Hakko FX888D-23BY Digital Soldering Station FX-888D FX-888 (blue & yellow)

Yes, the build quality is good, and yes, it does the job well. Theres something you should know before buying it, though. I wish I had known. Other reviewers have been very charitable in describing the controls as not intuitive. For the sake of forewarning future buyers, Ill be blunt: The user interface is a steaming pile of... um... garbage. You get a three-digit display and two buttons that each serve multiple functions. That design decision alone was foolishly stingy, as others have noted. A knob and another digit (for displaying short words) would have done wonders, and I would gladly have paid the extra $3 in hardware costs. Especially since these controls are required for even the simplest of operations, like setting the temperature. The two buttons you get are labeled: UP and ENTER, but those labels are misleading, because neither matches the corresponding buttons function in the devices normal operating state. If you find your way into the settings menu (which you cannot do with the buttons alone) the four top-level categories are represented by mysterious, disjointed numbers: 01, 03, 11, 14. Even if youre a programmer who habitually translates decimal numbers to binary, this menu is still meaningless. Its all the more insulting to discover that letters *can* be displayed, as they are in the submenus; just not here, the menu where they are arguably needed most. Want to raise the temperature while youre working? Pressing the UP button wont do it. You must hold the ENTER button for a while, then wait, then repeatedly press the UP button until the first digit of your target temperature appears (and then nine more times if you overshoot), then press ENTER, and then do it again for each additional digit, until the display shows your target temperature and you press ENTER a final time. Its like having to program a 1970s/1980s videocassette recorder... just to adjust the temperature of your soldering iron. Okay, that madness is not the end of the world, but adding injury to insult, can you guess what happens if you accidentally (and understandably) hold the UP button instead of ENTER to adjust the temp? It takes you through the same procedure, making it look at first like you succeeded, and then reverts to displaying the original temperature. Want to know why it didnt work? That was the procedure to recalibrate the machines temperature control. Congratulations: Now every temperature the machine displays is wrong, and will remain wrong even after a power cycle, because the machine tricked you. Oh, and it doesnt tell what happened, so its very possible that youre now soldering at a much higher temperature than you think. I hope you didnt damage any components. What if you somehow figure out what happened and you want to fix it? Too bad. The manual doesnt tell you how. It doesnt even mention that it can be done. Youll have to wait until you can reach Hakko support, or else find a note online from some other unfortunate soul who was also burned by this unforgivably awful excuse for an interface. I hope it happened during business hours and you have a phone nearby, or youre someplace that has internet connectivity. For the record, here is the secret factory reset procedure: 1. Turn off the power switch. 2. Hold the UP and ENTER buttons. 3. Turn on the power switch with those buttons still held. 4. Wait until the display says A. 5. Release the buttons. 6. press UP to make the display say U. 7. Press ENTER. I hope that saves someone some trouble. Dear Hakko, Please do better in the future.

This station oozes quality. The material used for the iron holder and the control housing is top notch. The holder is solid metal and the control housing shell seems to be some type of plastic. It is built like a brick, and should withstand a good beating. While it does look a little Fisher-Price, the shade of blue is actually a bit darker when looking at it in person, so it looks better than in the picture. The build quality more than makes up for the color. The holder has two mating pieces, so you can clean inside it or replace the metal cleaning ball, then easily put it back together into a solid assembly. My only complaint would be the sponge. It could mate better with the holder for it, but maybe it will be better when wet. In any case, it shouldnt matter, as it doesnt take much pressure to clean a tip. It started up fine on the first try, and quickly heated the tip. It came with the chisel tip, the T18-D16, which is kind of small at 1.6mm in diameter, but it provides better heat transfer than a conical tip, and should be easy to work with in fairly tight board layouts. I might recommend buying a few larger tips for larger components, as I did. I look forward to working with it, seeing all the positive reviews. Your tip might smoke a bit on the first use, but that is normal, as they are usually coated with a protective layer for storage.

The hype is true, this thing is great.

Bought a cheap iron on Amazon and immediately regretted it. Returned and purchased the HAKKO. Night and day. Solders like a dream and keeps a consistent temp. Using it for detailed pcb boards and basic circuitry; headers, sensors, you name it. This iron has exceeded all expectations and made me a lifelong HAKKO user. Absolutely recommend.

Ive used this quite a few time since I bought it (was $104.95 when I purchased it) and its worked well each time. IMHO though, it seems like its only worth $100 at most - especially with what else is on the market. And lets be clear - theres really only 2 brands that people actually want to buy from; Hakko being one, and the other being Weller.

