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That $200 soldering station I bought off Amazon was a total scam
Picked up a no-name soldering station from Amazon for $200 thinking I was getting a deal. Thing couldn't hold temperature for more than 5 seconds, tips oxidized in a day, and the display was off by 40 degrees. Tried to fix a PS4 controller with it and ended up lifting pads off the board. Wasted a whole Saturday and had to buy a Hakko to actually do the job right. Should have just saved the cash and went with a known brand from the start. Anyone else get burned by those cheap Amazon stations that look like they're decent but are actually garbage?
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the_alice3d ago
That "couldn't hold temperature for more than 5 seconds" part is exactly what gets you. I went through two of those knockoff stations before a friend sat me down and explained that cheap stations use low mass heating elements that can't recover fast enough when you touch a joint. You can fix the offset with a tip thermometer, but the temp swings are just the design failing you. Grab a used Hakko or a genuine Weller and move on, those no name Amazon stations are strictly for basic wire soldering at best.
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jana_scott3d ago
and yeah @alice_hart you're totally right, those temp swings are brutal. i was reading some forum thread the other day where a guy tested a bunch of these cheap stations with a thermocouple and showed they could drop like 50 degrees celsius the second you put the iron on a pad. it's not just about setting the temp right, the whole design is flawed. i tried one of those 20 dollar specials and it literally took 20 seconds to climb back up after a single joint. i ended up just grabbing a used hakko 888 on ebay for like 40 bucks and it's night and day. you can actually trust what the display says and it doesn't fight you the whole time. basic wire soldering is all those cheap ones are good for, like you said.
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