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

I didnt know soldering could be this much fun. If you have never used a nice soldering iron before (like me), this thing is genuinely amazing. Soldering is hard, even with a good soldering iron like this, but the last thing that you want is for some cheap soldering iron to be adding to the inherent difficulty of soldering. This thing does the opposite of that. It makes soldering a lot easier and more fun. That might sound kinda crazy if you havent used one, but this really makes soldering a lot more pleasant. It heats up very quickly, and maintains its temperature very exactly. It maintains its temperature so well that even when I spend a bit too long heating something up, it doesnt damage anything. Thanks to the awesome temperature stability, it melts solder amazingly well without oxidizing it too quickly, I didnt know I could make solder joints this nice. I cant properly explain just how nice this thing is. You have to try one. Its just a joy to use. A nice soldering iron like this makes a huge difference, its night and day versus a cheap soldering iron. The base is very sturdy, the soldering iron itself is comfortable, it comes with a wedge shaped tip standard (which is much better than those needle point tips). I also like how small the whole thing is. It takes up a very minimal amount of desk space which is good if (like me) you dont have much desk space to spare. I personally enjoy the unique colors and design, but Im sure not everyone will like them. They actually look nicer in person than they do in the pictures. I also enjoy that the soldering iron holder is separate, and it feels like its made out of metal and some kind of ceramic stuff, its great. I really cant say enough good things about this. Soldering is still hard, but this thing makes it a lot better. I enjoy using it so much that I actually find myself getting sad when Im done with something and have nothing else to solder, which never used to happen before. Of course, if youve read anything about these, then you probably know the user interface leaves a bit to be desired. Its even stranger in person than the instructions make it out to be. But thats a minor flaw overall. Once you set it the way you want it, you pretty much dont have to pay attention to that anymore. Still, itd be nice if in a future version they made a better user interface for this thing. The user interface is its only real flaw.

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.

Paul Carlson of “Mr. Carlson’s Lab” uses one. Mark from “Blueglow Electronics” uses one. 90% of every EE video I see has an FX888D in the background. That’s enough of an endorsement. I bought one and love it. Temperature control is not as bad as everyone claims. It heats up quickly and adjusts the newly-set temperature quickly. The grip is wonderful. It’s such an improvement over any Weller. I *do* wish the iron stand/holder had more heft to it but that’s about it.

This solder station is a great upgrade to a plug in hand held Weller type from your big box type DIY stores. What this solder station is not is something along the lines of an all day every day use station. This is a solder station for light to medium use at home or a small shop type setting. When I purchased this I researched a lot about fakes and was skeptical about this purchase before it arrived. I checked online with the video from 2016 about the differences and I am comfortable to say this in my opinion is a genuine Hakko solder station. What I found in my research while confirming its authenticity is that a very large brick and mortar, as well as online now, retailer is selling a very obvious knock off of this very same model with just the Hakko name removed from the front. The model is even named FX-888D and it costs $79.99 currently at that place that rhymes with ALLMART! Really shocked places that well known and established are allowed to sell obvious counterfiet items. Anyhow, I feel this is real. The solder station itself is really great once you are comfortable using its less than welcoming controls. Why Hakko decided to put just 2 buttons on this I have no idea other than for cost savings and to annoy people learning to use it for the first time. With that said, I did have to watch their low budget video tutorials to learn how to use the 2 button commands. I highly suggest you do as well as you can set the station to a setup mode that effectively will lock you out until you command it out of that mode as another purchaser stated in another review. The iron heats up and cools down extremely quickly with a digital display rapidly counting up or down a single digit at a time so you can see the precise temperature it says it is. I have no reason to believe the temperature is off at all yet as it seems correct when melting certain materials with it. The iron stand is great for the price total but it is a little light and could be tipped over if bumped hard enough. The base unit for the power supply and temp control is heavy and solid and sits firmly on a table or desk. The materials on all parts except the power cord to the wall is top notch materials wise, but the power cord is off the wall generic hard plastic cord, no big deal though. The iron cord and rubber base at the bottom of the iron where it meets the cord is soft and allows for easy manuevering of the iron in one hand. The iron cord does not roll on itself like cheap cord does which is great. One thing to add is that I forgot to grab some extra tips and assorted tips. This only comes with a small chissle tip which is great but not for every project!

