Not sure what the big issue was, it was actually functionally not far from the Hakko in this review. The way the review should have gone is to set the dial and then measure the tip so that both were set to 300C, then do the solder test.
Yes wasn't it ironic that he initially measured that the temp was low but no effort to recalibrate or adjust so both had the same tip temp. It's almost as though it was deliberate to try to skew the results.
Since you demonstrated that the calibration was out, you were not really comparing like for like by setting the temperature on the control unit the same on each... Obviously as a "system" the comparison is valid assuming someone trusted the calibration... but it's not really comparing the iron itself.
@@OgbondSandvol dave got spoiled by professional gear 😂 I bought one yesterday for 30$ "tax is 15$😢" and it is amazing in comparison with my 3$ old cheap soldering iron
I bet a lot of the cruddiness inside was down to the caustic nature of the cursed "lead free" compatible flux that just corrodes everything in the vicinity. I noticed the transformer was actually labelled at 24V. I've got a combined Yee-Hah soldering station and it actually uses a 32V winding for the iron. I thought it was just to push it harder, but when I measured the voltage at the irons internal PCB as it heated from cold the voltage had dropped to 25V. I wonder what the voltage difference is between the Hakko and Yee-Hah measured at the element.
The flux difference has nothing much to do with lead free vs leaded, it's just a water soluble flux that they didn't take the extra manufacturing step to spray off. Aesthetically it looks bad but it's not hurting anything to be there, UNLESS it gets wet. If it gets wet then it's much more of a PITA because it can cause new short circuits. There are some crossover points in these stations where some are only 50W despite rated for 60W and some true 60W and some even 75-ish watts. That could account for the voltage difference or possibly you just measured without the heating element as a load? Either way the resistance of the element will rise a little as it heats up. Either way, remember that a transformer voltage rating is what voltage it is at the rated current, essentially a VA source not a regulated output, especially with a sloppy E-core tranny.
I was about to leave a separate comment about how these cheapo soldering stations are good enough for Clive Mitchell, and look who's already commented here. I just wish I had found Big Clive's channel before I blew over $100 on a genuine Hakko 888D.
Bought one of these after watching this video 2 yrs ago. Only finally burned out the handheld part, and got replacement part for $8. Medium-high hobby use and I abuse it. Works great on small stuff. Ordered 2 complete units as backup it works so well. I have low budget and these are a huge upgrade over a plain non-temperature controlled iron. Enabled me to be able to do limited SMD soldering which I could never do with a standard iron.
honestly it doesnt seem that bad. a soldering iron is pretty much a stick that gets the right amount of hot. its like %20 of the hacko so as long as it lasts around 1/5 of the time or if you dont use it enough to kill it then it should be worth it.
I’ve had one of these for five years now. I got a proper set of tips for it and changed the heat element after I dropped it. I usually run it at max temp soldering XT60 connectors. It has not failed me. Bang for the buck value is thermonuclear
The problem with Dave is he's spoiled with professional gear ;) I bet if he was a guy starting out he'd say - cool - only 16 bucks! But at least this time he did kind of sort of recommend it for hobbyists lol. I bought a Yihua 937 with the LED temp readout last year and did some work with it on a pcb and it worked great - also the insides didn't look like this one did - decent solder joints and it maintains it's heat at the tip quite well too. I'd like to see you take a different approach is some cases when you review cheap stuff and rather than just cut it up - recommend mods to make it better, like you did with this review about the crimped ground connector. Guys who are doing electronics as a hobby cannot afford top rate gear so help us out picking up some half decent inexpensive gear. Talk less, say more and for Pete's sake stop the whining :) And thanks for the video ;)
I agree...Out here people hate on Harbor Freight and start saying..."stop buying china freight and buy snap-on, makita, craftsman, blah blah blah". I am not made of money, have a trust fund or even own a shop. I am just a hard working guy that don't have $125 for a wrench. I would rather spend a couple of bucks for something that I'm going to use at home a couple of times instead of spending a lot of money when I'm only going to use it a little bit of times.
I think Dave does a pretty good job but it would be nice if he could check out some of the ebay stuff and give us his views on it. Not just "it's crap" cause it's not brand name ;) But will it work for the home hobbiest, is it close enough to specs, safe, accurate enough. Most of us are just playing around at home and learning and many times "it's ok" is good enough for our needs.
Oh Dave. I'm sorry Dave, i can't open the pod bay doors. You're becoming snobby. We don't let snobbies thru the pod bay doors. HAL was put together w/ a shitty soldering pencil. No pod bay doors for you.
