Bundle Includes Soldering Station and CHP170 Cutter

Temperature adjustment is a royal pain in the foot. Whereas the conventional type with the knob takes only half of a second and no looking up instructions, this one requires research every time you want to change temp, and then eight or ten button presses IF you dont make a mistake They do this crap so they can say they have more features, but the features are a bunch of crap you dont want. Dont buy this thing. Do yourself a favor and get find one with an adjustment knob on the front so you can adjust temp when you need to without paying a ten minute time penalty and enduring a frustrating experience!

The tooll did everything as advertised and more. I would recommend it to anyone that has technical soldering to do.

I started with a cheap Weller 25w pencil soldering iron - Couldnt melt 60/40 solder worth a darn. Picked up a 30w pencil from Radio Shack - burnt out in a week. Getting fed up with low-end irons I read that this was the model to get and Im so glad I did. Heats up in seconds, keeps a constant temperature and Ive been soldering away with ease ever since. Do yourself a favor and pick up a station like this one and skip the cheap iron-only models.

Worked great the first time I used it. About 20-30 min. Pulled it out yesterday and now it wont hold any other temperature than 750. I set to higher and it immediately starts counting back down to 750. Always 750. I tested with a thermal couple and the actual temp read 704. I will be returning...

Great iron. Its genuine Hakko so no worries there. If your not willing to spend the $240ish to get a 9 series Hakko then this is the next best thing. Dont waste your time with the off brand irons. This is a buy quality, buy once situation. Many people will refer to this as old tech or a beginners station. But the truth is this iron will do 90% of what the more expensive irons will do. If you are not a professional repair tech, or dont have money to burn, dont waste what you do have on that extra 10% because the fact is you will probably never need it. Buy genuine tips and they will last for most of your hobby days with this iron. It is built well and backed by a professional company. Heat up time to full temp is around 20 seconds. It doesnt have a sleep feature but I just kill the power and switch it back on as Im getting ready. I dont do professional repairs anymore so I bought this to replace a Hakko FM-203 that I lost in a divorce. I have no regrets for buying this instead of just replacing the same station.

Im a solderin novice, but, with that caveat, this has worked very well (heats fast, easy to use).

Bought for my son for Christmas. He likes it!

I’ve been soldering since I was a teenager (I’m now 40), and I’ve owned a few soldering irons over the years. I taught myself and I’d consider myself a really good solderer based on my experience. I know in most cases you either love it or hate it, but I love soldering. My last was an Aoyue rework station from MicroCenter, that I really liked. Unfortunately, the temperature control on the iron started going wonky and bouncing all around. I’ve always been curious what was so great about Hakko stations. I figured a soldering station is a soldering station. But since I had to replace my old one, I figured I’d take the plunge. Firing it up tonight for the first time to solder some micro switches with leads for my simulator rig, I was amazed! This thing is excellent! I didn’t think your soldering could actually be influenced that much by the station you use, but wow. My joints came out so perfect. The unit itself has a very sleek and modern design and a very small footprint. I am not used to that! My old unit was a massive clunky thing! The extra workspace is a godsend. I love this machine! Only thing I have to get used to is that the display is in Fahrenheit, but most of my other equipment has traditionally been in Celsius, so that will take a little getting used to, as I’ve developed a pretty good feel for what set points to use for what components (in Celsius). But I’m very happy with my new machine!

Why oh why did I wait all of these years to buy a temperature controlled soldering station? The good news is when I bought this on if far exceed my expectations. Someone commented on having to hit enter before changing the temperature, I found that not to be a problem. If you are thinking of pulling the trigger on this, DO IT. I could have save hours of trying to heat up a big joint or not toast a board but getting to much heat.

I like these units. I bought two of them. One of the cheapest from Hakko. We use Hakko a lot at work, but the more expensive models. One thing that I miss about the bigger units, is power. Sometime I find my self using both irons on one side of a given component, specially on PCBs that are multi layer and with a lot of copper. Another advantage from the other type of units sold by hakko, is that the tips for this unit are not very expensive. Like 4USD vs 15USD of the ones that have the heating element with the tip. But because this unit does not have the sleep functionality you need to be very careful of not leaving the iron on or you will spend more on tips. I would definitively recommend this for small to medium projects. But their higher wattage units, the ones with interchangable tips, rule for more mass intensive jobs.