balance\hobby chargers equalize without making much heat, they just continue charging weak cells, they monitor each one, balance pcb otoh do balancing by draining cells that have most voltage, that does produce heat. but also it depends on pcb, some make little heat other a lot more.
i used to build packs with pcb that had balance function, but i figured using hobby charger would be simpler, and involves less circuits, but if that is not an option, (can only use 2 wires for charging) balance pcb is the only way.