Best Soldering Irons and Stations Online
Selecting a soldering iron is a decidedly personal choice. Buy Soldering Iron would like to help you with your decision. Hopefully we’ll help you save time and money. It should not be taken lightly as you’ll be using your soldering iron over and over again.
One that performs poorly or that you don’t like the feel of will not be used or you’ll be in a hurry to be done. As a point of reference I started soldering in middle school and took a shop class where I got to use several different models, gaining experience in what I could expect them to feel like.
How will you be using your iron? Will you be doing most of your work at a fixed location like a work bench? That dictates one choice. If on the other hand, you’ll be doing work in multiple locations far from AC power that dictates another choice. What kind of work will you be doing? Will you be doing Printed Circuit Board (PCB) work? Will you be working on heavy duty wiring like large audio, radio frequency or power cables? That means something different.
If you think of your soldering iron as a tool just like any other, for example an open end wrench you can see that you might want several different ones. As a point of reference I have several. They are a temperature controlled and ESD safe model by Weller, the WES50, that I’ve had for about 8 years. I have a large 80watt iron that I’ve had about the same amount of time. I have a 150w electric gun that I’ve had for probably 30 years. Lastly, my favorite, stalwart companion is a fixed wattage pencil I bought at radio shack when I was still in high school. I’ve owned that for almost 40 years. It is definitely my favorite. It has interchangeable heating elements that screw in and out I had three elements now only two, 1 is 33watts and the other is 27watts. They have replaceable, interchangeable tips that screw on and off the heating element. The least used of them is the gun. In fact the last time I used it was to degauss the picture tube in my (now defunct) color television set. Since I’ve had a flat screen for over three years, you can see how often it gets used. I’m fairly confident in my soldering ability so I reserve the use of the temperature controlled station for surface mount work where dimensions are much smaller and components smaller too. That’s just because it takes up more space and is less “friendly” I can carry the pencil iron and everything I need in one hand. The TCS almost need two hands by itself and then I have all the other supplies that have to go along with it.
One type I don’t have and have often thought of purchasing is a butane fired iron such as those made by portasol, iso-tip and Weller.
If you’re going to be doing lots of soldering and primarily working from the same location I recommend that you give strong consideration to one of the soldering stations like the Hakko 936 or the Weller WESD51. If you anticipate lots of bread boarding or re-working then you ought to seriously consider one of the rework stations that uses hot air like the Hakko FR803B. That model is especially well suited for Surface Mount technology (SMD)
If you’re just going to be making little repairs every so often or you want to do a really professional job of installing your car stereo, then a pencil iron is probably the best way to go. I used one of these for nearly 30 years before taking the plunge and getting a nice temp controlled station. That being said, if I had to do it over again, and had the money, I’d buy the station first. I wouldn’t have wasted my money on the gun as it has seen extremely limited use. I received poor advice on that. I honestly don’t know what application(s) it excels at. Pricing? Soldering stations can be had at the hobbyist level for under $100. Professional grade stations can be over twenty times as expensive as the hobbyist version.
Why a big or a small iron? If you’re doing mostly electronic work in close quarters, an 18 to 25watt iron is probably what you’ll find best suited for your purposes. I use my much larger, 80watt iron when I’m attaching the braid on large coaxial cable RG-8 to a PL-259 connector. I’ve used the gun, but it is difficult, the results are ugly and usually short lived. The larger iron does a much better job. If you do opt for a pencil iron and not a station, then make sure you get one that has replaceable parts. Most of the good quality ones are comprised of three main parts. The handle, the heater and the tip. Tips take all sorts of shapes and sizes based on the kind of work you intend to do. A non-replaceable part iron can be found for very low prices and if you’re going to use it once or twice might make sense.
Some people say the bigger iron has more power in reserve or other such nonsense. The element provide some amount of heat energy and the tip temperature stabilizes based on the surrounding environment. The reason a bigger iron is better for a bigger job is that there is more mass that has been heated up. When the iron comes in contact with the work the irons temperature drop is less and the joint is heated faster. That’s why guns do poorly on big jobs; the tips are very small and there is very little mass that gets heated up.
Who makes these things? Ungar, Edsyn, Hakko, Weller, American Beauty, Iso-tip, portasol, TenMa
Now that you are an expert on soldering irons, go out and buy with the confidence of knowing that you are getting what you need. There are links to numerous excellent irons and stations on this site. Once you have your equipment, start practicing. Soldering is a skill and you need to practice it properly and often.
Lastly, please review the information on the other pages of Buy Soldering Iron. We’ll provide insight, tips and hopefully, great time and money saving information.
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