You go right ahead and be a EE snob. I can translate from snob to my level without any issues. Based on this review, I bought this station (I actually bought the upgraded B version) for a whopping $22 USD, shipping included. I think some who follow you miss that there are 3 types of EE Hobbyists. You are generally speaking to HOBBYISTS!!!!! They are very focused on EE and many look to make this their career in the future. Then there are Hobbyists. They have EE as their main advocation but it is not their vocation. Then there is me, I am a hobbyist. I have EE and several other advocations I spend my free time on. For the HOBBYIST and maybe the Hobbyist, a $100 on a station may be a good deal. But for the hobbyist, that's a huge chunk of my annual EE budget. I like the fact you dig into EVERY detail and point out all the flaws. And after you found no safety or glaring flaws I bought. Very happy so far. Thanks
I agree with the lead fumes. Not good. Good ventilation, and donating blood every 2-3 months can help prevent the build up of toxins in your body. :-) You get to make new blood all the time, and save lives while doing so.
electronicsNmore you could use led free solder. I Just had a look my solder and I'm going back to the store at the end of the week to get some led free stuff. (I picked up the wrong stuff last time) As much as I'd like to give blood I can't. I was in UK when mad cow disease was around and I ate beef = they won't let me give blood. + I don't like the alternative - blood letting.
I used copper-based lead free solders and I can tell that they are pretty much just garbage. The joint they give is very weak and fragile especially at low temperatures (below -10...-20 degrees Celsius) which is not so uncommon unless you live like somewhere in Africa. An other issue is that their much higher melting point makes them harder to use properly. Also the temperature required for them kills soldering tips much faster than regular 280...330 degrees generally used for a regular 60/40 Sn/Pb. There are some places where lead-free solder is actually required like soldering silver-coated parts, sometimes there are some legal issues with lead solders and lead-free solder can be somewhat appropriate for some delicate commercial products made for indoor use and limited lifespan, but for a general purpose use and electronics repair I would always recommend lead-based solders unless you really have to use lead-free ones or you really know what you are doing. If you are concerned about your health and the environment at least think about how much more energy is used and flux burnt to make all this lead-free stuff work. Considering all the factors involved the good old lead-based solders will not seem so bad in this respect.
So really apart from the build quality there's not much difference? Just buy a good tip and its a pretty good iron. All the iron has to do is melt the solder. We've seen that with a +50 degree change on the dial it can perform the same as a genuine iron so just rig the dial up. I don't work with electronics everyday but I've done some big projects over my time and I've never understood people who big up on buying really expensive (£2000+) work stations. The only reason I can see anyone spending that sort of money is for micro scale projects where the joints are too small to see and work with. Like this guy said in the video, if you can afford to buy the genuine tips then you shouldn't be buying a $16 iron. Well that's just stupid philosophy. Cheap iron + Expensive tip < Expensive tip + Expensive iron What can your iron do that mine cant, well it has a cheap plastic build and I need to turn the wattage up more to melt my joints.
You insult this decent iron and say it's horrible. It's a $16 iron bro, have some mercy on it. This is an amazing iron for beginners and I don't think you need to degrade it so much in your video. Just saying.
I would say great for a first iron, you always start off with the worst stuff and build up to better equipment as you get more into the hobbie and gain an ability to afford the better equipment.
***** Actually he is right. You don't want to spend large quantities of money on a soldering iron if you are just starting out as there is a risk it may get damaged/broken. However something like that is ideal if you only use it once in awhile, like a small hobbyist. I have a cheapy that plugs straight into the mains but I barely use it.
***** As opposed from buying a mid range to expensive one that you'd then sell on ebay for half price because you lost interest? And then loose money that way? It's an iron. As long as you understand what it does and what you're supposed to do you can do anything. Sure you're not gonna use gramp's old 1 cm thick 1921 Sachs tipped mains air craft grade soldering wire to do smd's but for crying out loud you're talking as if buying the expensive one somehow makes you instantly soldering god and there's no way in hell anything else works. Also, don't forget that what we buy cheap today was super expensive years ago via cheaper methods of construction or chinglishims (the art of Chinese copy cat products). So if years ago they could do just fine with a simple soldering gun a beginner can just as fine use a cheapo to make burn his feathers on it. I started work with a broke ass incomplete Weller military set that my uncle's sister who lived in America had bought as a gift for him from a yard sale many years ago. It did just fine.
Wrong; this is nothing but a great way to discourage you from working with electronics!!!! Buy something decent and it will always be decent, buy crap it will always be crap. A guitar that won't stay in tune is just like a iron that won't stay hot, it will do nothing but discourage a new learner. And if you lose interest you can recoup a fair amount of the value of something decent, crap is worth nothing. How much would someone pay for a 2nd hand $16 iron? How about the 25 yr old 926? Cheap is always a losing proposition.
Jarrod Roberson It wont discourage anyone from trying. I have a cheapo mains iron and it works just fine for what I need it to do. Some people don't need an expensive iron nor can afford one. It also depends on what task you need an iron for. If you're getting into electronics then yes, a decent iron with temp settings etc is a very good idea, however if like me that uses it for other electrical tasks/larger tasks a cheapo one is fine.
