I would like to use a smaller hot plate for reflow soldering. I thought about using a single hamburger cooker. This is the one that I would like to use. The pc boards boards that I use are usually small that would fit on the 4 inch grill. It is only 350 watts. Is there a way to convert wattage to temperature? Do you think this would be hot enough to reflow solder? Thanks
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No.
It depends on the insulation of the oven and the construction of the heating element. The only way is to actually measure it.
Thank you for replying to my question. Looking back, it was a rather silly question and I apologize. I probably will go with a full size hot plate since they will definitely get hot enough and have plenty of room. Thanks again.
Thanks LarryD. For what little I am going to do, it will be overkill.
Careful there, overcooked chips taste like crap. 
No it wasn’t silly and no apologies are required.
We are here to answer questions not to make judgment on the questions or those who ask them.
We all have to learn some time.
Learn all the time.
Lately more unlearning and relearning. 
a7
It's not just temperature, but the TIME taken to do the soldering. Most active devices will have some type of heat transfer material surrounding the silicon chip and this can be vaporized. Most data sheets will tell you the TIME that can be used to solder that device.
Paul
Doesn't temperature make a difference too? The reflow profile for smt solder that I am reviewing is
Ramp to soak
Preheat/Soak
Ramp to Peak
Reflow
Cooling
Temperature is important, but is used with time for the smt soldering I plan to do.
Thanks for your response
The maximum temp and the time are the critical variables.
Paul
Regardless of the temperature, hot plate soldering pretty much assumes the board is in full (or nearly full) contact with the hot plate. The Ripples in the burger cooker will not conduct enough heat to the board to work.
Now if the surface was flat... maybe, but you would need to get a thermometer to monitor temperature and manually control the power.
BTW
I use an aluminum plate ( 6" x 6" x 1" ) with 2 cartridge heaters, 125watt each. It works rather slow but I've had good luck. I set the boards on orange sticks (about 1/16" diameter) allow the board to warm up then drop the board on the aluminum. I have to manually control the heaters but for the few times I use it it works fine.
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