Industrial sourcing · China to Europe

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Buyer guide · Electronics & assembly

Reflow oven from China

A reflow oven is sold by zone count, but what you need is a stable temperature profile on your heaviest board at your line speed, and no listing shows you that.

Ask about this machine ↗Where the numbers come from

Written and listings checked 30 September 2026. Every figure on this page names its source.

What you are actually comparing.

Two quotes, one machine name

What hides inside the price

Zones and heated length

More zones over a longer tunnel let the board heat slowly and still move fast. The three convection listings we checked had 8, 9 and 10 zones. Ask the heated length, because zone count alone does not give line speed.

Convection, infrared or vapour

Forced hot air is the usual choice for mixed boards. Desktop infrared drawers suit prototypes. Vacuum and vapour phase ovens target void-sensitive power parts and cost far more.

Nitrogen ready or not

Some ovens can run with a nitrogen atmosphere for better wetting on difficult finishes. Ask whether it is fitted, which oxygen level it holds, and what nitrogen supply you must provide.

Cooling section

Air or water-chilled cooling zones control how fast joints solidify. Ask how many, and whether a chiller is part of the price.

Flux management

Flux condenses inside the oven and in the exhaust. Ask how it is collected, how often it is cleaned, and what exhaust airflow your building must take away.

Before you ask for a price.

Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.

Largest board width and heaviest board, including any large copper planes or heat sinks.
Line speed coming from your placement machine.
Solder paste in use and the profile its maker recommends.
Power supply available: phases, voltage and breaker size, and whether the building takes a hot exhaust duct.
Nitrogen: available, planned or not wanted.

Turn the claim into a demonstration.

Require this	A pass looks like
Run a profiler with thermocouples on your heaviest board at your line speed, on video.	Peak temperature, time above liquidus and ramp rates inside your paste maker's window, and the printout kept with the test record.
Reflow a counted batch of your boards after placement.	No cold joints, tombstoned chips or scorched boards found on inspection, and the count recorded.
Stop the conveyor mid-run by simulated power cut.	The oven's backup moves boards out or raises an alarm, as the manual describes.

The documents that must arrive with it.

EU Declaration of Conformity citing 2006/42/EC, or Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 for delivery from 20 January 2027, plus Low Voltage 2014/35/EU and EMC 2014/30/EU.
Manual in the language of the country of use, with installed load, exhaust requirements and cleaning intervals.
The profile printout from the factory test, with thermocouple positions marked.

The one people forget. The installation sheet with connected load and exhaust volume. Your electrician and building owner need both before delivery, and a missing breaker upgrade or duct can hold the oven in its crate for weeks.

When this is the wrong machine.

Buy something else if

Named, not hedged

Your boards are mostly through-hole parts.

A wave soldering machine, or selective soldering for a few through-hole joints.

You make a handful of prototypes a week.

A desktop batch reflow oven, which needs no line and far less power.

Where the numbers come from.

We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.

Listings · 10Ten marketplace listings for reflow ovens, checked September 2026: one was a board carrier, not an oven; desktop and mini ovens asked from US$512 to US$3,200; convection ovens with 8, 9 and 10 zones asked US$8,800 to US$30,000; one vacuum system asked US$280,000 to US$320,000. Asking prices, not landed cost.
GAPGAP - no supplier quotations logged for this machine yet. Three to five quotations for one configuration would give a real price spread.
GAPGAP - no measured profile from any listed oven. One profiler run on a named board at a named speed would test the zone claims.

Related machines.

Wave soldering machine. Choose a wave soldering machine when most parts on your boards are through-hole.
SMT pick and place machine. Read the pick and place page to match oven length to the rate your placement machine really delivers.

Every machine we source in this area is on the Electronics & assembly page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.

Straight answers

Questions buyers ask about this machine.

Is a Chinese reflow oven as good as a European one?+

Heater and fan quality vary more than the frame. The difference shows in profile stability across board width over a long shift, so test that instead of reading the brochure.

What should a reflow oven factory audit look at?+

Whether they profile every oven before shipping, which heater and fan makes they fit, and whether they keep spare heaters in stock.

What CE documentation does a reflow oven need?+

A Declaration of Conformity with its directives and standards, a technical file and a manual in your language. The hot surfaces and exhaust should appear in the risk assessment.

Who is the EU importer of the oven?+

Whoever brings it into the EU. If that is you, your name and address go on it, and you keep the declaration.

Contact

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