I used a Weller for years and still have one, but I recently got to use a Hakko I think it has a slight edge on the Weller it seems to be better built and temp. seems more stable. The new Weller WESD51 also seems to be a good unit.
Most professionals swear by the Metcal.
But for my money this is it. The Hakko FM-202.
Most professionals swear by the Metcal.
But for my money this is it. The Hakko FM-202.
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My company uses Hakko gear almost exclusively. We do fairly high volume manufacturing, and the Hakko stations stand up wonderfully on the assembly line, and get the job done well with no reliably problems.
Taking full advantage of the 'corporate discount', I bought a Hakko 936 ESD iron for myself which I use for all my home experimentation... highly recommended.
I wouldn't call Hakko better or worse than Weller though, I've never had any problems with either. It's up to personal preference; I'm personally not that fond of the "coil spring" iron holder, and we've got a couple people working here who swear by their Weller stations and won't ever touch a Hakko. I guess it's like hockey teams...
Taking full advantage of the 'corporate discount', I bought a Hakko 936 ESD iron for myself which I use for all my home experimentation... highly recommended.
I wouldn't call Hakko better or worse than Weller though, I've never had any problems with either. It's up to personal preference; I'm personally not that fond of the "coil spring" iron holder, and we've got a couple people working here who swear by their Weller stations and won't ever touch a Hakko. I guess it's like hockey teams...
"Most professionals swear by the Metcal."
At somewhere between a grand or or two I wonder why. They are great and I used one at work. I have seen them break before, but the engineers were pretty rough on them at work. The Metcal desoldering tips save my life since you can heat all the pins at once with the right tip for a particular IC package. You don't want to have to fix a pad on a large ASIC, trust me!
The Hakko stuff is much better built than the Wellers in the same price range and I think the performance is better I will never buy another Weller as the last two I had broke and were very flimsy designs. They looked like reliability was the last concern of the designers. Weller is riding on it's name and building stuff as cheap as they can make it IMO. Finding tips at my surplus store or Fry's for the Hakko is no problem.
Go with the Hakko......... this is a no brainer for anyone who has used both for a while.
At somewhere between a grand or or two I wonder why. They are great and I used one at work. I have seen them break before, but the engineers were pretty rough on them at work. The Metcal desoldering tips save my life since you can heat all the pins at once with the right tip for a particular IC package. You don't want to have to fix a pad on a large ASIC, trust me!
The Hakko stuff is much better built than the Wellers in the same price range and I think the performance is better I will never buy another Weller as the last two I had broke and were very flimsy designs. They looked like reliability was the last concern of the designers. Weller is riding on it's name and building stuff as cheap as they can make it IMO. Finding tips at my surplus store or Fry's for the Hakko is no problem.
Go with the Hakko......... this is a no brainer for anyone who has used both for a while.
I just went for it and got a hakko 936. Love it.. and you can get the whole esd soldering stations and tips for a little over 100. The iron is nice and thin, heats up super fast and stays cool.
I got mine from this place, I know nothing about them but the price was right, you get a free metal tip cleaner and it made it to me no problem.
http://www.kiesub.com/hakko936.htm
best of luck
I got mine from this place, I know nothing about them but the price was right, you get a free metal tip cleaner and it made it to me no problem.
http://www.kiesub.com/hakko936.htm
best of luck
Fred Dieckmann said:
I guess Fred have just done the guy who asked the question a favour. My experience with weller is from the 10+ years old models, and they sure are good, but I asked a friend of mine thats a military radar tech., he said that the new wellers are not worth their price....he described them pretty much like Fred did.
Magura
I agree as well. I have used Weller for many years and they were always fairly good, but recently the quality of their products has definitely suffered. I have been using a Hakko 926 and 936 for 5+ years now and I'm VERY satisfied. I think that they are built even better than the old weller WTCP types.
POS Weller
It's a common problem for American tools. Companys that used to make first rate stuff cash in their name for a buck at the Home Depot and such. Dewalt makes a lesser line of cordless drills that cost 1/2 the price of the model that I buy from a local industrial supplier. And they'er not worth the savings. I bought a Delta to have one around the house because the price was right. It was so weak that I gave it to my grandfather. It was useless to me. And it was 12v.
It's a sad thing to see a good company start putting their name on sh!t from Taiwan for a buck.
