Soldering Station

davidom2513

I am finishing college soon and I'm on the lookout for a good soldering station. What is the best value soldering station around? My budget is circa €100 - €120

I was considering a Hakko Fx-888D, however they work out at approx €165 for the 220v version from Dancap (Hakko UK Distributor). The American 110v version is $90 on Amazon.com.

I am also considering a Hakko 951 clone:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-ESD-lead-free-220V-digital-HAKKO-FX-951-Soldering-Station-hakko-fx-951-rework/874421666.html

I currently have a Maplin Iron, but its useless, it wont even melt solder for me. The Maplin irons are generic Chinese products.

So does anyone know of decent stations that they would recommend?

shmizan

Hi davidom2513.
I'm sharing the same problem as you.
I'm from Israel and here the Hakko FX-888D costs 190 Euros, which is totally unacceptable considering the price of the US version.

I'm considering a few options but couldn't make up my mind, so I'll review them in case they will help you decide:
for the 110v version:
1. use a shipping service to ship the 110v from Amazon
2. buy through ebay with the same price like amazon for a genuine 110v unit (lower shipping and taxes cost vs. the amazon option).

for these 2 options you have the following choice:
a. use a step down transformer.
b. replace the inner transformer with a 230v version like a few other successfully did (I can list a few links if it interests you).

for the 220v version:
1. use a taobao (ebay-like chinese website) agent (because taobao doesn't ship outside China and it's all in Chinese) of a specific taobao product which has ~150 Chinese reviewers confirming it's genuine. it's ~99+20 US$.
2. take a shot with a few good rated AliExpress sellers (will most likely be a fake).
3. take a shot with one seller who sells the 220v version on ebay for 140 US$.


why I didn't choose an option yet:
I've talked with a few of these Alibaba/AliExpress sellers and they promised the units are genuine. I wanted to dig further to see if they lie. so when I asked for a lower price, all of them offered a copy unit for 60$.
when I asked for visual differences, they replied the 2 station are identical.
so then I asked, if I choose the original unit, how can I be sure they will send the original one and not the copy one if they look exactly the same.
they said the original has a serial number you can register online @ Hakko's website (which I couldn't verify).

why I didn't go for the 110v version: with the taxes and shipping it adds up to 154 US$ not including the step down transformer.

while it may seem like a good choice, getting the clones/fake units from aliexpress, you can't be sure of their quality, and in the price you mention - it's just not worth it IMO.

Boogietime

davidom2513 wrote: »

I am finishing college soon and I'm on the lookout for a good soldering station. What is the best value soldering station around? My budget is circa €100 - €120

So does anyone know of decent stations that they would recommend?

Have you tried radionics? They're based in Dublin and way above maplin crap in regards to prices and quality. Service is also great (but Maplin has the same level imho, always helpful staff, shame for their products and prices though).
You'll find them on a google search for radionics.

dvd

imo the best soldering station is the metcal range such as the sp200. check ebay for a good second hand one.

davidom2513

Thanks for the reply shmizan. Sorry for late response, very busy with college exams.

It ends up being a bit too expensive for the Hakko either way. Buying the 110v and then a step down, or a inner transformer brings it close to the range of the 220v Hakkos. Its a real pain.

I wouldn't trust the seller on Aliexpress to be honest. Its not gonna be genuine. And it wouldn't be worth the hassle to return it if was a clone.

What you said about taobao sounds interesting. Its hard to navigate the site since its in Chinese though. Let me know if you have any success.


@Boogietime, I looked into Radionics, I was tempted by the metcal ps900 at 176 euro, but, VAT of 40 euro gets added on at checkout.
What do people think of this iron: http://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/soldering-stations/0186719/

@dvd, I've seen one or two metcals on ebay, but only the base station is for sale. What soldering iron should I get if I buy a SP200, or a PS900 base station? And where is best place to get an iron for it?

shmizan

davidom2513,
I have an update.
after doing some thinking, I chose to use a taobao agent (bhiner.com) for my purchase (from the seller who urges the buyers to check the authenticity of the Hakko FX-888D when they receive it, and has 160 positive product reviews).
the item arrived to their warehouse and they put photos of the solder station.
I called Hakko Hong Kong customer service as per hakko.com.hk/webpage/contactPage.html, to verify the authenticity by the serial number I saw in the picture.
they checked and said it's genuine.
now I'm waiting for the item to arrive.

all in all the cost is:
72.5$ (440 chinese yuan) for the product.
4.13$ Domestic Shipping Fee
3.84$ Agent Service Charge (5% which is by far the cheapest I've seen).
58.25$ international shipping - NOT express (didn't want to use express, they take outrageous fees for made up stuff) weight is ~2.5kg
total is 138.83$
add 3% Visa commission (or 3.5% or 4% if you choose paypal)

total of 143$ which is ~105 euros. seems to be up with your budget.
note: express shipping cost more. you choose what value to declare in the package details if you want to avoid customs etc.

if it's in any interest, I will update when the package arrives.

moodrater

I second a used metcal, my metcal is about 15 years old, still heats up in about 7 seconds, and has just needed one new handset in that time. Hakko and pace are like a fecking tree trunk in comparison, I can solder a bnc socket with a huge chisel and withing a few seconds change to a tiny pencil for ssop etc.