[weblacky]

Hi Ian,
I'd highly recommend investing in a cheap infrared board heater (at least). I've dealt with several (newer) multilayer PCBs and even though you can force a lot of heat into the vias and the pull components, the large planes will sync heat very very fast, often resulting in either substandard reflow joints or over-temping the IC will not having enough overall heat to actually move the solder at all. Clearing small vias is the worst without preheating.

Please try to heat the boards (15-20 mins at least) to 150C to 170C, then use the iron on them to reflow and such. I've made the mistake of thinking I didn't need to do this...and have wasted a lot of time trying. Preheat the board and you'll find the reflow will be much easier.