Jarrod R - Nonsense. This soldering station works fine and does nothing to discourage a new learner. Only an idiot starts out paying a premium for tools whether it be soldering or plumbing or auto mechanics etc. You buy what you need and upgrade as your skills and work rate start to exceed the tool, once you can make a valid case for a higher quality tool paying for itself from higher productivity. A beginner has no such productivity concerns.
If you only have 16 dollars then there is nothing wrong with getting one. OK it won't last a lifetime but you wouldn't expect it to, as long as it does a handful of projects then it is worth while. I wouldn't pay for a Haikko because it would be like buying a Bentley to go shopping once a week. I prefer quality tools every time but sometimes you just need to economise for the sake of practicality.
Oh dear looks like I've woken up an angry couch potato. I was only trying to illustrate a point and using the brand Bentley to describe something of far higher intrinsic quality and value than a 'One Hung Low' brand which costs peanuts. There is no need to go on a mission to prove that Hakko is better than a luxury car, I get your brand loyalty but don't subscribe to it.
Ian Clarke You don't understand, Hakko is a utility brand, Bentley is NOT a utility brand. It is semantically not an equitable comparison metric. Hakko is definitely NOT the Bentley of soldering stations, it is a brand based on quality and utility, the fact that it isn't $16 doesn't make it a luxury brand by an stretch of the imagination. I as commenting on the fact that you claim that Hakko is some kind of luxury brand is misguided at best. Nothing to do with brand loyalty that is you projecting your values on to others opinions nothing more.
This is EEVblog, if you expect to see Dave giving a seal of approval to a cheap tool, it won't happen (maybe if he banged his head really hard that morning), he looks at the price first, then the brand, then he makes a decision of if it's good or bad and then does the review which can change a little bit his conviction but not a lot as also the aesthetics and feel of the product will count for more than the actual performance, I've seen a lot of reviews so I know how he works, the only reason I keep seeing this is because I'm interested in seeing how the things themselves perform, not his reviewing, which sucks by any metric.
Yes same here, I could see for myself that the thing works, so I went on and buy it. And it does the job, even if it's not a fancy hakko 888. For the price of a hakko I can buy three or four of these cheapos and use them as spares. But all that because I am an hobbyist, not a pro. If I were a pro, I'd probably buy something else. This guy does reviews like everybody in his audience is a professional like him.
I agree with both sides. I've bought a soldering iron from the local hardware store AND bought this one I'm using them for soldering small amounts of PCB's and connecting small wires. I'm a bit more into programming microcontrollers than in the hardware stuff. For that reason, I don't need an expensive soldering iron. The soldering iron from the hardware store simply: - Was even a tad more expensive. (25$) - Didn't have any kind of temperature control (sad). - Took longer to get warm - Even the handle got (uncomfortably) warm - The tips are expensive like crazy - The tips degrade extremely fast - Didn't have any kind of stand - Cable was pretty thick, short and uncomfortable. And well, the YiHua 936 basically outdid it at every point. I can imagine, that if you really need to rely on it, you should go for the real deal. You may open the YiHua936 before use, and make sure the earth is properly connected, then safety wouldn't really be an issue anymore. For hobbyists (if checked on safety), I highly recommend this iron. For professionals, well, maybe not, or get two of them, so you're always sure at least one of them should work ;D but you may go for one that can heat bigger blobs of solder, if that's what you're into.
I watched this to see if it was suitable, but considering I deal with high load twelve volt stuff, this iron isn't useful as I'd need to crank the hell out of the temperature all the time and damage the insulation. You play with PCBs. You should really be aware that an iron like this runs the risk of damaging components as it doesn't have the thermal capacity to make larger ground connections or heavier gauge wire connections without a higher temperature. The whole point of a thermostatic station is not having to crank the temperature. but hey, y'know, don't think about them lifted traces, more power to you.
4 years ago I got a Weller WD-1 soldering station with the WP80 80-watt soldering pen. Love it. Comes up to temperature ridiculously fast (30 seconds ready to use) and despite the pen being so small it has enough thermal capacity to handle fairly large joints, such as those found on RF power transistors. The small pen makes it easy to get into tight spots without accidentally melting anything. It was a little pricy at around $300 but was well worth it. I've done thousands of solder joints with it.
It's good that you let your son play around in your lab. If he later wants to get into electronics, then spinning knobs, playing with components and holding a soldering iron early on is good practice to get familiar with things in an electronics lab.
Give over man... we know it isn't a Hakko!! I'm more than happy with my clone. I've now got a soldering station with what I thought were unaffordable power levels and features (temp control, heating light AND heat recovery graph :) My soldering has now improved no-end. Could it improve more if I bought a Hakko? Of course, but for that price I'd want it to do all the soldering for me (and all the bloody PITA wire-stripping too) - this is a hobby for me, not a career.
