray plastic parts looks a bit out of style compared to the station. Besides a trigger, the gun also has a little lever on the left side to release the solder reservoir. This lets you empty it and replace its filter.

Accessories For the Zhongdi  ZD-8965

This brings us to the accessories included with the ZD-8965, as it comes with spare filters for the gun (3) and for the station (1). There are also three tips of different diameters (N5-1, N5-2 and N5-3), and three cleaning pins (0.7 mm, 0.9 mm and 1.2 mm diameter). A printed user manual (English only) and a sheet of cleaning instructions (English and German) are included too.

Gobbles Solder Like No Other

As mentioned before, the Zhongdi ZD-8965 is easy to use. You switch it on, wait until it reaches the desired temperature, and then place the tip of the gun on the joint to desolder. Wait for the solder to melt and press the trigger to gobble it up. Of course, depending on the joint, results may vary, but I found that all solder was easily sucked away, leaving clean holes (for THT parts) and making it easy to extract components. Desoldering this way is definitely way more comfortable and faster than with a manual solder pump.

The ZD-8965 is not intended for reworking SMT boards, even though it is pretty good at removing solder, but the tips are too large for such fine work. For SMT, you are better off with one of those tweezer-like soldering irons or a small hot plate. (I often use two soldering irons together for removing SMDs.)

Tough Reservoir

zhongdi zd-8965 reservoir detail
Do not damage this little tube when removing the reservoir.

Once the reservoir needs emptying, you move the little lever upwards to release it. Removing the reservoir seems easier than it is. After releasing it, it is held in place by a little tube that sticks in the front-end of the reservoir. This tube must be freed (not bent) before you can remove the reservoir. Therefore, pull the reservoir backwards as far as you can and then carefully lift its front-end. There is no point in manipulating the lever once the reservoir is released. To replace the reservoir, execute these steps in reverse, i.e. stick the back-end in first and then pull it backwards before carefully pushing down the other side.

Summary

The Zhongdi ZD-8965 desoldering station is an affordable and easy-to-use tool that will save time and frustration for those who do a lot of repair work on boards with through-hole components. It is not really suited for desoldering SMDs. The station looks nice, but the gun seems a bit cheap. This is the kind of tool that you want to have on standby at all times, next to your soldering station(s), therefore size matters. The ZD-8965 requires approx. 20 cm by 20 cm of bench space. How long the tips will last depends on the intensity of usage, but know that Zhongdi also proposes spare parts for its tools.