Cheap Solder Station Woes

[SnakeyJ]

As my work Weller solder station (WD1000M) went west some months back and I was getting fed up with not having a small soldering iron at home for those DIY Astro projects, I decided to chance my arm and buy one of the cheap Chinese made solder stations from a UK supplier on ebay (WEP 937D+).

It arrived very promptly today and I was quite pleased with the look and feel, particularly of the 60w wand and 6 spare tips.

However, I connected it up, powered it on and set the temp to 300C.    The LED then changed to display the tip temp which was unchanging at around 31-32C.    A hint of melting PVC in the air, a feint buzzing sound and then white smoke from the control unit - which I promptly switched off !

Does this mean a new pope has been elected

I suppose I should have known better....   Undecided now whether to go for the refund or chance a replacement from the supplier

[Tinker1947]

My Weller had been working for 15 - 20 years, i know what would replace it if it did fail.....

[Gina]

Go for a refund and buy something better.

[SnakeyJ]

My Weller had been working for 15 - 20 years, i know what would replace it if it did fail.....

Fair point, though my Weller was not so great in that the display failed some 12 months from new and then completely gave up the ghost just outside of warranty.    It was very lightly used for soldering AV cables in our office and was well kept.   In hindsight I should've returned it when the first fault appeared.   However, £ 400 for a professional (Weller/Hakko) unit is not unreasonable, but I could not justify this spend for an occasional use/hubby unit.

Go for a refund and buy something better.

Probably right, though there were some reasonable reviews for this product and I suspect I was rather unlucky on this occasion.     Any suggestions on a reasonably priced alternative - ideally sub £ 100!

I've just done the ebay report and been given an automated return address in China (buyer pays postage).     As this was a UK listing (Portsmouth), this is contra to Ebays buyer protection policy (which says the vendor must pay return postage to a country other than what is listed).     I have added a note to the case to this effect and will have to wait and see what the vendor comes back with.

[kalasinman]

I have found that the terror of sellers over negative feedback is an effective cudgel. I usually respond to sellers offers that I will not return the item, and insist on a full refund. Ebay usually stays out of these disputes initially, but will step in given no resolution.

[Alien 13]

In the professional market I have found Weller to be the best not perfect by any means but well supported with spares, I use a maplin one at about £60 and so far has been trouble free.

Alan

[perfrej]

Yes, stick with Weller. I have one that is close to 40 years old and it still works and you can get spare tips for it. I recently bought a modern slim one which is by far the best soldering thing I have ever used. It is a whopping 40W in an extremely slim package, so slim that it is usable for SMD work in addition to standard stuff. They appear to have discontinued the basic version and now only sell the one which includes rechargeable batteries.

http://www.weller.de/products/product.php?pid=1686

Definitely worth every penny!

/per

[101nut]

I've had a Xytronic 50 or 60W unit for the last few years (Rapid Electronics sell them) which has a great range of tips, plenty of welly and good temperature control.

Not a patch on the Adcola 101 I used for the previous 20 years though ...

I dislike Wellers - but only for their handling which personally I never find comfortable but that's me ...

AndyG 

[StuartJPP]

I use a Weller as well at home, it is perfectly fine for hobbyist work. They were being chucked out when we went lead free.

There are of course better makes out there (Metcal for instance) but for the price (in my case free) they are okay.

[SnakeyJ]

Thank you Alan, Per, Andy and Stuart - excellent advice and does add weight to the Weller argument (except for Andy's comment on comfort).

The rechargeable Weller WSM 1C does look very nice for fine work and the rechargeable battery is a nice feature, but retailing at £ 400 in UK is going to seriously dent my budget in the short

[Gina]

WOW!!  That's a lot!

[Davey-T]

Here's mine, inherited from my dad who I think inherited it from his dad, had a 15amp round pin plug on it when I got it, great for soldering my wifes garden rail track, not so good for smids   May be due for a new lead.

[michael8554]

Davey-T, they had an iron like that on the Health & Safety films at work....

It was okay, nobody died  ....  :->

Michael

[faulksy]

i use a hako 926 its great and good control. but for small jobs i use a antex xs25 only around 20 quid and is great for what it is

[mikeobrien]

Science museum might be interested in that one Davey

[gooseholla]

Is that a soldering iron or some kind of electric knife?! Man that cord has had a few repairs!!!

[Gina]

I use an Antex xs25 too - had it for ages   Suits me.

[dtokez]

I have got a couple of PACE stations that I use a lot and I think they are great

[Psychobilly]

I cant get spares for my PACE  anymore  . We have been using the Xytronics for the last few years but they keep changing the designs and spares can be an issue...

Peter...

[bill_reed]

Thank you Alan, Per, Andy and Stuart - excellent advice and does add weight to the Weller argument (except for Andy's comment on comfort).

The rechargeable Weller WSM 1C does look very nice for fine work and the rechargeable battery is a nice feature, but retailing at £ 400 in UK is going to seriously dent my budget in the short

try Radio spares in the UK, been using them since the 60s and never had any problems, I'm a TV engineer so use soldering irons every day! they have some 223 soldering irons,

here is a link.

 http://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/tools/soldering-desoldering-tools/soldering-irons/?searchTerm=soldering+irons

[StuartJPP]

The rechargeable Weller WSM 1C does look very nice for fine work and the rechargeable battery is a nice feature, but retailing at £ 400 in UK is going to seriously dent my budget in the short

A soldering iron can last decades, just see above ...a battery for that thing will be dead in a couple of years...with or without use, for that reason I'd steer clear of one of those (unless you use it daily and really need it to be cordless). Same goes with gas ones, they are okay for one-off repairs but they aren't good for continuous use.

Personally I'd request a refund from the seller...never a good sign when it blows up on the first use.

[perfrej]

I disagree about the batteries. I upgraded mine myself to include the LiPO cells and intelligent charging circuitry. I don't think the batteries are going to die and it is great to have it on the boat or in the observatory without needing 12V or 240V supply

Besides, the batteries are easily replaced should they doe on you. They did (obviously) sell it without the batteries and still do here in Sweden. And both models are still red, not the traditional Weller blue.

What I like best about it is that it heats up to 365°C in 2-3 seconds. When the same iron is part of a fuller solder station there is a magnetic switch in the cradle that turns it on when you grab it. It is always ready when you reach the soldering point, regardless of whether it was on or off when you grabbed it. There are a lot of different tips for it that you change while it is on, and with the rapid heating it is as always ready to use after you have changed the tip.

/per

[SnakeyJ]

Looks like it was a short on the ceramic heater in the wand. The seller replied and will give a refund without return. This at least leaves me with 6 spare tips, though with spare parts available I may attempt repair.

I've borrowed another iron from work in the meantime.

I've also found a replacement control unit for the works Weller 1000M for £175 from CPC, so can get this one back in service shortly.

[astrofox]

Got a Maplins from a model railway show as I often use low melt solder on models. Has performed great for the last few years. Not even eroded the tip as has hapened to other irons I have binned. No doubt helped by my insistance in keeping to lead/tin solder. Got enough stock to keep the Eu fuming at me for many a year.

[Astro_Baby]

I always buy Antex irons - never had one fail yet and on of mine has been in very solid use doing home projects for about 30 years (including the dreadful Maplin 5600S Sythesizer if anyone remembers that monster !! and that was a LOT of soldering) and its still on its original tip as well.  I don't do enough work at home to invest in a temp controlled system but if I was buying it would be Antex every time - had a couple of Wellers over the years and they all went bang sooner or later including one Weller solder station which was used professionally.