Just buy it. I Needed to do quite a bit of soldering for a low voltage LED strip light installation. Professional results were the only option. Having realized the assorted hardware store irons and soldering guns I had would quickly make a mess, I decided to get a proper soldering station. Quite simply put. Worked like a charm. Made me feel competent at soldering, when I had generally succeeded in making a mess before. Ergonomics are great. Feels like a quality tool. Doesnt even flinch when soldering larger wires, that even my soldering gun would struggle with. +1 The brass sponge works really well for cleaning the tip. Once you use one of these you wont be able to live without one. +1 Stand for the iron is metal. Thought it would be plastic from looking at the pictures, so I was pleasantly surprised. +1 Power unit is compact, but the iron heats up in seconds, and did not even flinch at soldering 14 gauge wires. +1 Includes a small chisel tip that everyone seems to recommend. Not one of the pencil tips every other iron seems to come with that are generally not recommended by people who know what they are doing. - 1 Printed manual seems to lack information on using presets. - 1 Tips could be easier to change, but this is not a problem for me since I can set it up with the tip I need, per job. Overall. I am very happy. Best $90, I could have put into a soldering station.

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.

In order to reset the HAKKO FX-888D back to the factory default settings, hold down the UP and ENTER buttons and turn the power on. The display will show A (for Asian defaults and display in Celsius) or U (for US defaults and display in Fahrenheit). You can press the UP button to toggle the value shown between A and U. When you have made your selection, press the ENTER button and the factory reset will be complete. NOTE: When resetting the unit to factory default settings, it may be necessary to re-adjust the tip temperature so that the unit is within specifications for tip temperature accuracy (±15°C/27°F). To make the tip temperature adjustments, you will need a device that can measure the tip temperature (such as a HAKKO FG-100 Tip Thermometer) or other thermocouple measuring device. To perform the tip temperature adjustment: 1.When the HAKKO FX-888D is on, hold down the ENTER button to set your tip temperature to 750°F. If you are using the Celsius, set your tip temperature to 350°C. 2.Clean your soldering iron tip and apply a fresh coating of solder. 3.Measure the tip temperature using your HAKKO FG-100 Tip Thermometer (or equivalent device) and record this value. Be sure your device is measuring in the same temperature scale as the temperature display of the HAKKO FX-888D. 4.Hold down the UP button on the HAKKO FX-888D, and program in the value that was recorded from step 2. 5.Repeat Steps 2 through 4 above until the measured temperature is ±12°F of the set temperature of 750°F (or ±7°C of the set temperature of 350°C) If after resetting to factory specs. the Preset Mode doesnt work see this YouTube video........... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ymGXuowU8

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.

I used to use Wellers professionally, but its been a long time, and so as a non-professional, Ive been using cheap crap for the little jobs Ive needed. I decided to splurge on this Hakko instead of a Weller mostly because theyre nearly identically placed in the market, but I have a bunch of heat set insert and other tips that will work on this Hakko without having to buy new ones. My god, how fast this heats! Its ready to go pretty much by time I get my jar of flux open. Im not sure what everyone is complaining about with the UI. Maybe the under 30 crowd thats only ever used touchscreens? Its a classic UI used on professional test equipment and industrial controls since the dawn of the microprocessor. If youve never used either of these types of equipment, it might be strange to you, but its certainly not hard to use. If youre over 30, its a bit nostalgic! I wish Id gotten this years ago.

I see that you are in the review section, youre probably on the fence about this purchase. So was I.... I did the same thing that you are doing now, reading the reviews. I still wasnt sure it was worth the money, after all, you can get a simple soldering iron for less than 20 bucks at home depot right? Let me tell you.... I have never experienced a soldering iron heat up from room temperature to 750 degrees as fast as this one does. The temperature is stable, the iron itself is balanced and easy to manipulate. The temperature is easily set and will stay stable on this one. I have never had an issue with it. Best of all, you dont have to turn it on and wait for it to heat up. It heats up in about 8 seconds from room temp to operating temp. I use it on all kinds of projects from Ham radio stuff (antennas, electronics etc) to motor controllers and battery BMS. Pull the trigger you wont be sorry you did.