Is it a good idea to buy a Chinese soldering station?

Is it a good idea to buy a Chinese soldering station? The locally made one (top) is 100 euros but the Chinese is only 80, yet it has more features. What's the difference?

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    The difference is whose pocket your money goes into. Zhao or Jerry, your choice.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Probably cheaper components

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    both are chinese.. the other one is just rebranded... likely resold from cheaper chinese listing...

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >Is it a good idea to buy a ... soldering station
    No, buy the cheapest iron with high enough watt and temp control. They all work the same

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      A standalone iron doesn't include useful tools like a hot air gun.
      Also having the PSU and electronics in a brick on the desk makes for a lightweight handpiece that's so much nicer to use.

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    The top one is a rebranded Yaxun, but even without knowing that you could assume it's Chinese just by virtue of the fact that it's Hakko-colored and some genius decided to brand the thing after a Swedish city as though you'd be dumb enough to associate it with Ikea.

    The bottom one just seems like a weird combo. If it's going to have a third feature I'd have preferred a desoldering gun over the PSU.

    Other things to watch out for include brands that don't turn up anything relevant in a simple google search, or amazon/ebay sellers with a euro-sounding name and the country's abbreviation (eg: BrusselsElectro-BE). Pretty much guaranteed to actually be Chinese.

    That said there's nothing wrong with a good Chinese soldering station, assuming you can tell the difference between a good one and a house fire waiting to happen. Yihua makes some decent stuff but the Chinese will knock off their own just as readily as they do western brands, so once one of their brands gains some traction you get all kinds of poor quality clones and knockoffs of those too.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      They're both kind of garbage. They're 900 series tips. 30 year old tech. Ts100
      Or t12 tips and stations are the way to go if you're a cheap ass.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Both are memes, they do the same in the same way and with the same componentes, the source it's a meme.

      If you plug the the soldering point directly it works the same.
      And at least you are in a electronics labs, you dont have the need for a memesource like that.
      Just buy a soldering iron like

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    ive had the lower one for 5 years and i like it, only problem i have is that you have to give the heat gun a smack for the fan to turn on.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I got a yihua brand iron off of Amazon. I'm pleased with it, I think it works perfectly fine.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    The one on the bottom looks like it is more worth your money. The tips look like the more common short-nosed sleeve tips. I'd recommend those over a long stylus type with built in thermocouple/element just for ease of use and replacement, and I'd never buy the threaded type again.
    Solder tips themselves are expendable, so it's better to get a set of chinesium spade bits for pennies per tip than pay several whole sheckles for a brand-specific rods

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Hell both stations have exactly the same handpieces just in different colors. The iron tip on the top one just has some sort of cap on it.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Tips don't wear out that quickly compared to their cost and integrated tips like T12s are worth it just for temperature consistency/ease of calibration and the better thermal coupling of the heating element.

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    you can get a hakko soldering iron for that money - you can get a hot air rework station separately

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I just bought this. Hakko FX-888D and not a fake one.

    • 1 year ago
      KvD

      I got memed too

      If it’s as good as they say it is, then the thing should last fricking forever at my rate of soldering once every couple months, so the $100 price tag isn’t so bad.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      https://i.imgur.com/s1gcQnA.jpg

      I got memed too

      If it’s as good as they say it is, then the thing should last fricking forever at my rate of soldering once every couple months, so the $100 price tag isn’t so bad.

      Hakko bros unite. Life changing solder tool.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        T. Phonegay

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        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Fml, frick8mg computers. Gonna go saw some wood bye

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Turn them into rings and sell them at the farmers market for $20 a piece

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Thanks, found some youtubes, maybe I'll do it

            >no hot air gun
            can you smd with this?

            Not well. I use mine mostly for RC airplane stuff (splicing, installing pin headers or connectors, etc)

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >no hot air gun
      can you smd with this?

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    so uh
    Soldering. I want to get started, so what's a decent one with temp control?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      A good cheap one is ksger t12 v2.15 or later

      That's like $80 though. Anything less than that you may as well just get whatever you want, they're all pretty garbage

      Hakko t12 is the cheapest you want to go if you get serious.

      I feel like the t100 USB irons are a meme

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        both of them seem incredibly difficult to obtain in the shitfest that is the norwegian market... Frick import and shipping prices from out-of-country, it's horrible, even from within EU.
        What should be the qualities I should keep an eye out for?
        The brands that are available would be stuff like Weller, Stamos, Kemper and a smattering of other literal who brands, most likely specific deals with specific stores.
        I guess the third quality I should have mentioned is small electronics, think pis, reparations on a C128D and other such things, but those simply fall under replacable tips, do they not?

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Hakko shouldn't be hard to find a distributor for. T12 and ts100 tips are pretty common, you might be able to find another chinese brand in your area selling an iron that can taoe those tips. Weller and pace either make super expensive pro shit or like 20 or 30 year old shit like the Chinese stations you already posted.

          You actually want a pretty nice iro. For repairing electronics because they have big multilayer boards and big components that suck a ton of heat.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            I'm not OP, first message in thread is

            so uh
            Soldering. I want to get started, so what's a decent one with temp control?

            How do I check if something can take the T12 or ts100 tips?
            Only one store here of those I checked has Hakko but no mention of t12 (unless it's a wider kind of terminology that I'm unaware of), cheapest one in that store I found was the Hakko Fx-888D

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              hmm, I need to expand the possibilities of where I can order from. It'll just take eternities for any established international stores (no Amazon or ebay for me though)

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              Hakko 800 series is very similar to tge Chinese stations at the too.

              T12 and ts100 soldering stations have the temperature sensor and heating element built into the tip and heat up much faster because the thermal transfer is so much better. The 800 series is a sleeve that goes over the iron and iron has the heating element and temperature. They work but if you ever use a t12 or ts100 you'll never go back.

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Yihua is good but I was hoping that it is compatible with Weller so I could use my old Weller tips but no such luck. They look similar but they are longer and thicker. WTF. What happened to the standards. But Yihua tips are decent and they include a bunch of them for free. I had to buy a separate set for Weller. Let's see how they will compare in terms of durability.

  13. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    i have a machine shop full of cheap chinese equipment. for hobby purposes its perfectly fine

  14. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Bought this thing for $50 on ebay. It uses the t12 tips with integrated heater elements. Heats up near instantly. Only downside is the iron and case aren't grounded, but that can be fixed.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I bought a t12 station just like that
      bought a pinecil v2 so I can do the grounding fix
      i am a smart person

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I think the ksger 2.15s+ fixed this finally. I had like a 2.15 and I needed the ground fix. The knob and motherboard are also installed ass backwards but it can't be fixed without redesigning the whole board. The retaining nut to hold the knob on can't be installed right. I don't remember it was all fricked up

      I got my brother the next version like 2.15s+ or whatever the higher version number is, and it was built better inside and they fixed that knob problem and it came with a better handle.

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