I usually hate it when people get their young children to help out with RU-vid videos, but I always like seeing Sagan on here. He's a cute little bugger and I can't help but smile when I see him. Him and AvE's Chickadee are the only two RU-vidr kids I actually don't mind seeing in videos from time to time.
+gmcjetpilot I saw a teardown on bigclivedotcom's channel. His looked to be of better quality. The one on this video... I wouldn't be surprised if it was refurbished.
+FDJustin Actually mine is much better. Name on it is a X-Tronic 4000 series (model #4010), I see them on Amazon and eBay for $89. I bought mine a few years ago on eBay for less, about $60 or $70. It has a small control bottom left and digital display center high, and it came with lots of tips and extra heating elements and magnifying lamp.. Like EEVblog said of this one, the X-Tronic is not for large gauge wires and heat sinks. A big iron is needed for that.
I bought one off ebay. It's a "Tomizawa 936a", and it doesn't have the usual chunky transformer inside-- I'm guessing it has a crappy little chip based step down transformer or somesuch. I don't trust it at all. It's not helpful it has 2 steel plates screwed in place to simulate the mass of a transformer. I guess I'm lucky it's not filled with gravel. It really depends on who you buy things from.
This video makes me glad I convinced my boss to get a Weller TCP iron. Never had issues with it, only the knock off tips! Recently got a desoldering station with variable temperature and it's just awesome.
This iron is ok for those who need to wet some solder now and then. There is absolutely no reason to spend $300 on a station if you know you wont be working with SMD.
You have it quite backwards. This is great for the low wattages that SMD need. Where it falls short is large power and ground planes that sink away a lot of heat and need a faster recovery time. You are so severely incredibly backwards that it is unbelievable as if you don't know thing one about soldering.
I learned soldering from someone who had never used a temp controlled iron and he was a true master. Better than anyone I've ever seen, especially the "pro's" on RU-vid. The tool in your hand doesn't matter if the tool in your head actually works.
Thumbs down to this video for being so biased. That thing looked good for $16. He was criticizing it for silly reasons. And even with your expensive stuffs you took more than 2 seconds to spread the solder.
I have the 937d+ with the digital temp readout. Ive used junk radioshack sticks, and compaired to those, this is a dream, built well enough for my needs, mine did come with 5 diffrent tips. Ive never used any high end irons but for home brew hobbie stuff these are definantly worth it.
I want to start the Dave Jones quote drinking game: "It's a bit how-you-doin'" "1 hung lo" "Bob's your uncle" "Bobby-dazzla" I'm sure you guys can think of many more.
Hello Dave, I know this is an old video, but based on your review, I went ahead and bought one. Your review did show me that it actually worked just fine and the internals are somewhat adequate (it has an adequate transformer, not some crappy chip psu) I use a soldering iron for small project and repairs, about 6-24 times a year. After spending 3 hours removing a broken connector of a 10 layer laptop motherboard, I decided I needed a station. Unfortunately, I couldn't justify spending 150+$ station for a top brand product. This one is absolutely perfect for my needs, the quality isn't actually that bad for my usage and I am VERY satisfied with it. This is almost 2017 and they still have the shoddy earth connection; I am waiting for the crimps to arrive so I can redo it properly.
its easy to piss off a cheaper and compare it with hakko. there are people that dont have much cash or sponsors to pay for a hakko or weller so what do you expect for 16 dollar how can you even compare it with a hakko
EEVblog hi dave sorry ny sonn was behind my youtube he wrote it.he was on my pc youtube and i auto login on the tube i saw this episode today before i got to work but really i love youre channel keep up the good work you crazy ausie bloke :)
+Michael Marr On a plastic shell? That usually shouldn't be terribly relevant, you won't be rubbing things on it all the time, unless you're weird. The actual soldering iron goes straight to earth, it won't charge up at all.
krawutzimon To be fair tho, it's just like Dave said "you get what you pay for" after 3 years and roughly 3000 leaded + 700 bigger SMD joints I'm about to dump my station - also soldering pads requiring a bigger thermal capacity is a great source for frustration. Basically it does the job for occasional hobbyists who don't want to/can't spend a lot of money or want to get a general feeling for soldering.