The evils of capitolism
It's a common problem for American tools. Companys that used to make first rate stuff cash in their name for a buck at the Home Depot and such. Dewalt makes a lesser line of cordless drills that cost 1/2 the price of the model that I buy from a local industrial supplier. And they'er not worth the savings. I bought a Delta to have one around the house because the price was right. It was so weak that I gave it to my grandfather. It was useless to me. And it was 12v.
It's a sad thing to see a good company start putting their name on sh!t from Taiwan for a buck.
The evils of capitolism
I guess the issue about the quality going down is the same all over the western world. You see it no matter where youre looking. Whenever Im shopping for something that must be flawless, I usually have to spend a lot of time on testing samples and the like. Even relatively simple things seem to have a quality issue.
Ive experienced two relatively (to me) surprising cases recently.
The first case was when shopping for capacitors of the PP metallized film type (motor run). There have been a bit talk here on the board about such, but I assumed that a big western manufacturer like Ducati would not have quality issues....they sure are plenty expensive to not have such problems. My father have loads of hands on with this type of caps, and he sounded like he had swallowed a garden gate when I asked him to help me find some Ducati caps. Then I ordered a few different samples from different brands for testing....I sure thought that wouldnt be nessecery.
The second case was when a few people here decided to buy some silverplated wire. I thought it should be a matter of hunting down the cheapest supplier....a few samples later....also not the case. As well as with the caps....huge difference in quality from the best to the worst.
So I guess you could say that 10 years ago we have been spoiled with reasonable average quality without too much crap in between.....thats obviously not the case anymore.
Magura
Ive experienced two relatively (to me) surprising cases recently.
The first case was when shopping for capacitors of the PP metallized film type (motor run). There have been a bit talk here on the board about such, but I assumed that a big western manufacturer like Ducati would not have quality issues....they sure are plenty expensive to not have such problems. My father have loads of hands on with this type of caps, and he sounded like he had swallowed a garden gate when I asked him to help me find some Ducati caps. Then I ordered a few different samples from different brands for testing....I sure thought that wouldnt be nessecery.
The second case was when a few people here decided to buy some silverplated wire. I thought it should be a matter of hunting down the cheapest supplier....a few samples later....also not the case. As well as with the caps....huge difference in quality from the best to the worst.
So I guess you could say that 10 years ago we have been spoiled with reasonable average quality without too much crap in between.....thats obviously not the case anymore.
Magura
Love my hakko 907
Fred and Magura seem to have answered about the Weller _grin_
I hadn't done any soldering in decades.
Kind of dreaded that part when I started back DIY.
No longer is it drudgery with the Hakko.
If I had known it would be so easy with the Hakko, I might have started back sooner.
regards
Ken L
Fred and Magura seem to have answered about the Weller _grin_
I hadn't done any soldering in decades.
Kind of dreaded that part when I started back DIY.
No longer is it drudgery with the Hakko.
If I had known it would be so easy with the Hakko, I might have started back sooner.
regards
Ken L
I hate going off topic, but I agree with the previous quality statements. I don't know if it's American vs. China va. Canada vs. Vatican City vs. Liberia vs. Russian -- in other words, I wouldn't say American quality is slipping. That's much too broad.
I just bought a 17 bit drillbit set from HDepot made by dewalt. Thought it was a bargain at $18. Well the first bit I used bent when drilling into 1/2inch clear acrylic. I'll send the entire set straight to dewalt's corp. hq to complain.
Moral of the story -- don't just ask around what's the best XYZ nowadays. If a formerly trusted brand is no lnger so, send a letter to their coprorate hq -- chances are they don't even know. Find someone whose not in customer relations, like the CEO
Maybe that will help to avoid a standard form letter reply.
I just bought a 17 bit drillbit set from HDepot made by dewalt. Thought it was a bargain at $18. Well the first bit I used bent when drilling into 1/2inch clear acrylic. I'll send the entire set straight to dewalt's corp. hq to complain.
Moral of the story -- don't just ask around what's the best XYZ nowadays. If a formerly trusted brand is no lnger so, send a letter to their coprorate hq -- chances are they don't even know. Find someone whose not in customer relations, like the CEO
Maybe that will help to avoid a standard form letter reply.- Status
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