FR-300 Heating Element Swap

[CPUWIZ]

Forgot to post these images, in case they may help someone in the future.  All super easy and self explanatory, one piece of advice (picture of bottom) from me is make sure the rubber boot is in place exactly, when re-assembing.  

 

Note the date on the handle, impressive life span of the heating element!  Also, the heating element comes tested, so it has some burn in (see pic).

 

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I just had to replace my heating element assembly a few months ago. I noticed that the LED was starting to flicker randomly and just thought maybe that light was going bad. But then I noticed that the iron itself didn't seem to be keeping consistent heat either. But I continue to use it. Then I noticed one day.. the light was staying on constantly and the iron was never heating up. So I took it apart and quickly discovered that both of the wires to the element were no longer attached to the core. Basically the heat insulation and frame was just press fitting them on and that was why I was getting the sketchy operation until one of those leads finally came loose fully.

 

Pretty simple to replace it out and I actually had spares to go ahead and rebuilt the entire Fr-300 internal parts and give it a nice good cleaning as well. I think I've had mine for just over a decade before this happened and I also know that if I hadn't forgotten to leave it on just a few days before it started acting up, that I might have gotten some more life from it on the original element. Yeah, forgot about it one day and discovered it had been left on for easily just over 24 hours. Apparently I hadn't flipped my master switch to off on my outlet strip a few nights before as I usually do when I'm done in the lab.