***** hans meier I don't doubt you can do all these things with this soldering station. Smd work is really not that demanding, because you don't need that much of a heat capacity. As Dave has shown, you'll run into problems with the big beefy traces or pads. My soldering station at home is one of the cheap ones, but it cost a bit more and doesn't have components that look like they've been scrapped out of some used tv. 16$ might not seem much, but for a few bucks more you can at least get some half-decent quality. I'm not arguing against cheap tools, it's just that you should at least have some confidence in what you're using. And if you're really trying to make things as cheap as possible, I've seen a circuit for a soldering station controller over at dangerous prototypes that didn't look that bad. You'd still have to get that soldered however - chicken-or-egg-problem:-)
***** yeah, i guess we all have to go through these experiences sometimes in our 'carreer' ;) i've found out you can do pretty nice reflow soldering using regular kitchen oven plates.. that is - until you start running into misteriously destroyed components because of electromagnetically induced currents ;)
I put a copper foil between the heater and the tip in a Yihua soldering iron with amazing results. The new Yihua 939d is and excellent soldering iron for US$29. If you don't have money for a Hakko, Weller, Pace or whatever you want, Yihua is a very good option.
I think this review would have been much fairer if you calibrated the pot after the initial thermal capacity test. You knew it was running 25 degrees C lower than it should have been so I'm not surprised the solder didn't take!
Man my Yihua 937D has served me extremely well for over a year. Came with a spare heating element and I haven't had to replace it yet! It takes the Hakko tips, I buy the Plato replacements, they're excellent quality. My 937D was something like $60 delivered, worth every penny. I've used Hakkos, Wellers, as long as it has the heat capacity to do the job, they're all the same thing.
ahh what a shame its gonna take 5 seconds more, you'll have to turn up the temperature a little and it feels a little cheaper, I'm sure its worth spending the extra 200 dollars right? yeah sure...
Dami Nooki that's fair enough. It's not the volts that'll hurt you though, its the current, so the amount of amps, that's what'll cause you the most amount of harm
they break all the fucking time on the last plastic screw down part b4 the metal one. i went through 3 in 4 months. Gota a hakko 888d and 6 months later its still going strong. The wire is muck more flexible as well.
I own a Hakko 936 ESD. It was a gift from my father when I first started electronics. I love it. It is hands down one of the best soldering irons money can buy. Im watching this video so I can feel smugly superior about my favourite tool.
I love that when you said $16 worth of quality. when that board looks like it was pulled out of the abyss, rust and corrosion on what should be a new product. I like that your kid chose the Hakko iron, smart kit!
I have one and it works fine. I have about half a dozen irons of various types and $ and this is far from the worst one. Well worth having as a backup/spare. Get a set of tips for it (very cheap on ebay). I have it on my desk simply so I don't have to keep changing the tip on my primary iron when alternating between e.g. SMT and solding connectors.
Im a EE ( Electrical / Electronics Eng) and a Electrician Ti originally from the UK ( born and raised) ( like awhile ago, moved now, better life, UK is no place for a Eng anymore, accountants and lawyer YES) in my opinion if the product does the job for which it was intended, safely, the go for it, that is fire and shock im also also like a year younger than dave, a fyi moment, of no consequence,
Really great review.Learned a lot about choosing as soldering station.Thought a 31 minute review would be too long,but not this one.Loved the kid too.Maybe the best review I've seen.Thanks!
For people working with electronics on a daily/weekly basis -buy a proper station! For the first timer: Maybe with a proper Hakko tip, but be patient and toy around soldering on some old electronics to get a few tricks up your sleeve and learn the timing skills in soldering. For the hobbyist who repairs stuff now and then, solders a board a month: definite worth it with a proper tip. I would also feel comfortable tucking this down a mobile tool box, something I would not do to my weller station.
oh, ditch the original tip, you'll do yourself a nice favor, it will just yo-yo in temps making every damn soldering a P. I. T. A, and risk your components well being.
I got a used JBC station a few years back at a fairly decent price. It was still expensive for someone like me that solders only a few times a year. BUT, damn, it's so worth it. It's just a joy to use. I mean the 6-7 second startup time alone is just wonderful. Then there's the tip changing, hot or cold you're done in 3 seconds flat. And the hand piece, slim and cool with a thin, long and very flexible cable that doesn't bother you. If you can spare the money I highly recommend it.
Dave, you are biased. How did you know the inside was crap before you even opened it? This is NOT the way to review products. The bias is all over this review. I know you can do better. Maybe it is crap but I have a hard time believing you. The review looks like you did not want to give the product a fair chance.
+Bor the Wolf So you expect him to tell you that the iron is perfectly safe, reliable and high performing just because it's not sold as a high end product? he does constantly say that you shouldn't expect more and in the end concludes that if you need to save the money it is worth it, you can't take the first half of someones description and bullshit it when you haven't listened to their conclusion...
He *says* those things while also shitting all over the product. Endlessly. I get he's used to using $200 irons, but he's contemptuous of the cheap ones, not just critical. He's not reviewing it, he's shitting on it. Big difference.
