Soldering Iron Showdown: $10 vs $1,000 Soldering Iron! Which Is The Best For You?

Where I'm from that cheap one is about 3 dollars.

I only have that one & I use it everyday. Works okay.

I tried soldering 2 12 awg wires for my truck's low beam headlight, but didn't work well. I got a PT solder gun with 60 watts, but it didn't heat the wires hot enough to melt the solder on to it. What solder gun would u suggest?

Fast heat-up is nice, but in almost every situation an iron can be heating up while the work is being prepared. The much more important thing--which you didn't cover, unfortunately--is thermal recovery and an iron's ability to maintain temp during use while heat is being sinked away.

❤hallo kak nyimak punyaku solder sunshine 80watt sayang sekali masih bagus buat masa depan kerjanya lumayanlah OLED bisa di atur panas 500derajat😊

A soldering iron is not the same as a soldering gun

Wow. Five days later the pandemic happened...and now inflation drove the Weller up to $65 haha.

Weller sucks get a matcal brand

my hakko 888 gets super hot , to where it ruins my tips. Even at lowest temp it juat gets red hot. Do you think the heating element is bad or can it be the actual unit?

Helped me choose my first one, cheers.

What about the seller wlc 200?

You had the WLC100 set on level 2, I bet it can heat up faster on higher levels

That wire mesh is a scotch bright stainless steel scrubber

Great comparison. I enjoy content.

the weller got alot of good use from me but recently just updated to the aixun t3a and man is that thing a fucking beast

I borrowed my brother's ldk like iron and it is total poo. I got the heat turned all the way up and it barely melts anything. You gotta hold it in one place for about 3 minutes for it to get hot enough to melt solder. I'm no professional but pretty sure it shouldn't take so long to get hot.

A grand on a soldering iron.. what kind of circuitry is inside that to make it 10x more than a higher end iron.. theres no way its actually worth that money.. for a 200w coil, adjustable pwm digital led display, multiple outputs .. unless it comes with a bad ass hot air gun, a digital magnifying 15x camera, tips from .01mm to 10ga…. Solder and flux all.. 1000$ iron.. jeez

Ryobi Makes An 18 Volt Soldering Iron
I Heard It Has A Prettygood Reputation.

I Got Me A Weller Wc 100 It Realy
A 40 Watt Iron Came With It. Then
I Got Me A Soldering Handle Where I Can Thread Different Wattage Elements
Ranging from 23 To 50 Watt
I Also Hava Some Finepoint Tips For Doing Electrical Work On Scooters
& Power Chairs. It Heats Up Within 1 Minute.

Weller sucks Metcal and jbc are way better!

$80 TS100 on 6s is very powerful & gets to 350 Celsius in 5 seconds and also holds it heat during use.. Great at the field!

Looks like the cheaper Weller uses a standard pencil with AC adapter? If that is the case most likely the control is just a variable AC voltage style pot, and other AC pencils could be used. Would be interesting to know what the voltage out was on your test since it was so slow, and if it is AC, if it's faster directly connected out. Also makes me wonder if I could use a Router control from Harbor Freight on a non-adjustable pencil although wouldn't expect much performance gain as it would only be cooler then direct connect.

I bought the Hakko. It was unable to get hot enough to salvage parts from a broken 500w computer power supply. It simply could not melt a large lump of solder with lots of medium-gauge pins & wires coming out of it. It's probably a lot more economical to buy multiple fixed power/temperature soldering irons than to fork out a bloody fortune for an extremely high-powered variable-power soldering iron.

what's good for installing active pickups in a guitar?

what do you think of Mag-Torch MT-630 30 W Corded Solder Iron

so what do we think about that LDK for swapping guitar pickups ?

Weller WE1010

The whole deal with letting your iron sit is so that it can heat up to a temperature that's just below the melting point, engineers always over thinking it... probably works at a military contractor if I were to guess under the J-standard for class 3 products lmao

I like the guns go from cold to Melting solder in about 2 seconds

Hakko user interfaces are amazingly terrible but they overpaid some fashion designer to shit it up (and got rid of their superior dial design in the process). I like mine but won't use it for SMD work. It's fine for wiring harness and other crude tasks though.

I feel any of these over the 100$ are just taking advantage of people willing to pay stupid amounts for what amounts to a heating element. Who cares if it takes one 6 seconds more to heat up than the other or that it holds temp to 4 degrees. That literally cannot matter but its like buying a rolex...its a flex

That weller is $80 here in canada.

u do a lot of soder mizing?

...keep it to urself m8
😯

i solder...because i can read ...lol

I have a Weller WD1. I picked it up in 2007, and I swear by it. I might grab one of the new models, as I like the back lighting. Good review!

Metcal

lasted about 4 seconds ..heard sawdering ...switched off

Stick to soldering and leave the reviews to the pros.

Always used the metcal smartheat system for about the last twenty years, wouldn't use anything else, interesting video though.

WELLER wx2 Overpriced, WAY overpriced!!!!! Talk about Rip Off, KSGER 8sec, TS100 8sec what is so good about 10sec I have been using my KSGER for over a year now and it REALLY performs, Weller wx2 very old technology ok for plumbers though :-)

I use a hakko everyday for a few years now well worth $100

This video seems 5 years old. Times have changed. Half of those are considered obsolete

A few folks need to take half a minute for a calm walk, to talk about English words that have silent L. Solder isn't alone 😅
Me, I'm going to eat my salmon with almond crust, then get back to soldering. 🤠

I use the WLC100 but I hate that the replacement tips get stuck inside then you ruin the whole pen because you couldn't drill it out.

My el cheapo only lasted a day or two.

how much watt do i need ?

You said you are mechanical engineer... what it has to do with soldering?
Electrical engineers yes they are soldering mechanical has nothing to do with solder.

TRY JBC .

Shopping for the perfect soldering tools. So happy I stumbled upon this video. Now I know exactly what I need. Thanks for the great Showdown.

Was considering the Hakko, it looks pretty decent, but god those controls are just awful... A dial is far superior for quickly selecting your desired temp, or hell even a Up AND Down arrow would have been nice. With the Hakko you have to hold the enter key for a few seconds, and select your desired temp 1 digit at a time, this is just an unnecessary waste of time while working.