The title says it all, really. Ive never had an easier time with delicate soldering jobs. This iron replaces my old Weller iron with the dial-type temperature control. That iron, while good and definitely held its own, was moody at times and prone to heat-recovery delays. Heat recovery is important, and not just for someone doing dozens of joints at a time. Reliable heat recovery means that the iron is predictable, and also heats initially quickly. Other irons Ive used would be prone to losing heat at an odd time, then youre sitting there pressing the solder into the joint and nothing happens. You leave the iron to heat, then its too hot and burning resin or the board substrate. This iron heats to the right, precise temperature quickly, and holds that temperature. It performs consistently and quickly so your components arent risking damage. The user interface isnt the greatest, but I didnt find it counter-intuitive as some have. I do like that the temperature control can be dialed in to just a few degrees hotter than the melting point of the solder. That eliminates the guesswork that can come with a dial-based system, and with the consistent heating, allows for a quick solder flow with a minimum of fuss. This iron has allowed me to solder up prototyping circuit boards with joints that look machine-made, and I am by no means greatly practiced. This has been a purchase that was well worth the few extra dollars.

Its a workhorse in my shop. Nothing else to say.

While I had read all the really good ratings and heard good things about this brand and model, I was surprised how sturdy everything was.

Worked like a champ over several audio amplifier and preamp rebuild projects, a couple of reel to reel tape recorder recapping jobs (Im a hobbyist), but its just so hard to get it to work right lately - mening for about the last year and a half. Ive bought nearly all the tip sizes HAKKO makes for this, have the temp maxd out at 750, do the usual tricks of cleaning tip on scouring pad, wet sponge, wetting the tip with solder before using to ensure heat is transferred quickly to components and MAN does it get annoying waiting for parts to heat enough to get the solder onto the leads. Moreso lately than even a few months ago, it seems. Even SMALL SMD components are hard to solder with this. Ive read similar complaints from others; for the price, youd think it would WORK, and KEEP working, but lately Ive been pulling out a 50 year old 40 watt iron more suitable for wood burning and it gets the job done faster, heat sinks I use on component leads dont get nearly as hot, and it works better on those large fiberglass THICK copper trace boards on things like amplifier power supplies and heavy wire leads on rectifiers and power transistors as well. Ive built and rebuilt innumerable guitar/bass amps, stereos, preamps, many a heathkit kit in my time, thinking the units Im working on lately are smaller traces, smaller leaded components in crowded boards this would be the wise choice, I chose poorly. I gave it 3 stars for temperature control and stability - the unit SAYS 750 degrees the whole time, never varies. Solder with MP of half that temp (0.022 AND 0.031 flux core) both hard to melt, sometimes right after cleaning, wiping, Ill stick the solder right against the tip of the iron and count the second or two it takes to melt, then it doesnt stick. Yes, I use the Hakko tinning compound. Even 4-0 steel wool. A real PITA. This came highly recommended to me from a well-known tech (in some audio circles) and its been a major disappointment. Maybe its time for a new heating element. But failing after just 6 months use, when other irons decades old still work well (but unregulated, fewer tip size choices). Seriously, I wouldnt recommend it.

Esta es una de las mejores estaciones calidad precio desde que empiezas a abrir el paquete empiezas a ver lo pequeño que es el cautín, la estación, la calidad de los cables, la calidad y detalles que tienen está estación. Es una estación simplemente hermosa que hace que el lugar de trabajo se vea bien, es súper pequeña, pero un poco pesado el transformador, solo un poquito. Quise compra está estación desde hace unos meses pero la verdad no me decidía ya que, no me decidía entre hakko o weller y la verdad depues ed mucho me decidí por está estación. sabía que podría ser un poco costosa para mí pais por detalles de importación y envio. Pero la verdad no me arrepiento de de haberla comprado ya que el control de temperatura es exelente. Lo único que creo no es muy intuitiva es la interfaz que solo son dos botones. Pero si la configuras a modo memoria, que tiene 5, es fácil de usar. Lo que más me gustó fue la rapidez con la que alcanza la temperatura deseada en menos de 30 segundos, está lista para usar. Y la verdad antes tenía cautines y tardaba demasiado en calentar. Recomiendo al 100% está estación. Y recomiendo el vendedor fue muy rápido el envío y metardo como 5 días en llegar, solo por qué DHL en mi pais no trabaja sábado y domingo si no me llegaría mucho antes. Espero y aya servido mi opinión, y para los que no saben o no se deciden cuál estación comprár, les recomiendo esta estación.