TheJohn8765 he's shitting on it BECAUSE its shit! as i said he concluded that if you want a cheap station this is usable but if he tried to be more kind to it then the review would no longer be fair.
why cut a video before applying the cheap one again? 22:03 yeah it works similarly. Im also of an opinion that one should by a quality tool for his job , but not everyone solders hole day. I would be perfectly happy with that Ye Xa or whatever its called , its a good soldering station.
I have a concern with the static test: It was difficult to see if your thumb was pressing the reset button or on the original Hakko. You may want to move your thumb away from the reset button in future videos so we can tell for sure whats going on with the test.
couldn't you try a real connection you should not have used a gun for? For people that spend 12.99 for a pencil iron at radioshack, like myself....this iron is much better. I'd like to see it working on a capacitor or resistor or wiring a mic connector. That huge wire is kind of an insult to our intelligence.
I used a Hakko 936 for many years when I was doing repairs, it went on in the morning and off at night, never a problem and only occasionally resorted to a scope for more grunt. 10 yrs ago I bought my own cheap copy: Sunko 936, only used it twice as Im retired. Not as good as the Hakko but its okay (I fitted a Hakko tip of course) and the hysteresis is similar to the Hakko. Now after watching Daves teardown, I pulled mine apart: LM324, no rust, crimped mains earth, metal film ohms, good solder and they cleaned the board. But it still came with the same crap handpiece. I forget how much I paid but these cheap copies must vary in quality. Though it may be semantically not an equitable comparison metric, its in the same boat as a Kia: functional as long as you dont expect too much. Dave is on the money (all $16 of it).
Your opinion doesnt seem to align with reality ... since this is a perfect example of why chinese knock-offs dominate the market. They get the job done at a fraction of the price. Sure its cool to have the highest quality indestructible thing you can imagine sometimes ... but thats a luxury. The cost of ownership of one of these irons is awesome. The net work-to-cost ratio of the chinese unit is going to be higher. If you did buy multiple and still spent less than the total cost of 1 Hakko ... youd have spare parts enough to repair that one if it did go down ... and you could easily use one of the spares to reflow those solder connections and clean up the board yourself. Its not hard. And from a manufactering perspective you can outfit 10 stations for the cost of 1?
It's just a little sad that they didn't make it a 25$ one and put a little more care into each unit. But I agree that it's great value for money. But if you have all the money, you could aswell go for best value (not best value for money ratio).
@ Kayla - why would you cry? A replacement isn't gonna cost you an arm and a leg. And that's already going under the faulty assumption that its going to do anything you mentioned.
Kayla - No, people almost never get what they pay for when they go with a major brand. Instead they are paying for executive salaries, advertising, and status. Please let's do away with that idiotic saying that you get what you pay for because it's almost never true. With generics you get more than you pay for and maybe it's acceptable or maybe not. With major brands you don't get what you pay for but it's probably more than acceptable. The problem is there is seldom the right middle ground with soldering stations, a point between something to complain about and something that is overkill for entry level work. People say their Weller (etc) is going to last 50 years and that tells me they have no concept of value. They accept far less than 50 years from a car, refrigerator, washing machine, microwave, etc but somehow the standard for something that costs far less should be that much longer? Fools and their money.
Getting a soldering station is one of the best things I did recently. I looked at the el'cheapos, too. All of them would still have beaten my fixed power soldering iron (the tip of which got way to hot and at the same time had absolutely no heat capacity). In the end I've got a XYtronic LF-3000, which sure isn't the greatest brandname either, but it works so much better, that it was worth the 80€. If you're doing soldering more than once a month, I tell you, it's worth it to get more than one of these knock offs.
Your comparison and your replies does not make sense to me. First if it's a rip off why did you even buy it and did the reviewed? How can you expect hakko quality for $16? I'm not defending the chinses rip off but in my humble opinion hakko is also rip off for the price it's asking. I clicked on your video to get some useful information and see if it's honestly usable. I couldn't find that answer in your review. That would be nice of you to mention that it's a rip-off and consider buying the original to avoid the problems you mentioned but your review will not stop chinese from making rip offs nor it would stop people who want to buy it from purchasing it.
Why? Have you no suspicions what .47 million views are worth? The station does not have a cost, it has a profit. Also, people are always dreaming of getting something for nothing. He's trying to disabuse people of this human flaw. And a professional is making video. He's got personal standards. He's telling you from his perspective, not yours. Those are the basics of why you should not be surprised. Yea, I'm buying another Hakko.
Bought a WEP(yihua) 937D+ off ebay. They have considerably stepped up their quality from this model. Granted is was also $30 US, so it cost a bit more.
You should have calibrated it first, the factory was like 40C below what the knob indicated, that was not fair comparing it to the calibrated down to 5C Hakko.
Dave you are sorely mistaken. Anyone who pretends to be able to solder and pretends to know what temperature their work is supposed to need, can far more easily grab a little screwdriver and turn a pot till the tip heat is at what it should be to melt the solder based on whatever formulation it is. To put it another way, if you're saying people who buy this are ignorant, then they'll just turn the dial up till it is hot enough to do the job and ironically enough, in 95% of the cases that would completely solve the problem. lol.
Nicely done, as always. I picked up a Weller 7500 iron at a hamfest recently for only $10 US. Just the iron, but with a new tip, so a great deal. I just didn't have a solder station for it. So, I made one. I used an old dimmer switch I had on hand. The rotating knob type that clicks on and then controls a triac to slice the duration of each cycle on the mains power. A little measuring and I marked up a dial with approximate temps. Not regulated, or very scientifically accurate, but I'm the type that does this: Poke, did the solder melt? No? Ok, Irons too cold, turn it up a little. Repeat.
I bought a hakko and I don't even close to regret spending as much money as I did. It is a joy to use, seriously. Nice flexible cable, heats quickly, and feels very robust. Spend the money, get a good one!
and this is a joy to use too for anyone who didn't have a soldering station. It just won't last as long and has lower heating capacity. Two different things entirely.
Even if "crap", it might not be the worst thing for a cash-strapped noob or infrequent electronics work. If you put a better tip on and it holds calibration which you set after that (because if it was calibrated at the factory, it was for the smaller tip) and keeps temp near what the dial says through the band - if it only lasts a year it probably isn't the worst purchase to make. A year is still a lot longer than how long two pizzas, a side, and a 2L soft drink will last for the same amount of money. I even have a feeling it might even have recieved a better (passable?) grade if it didn't have the false case marking, weak transformer grounding, and apparent use of recycled components. From what I could tell, it seemed to work reasonably enough despite it's overall cheapness otherwise.
Wouldn't a Radio Shack wall iron be just as good and safer as well? I'm not a soldering expert, but I don't see the advantage of this cheap thing over a 10 dollar wall iron for casual infrequent use.
tarstarkusz Yeah, you would get something better from radioshack, but DONT get the ones they sell which just plug straight in to the wall. I have one, and it's a pain in the butt for my casual infrequent use! Get a soldering station with a variable temperature control, and get GOOD TIPS! Get some Hakko tips, it's well worth it!
tarstarkusz Avoid the irons that plug directly into the wall. They are usually rated by wattage, generally are not more than 35W, (some cheap amazon ones claim 65W+ and thats total BS.) These do not have temperature regulation, and so what happens when you leave it on and unused, the temperature climbs up very high, too high, and can cause the tip to oxidize, and when you try to use it on something big, the temperature plummets very low and you are left with a crap solder job (cold solder joint).
Power Max If you do a lot of solder work, that's true and I certainly agree with you. But for really infrequent simple repair work, a RS plug in iron is a better choice than this thing. I'm certainly not comparing a real soldering station to a corded iron.
It's probably been mentioned before, but since you have the tools to calibrate the iron, I would think that the way to test would be to first see if you could calibrate the two soldering irons to both actually be heating the tips to the same temperature. No that probably isn't what the end user will be doing, but at the same time the end user is likely to just be bumping the temp up until they start getting the iron response they expect. You're trying to compare two irons, yet you already know that they are doing something different when 'set' to the same value. Complaining that an iron that's set to 300, but you know is only heating to 275, doesn't work as well as another iron set to 300 that you know heats the tip to 295, is like complaining that a pump that pushes 27.5 gpm of fluid doesn't fill up a tank as fast as one that pushes 29.5 gpm when both are set to 30. It doesn't say anything useful as a comparison, and certainly doesn't tell you anything about the thermal mass characteristics of the iron.
The fun with those cheapos are that written temperature number at them is complete BS. 300 degrees Celsius in fact may be 200-250-300-350-whatsoever... nobody will know real temperature without measuring it. I have a GJ-8018LCD heat gun. It have a temperature display, however numbers here aren't nor Celsius nor Fahrenheit degrees. P.M.P.O. degrees maybe. That thing broke after a week BTW.
sneeerr Cheap Australian and American stuff smells the same. This is is the classical textbook method to raise a racist. When the poor boy meets the first Chinese person at school or uni in 10 or twenty years he will remember "Ahh, Chinese = cheap and gun him down or worse, bully him. I have very successfully conditioned child-inmates in the torture-prisons of Pyongyang for years with the smell of McDonalds or cheap American coffee. So don't tell me shit.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld you have tortured kids to make them hate american things... And your calling this guy rasist for saying its cheaply made by poorly paid workers...
I have Yihua 937D+ which I bought for about $35 USD. And for the price, I love it. It is pretty much same as 936 you reviewed (same housing and stand), but have better iron. Cleaner finish and easier to grab. Heater is probably same. Still not as good as Hakko or Weller soldering station, but much better than Weller's cheap direct plug-in irons. Only issue I had was one of the segment from 3 digit segment LED went out after few uses. Tried to replace, but turns out it is not worth repair. It would cost me about $10 for replacement part. Not willing to spend that much for this cheap soldering station and I have no problem reading the display.
I have temp controlled stations but my go to iron is an Antex XS25 un-regulated iron. I did a lot of field repair. Never let me down, never leaked pixies or blew anything. Runs out of welly on bigger solder jobs but for most electronic and audio work it's the nuts.
I've been using a Yihua 852D+ (Hot air + soldering station for ~£90) for over 2 years without any issues except for the low thermal capacity of the iron similar to your review. Been soldering quite a lot of fine pitch stuff (0.5mm QFP, QFN, 0402, 0201) and use solder paste with hot air every so often. I'm thinking of getting a Hakko/Weller as a main iron but the hot air part of the Yihua is usable for a few more years.
Weird, Big Clive opened his almost similar looking cheap Chinese soldering station and his earth wire is crimped. He bought his for 22 pounds and likes it.
I really believe that the transformer is not from china, its source locally and probably installed locally using most parts sources from china, shipping transformer from china would just added more cost to them then buying local and then installed it, now you can find the controller board with smd component not sure if it makes the board work great but the board itself look neat and clean www.aliexpress.com/item/A1321-For-HAKKO-936-Soldering-Iron-Control-Board-Controller-Station-Thermostat/32715760598.html?spm=2114.13010208.99999999.342.CXKNMh or better option is buy $9.50 controller board with display that works with hakko T12 handle www.aliexpress.com/item/Digital-Soldering-Iron-Station-Temperature-Controller-for-HAKKO-T12-T2-Handle/32712517509.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_2,searchweb201603_1&btsid=676a5cf7-7ef3-4db9-9c57-2fe21553ff38
It's comming from a RC hobby supplier and for anyone doing infrequent RC soldering jobs, it's probably pretty good. Although it will likely struggle with large wiring and battery connectors. Not bad for under $20; with the added benefits of being electrically safe and accepting readilly available name-brand tips. I'd call that a thumbs up.
For poor kids starting out, I am happy that they have an option. Also, I a not sure where the original Haako was manufactured. Part of the reason Chinese manufactured goods cost less is because salaries in China are much lower than in places like America. So equating the price of the product with the quality is not always smart unless you discuss the cost of labor between the respective countries. Although in this case it was easy to determine that the Yihua 936 is not as well manufactured as the Hakko 926. The Yihua does the job, and it is great for someone on a budget trying to start out.
Im all for quality products. But there is always a place for cheap stuff, and it is really good that products like this exist for people who cannot afford or see it as not cost effective to spend more (e.g. infrequent use). The china bashing was getting a bit much - you get what you pay for. What can be built and sold here in Australia for $16? Nothing. If you only have $16, something is better than nothing.
"the 936 has better thermal capacity than the 926". If your poor you can buy this then open and rework it. Im in the market for a cheap iron suitable for small componet work. Id prob get something like this` and redo the soldering and clean the flux etc off the board.
There is no need to rework it. Dave's iron DID WORK, he was just accentuating some way to justify a higher priced iron. Fix it if/when it breaks, not undue labor until then.
The genuine Hakko tip might just be the difference between a good and bad experience, as the thermal contact is much better between the heating element and the tip. That dictates the possible reaction time to cooldown, maximum thermal output from the element to the tip, and along with that, the thermal recovery, as far as the physics of it goes. Electronically, they're both just switching the element on and off, no? The sensitivity of the switching circuit to changes in tip temperature is the only effective output variable of the circuit, when it comes to recovery capability
Surprised knockoffs are still being manufactured since Hakko doesn't make the 936 anymore. Thought they'd move on to knocking off the newer FX-888 or 951. I bought a 951 a few years back it's a real good iron. Was considering a real 936 but the iron just looked and felt cheap to me. When compared to the slender profile of the 951 iron. Plus on the 951 the heating element is integrated into the tip for better thermal contact and allows you to hot swap if you need to.
That seems silly. The Hakko 936 worked very well for many people during its product lifespan. To act like a spoiled idiot thinking that once Hakko changes that, the design that worked fine no longer does, is ignorance. The clone is so cheap quite because it sticks with what works instead of constantly doing more R&D and retooling to make changes that aren't needed just to do basic soldering. TLDR: If it's not broken don't fix it.
I wish the channel can get more money so they can hire a genuine user instead of a cheap Australian one. Cheap meaning spending only 16 dollars for this video. At least compare a mid-grade to the hakko one.
That tip is only good for very fine work - SMD work, really, as it isn't big enough for most through-hole. Soldering tiny SMD connectors isn't a challenge, for the iron at least.
For the hobbyist a project could be to make a replacement control board of better quality to go with the half decent transformer. Then add a new quality iron (not just the tip).
