AVR Freaks

The Hakko 936 has a Chinese knock off sold under many brand names. The knock off is of significantly lower quality than the real 936. A friend of mine has one and we did a side by side comparison. The knock off was worse in every way but price.

Still - if you feel like saving a couple bucks in the short term, buying a replacement every couple years, and supporting people who steal other people's work and sell it as their own - the Chinese knock off is a great choice.

I would look at the new Weller WD1002 before you look at the Hakko. The tips for the Hakko are $15.00 each. The Weller are under $4. Look at the attached comparison.

I'm not so sure they've stolen anyones design. It's quite common for others to imitate popular designs because people are familiar with them. I think most people in the field as a profession would normally opt for the brand just for the peace of mind.

Meh, if all you folks would stop caring about patent infrigement for a while (these are just CONVERSATIONS, no one is actually infringing on any patent HERE!), maybe a lot of threads wouldn't go to the pooper like this one did int he last few posts.

I think this subject really is the center of a lot of obsessions around here, and somehow it always looks as this crap is posted just to make one look more politically-correct to the public. No one is a saint folks, and nobody cares about what you think is right or not in this subject. So why don't we just all just STFU about it, or post this crap in the OFF-TOPIC section?

Anyways, I have a 937 I bought used (but excellent condition) off of ebay for 100$ and for me it's the best thing since butter. Mind you my last "station" was mostly a variety of rat shack irons of different wattage using a set of cheap screw-on tips of different sizes and shapes I found on ebay as well, and some custom suspended holders made from coat hangers. Needless to say, night and day... ;)

As for the handle heating up - I don't know what you're talking about. That simply isn't the case with mine. I have left it on for a solid work day before and it never became even uncomfortable to hold. I'm wondering if you had a faulty unit.

Where are you getting this statistic regarding the Hakko tips lasting longer? Being that you supposedly got rid of your WD1002s almost as soon as you got them - you surely couldn't have learned that from experience (unless you were severely mistreating the tips). Keep in mind that tip care is very important. If you treat your tip wrong it'll last a fraction of how long a properly maintained tip will last. One common mistake: sponges. Not good for tips. My standard tip that I use is a year old and I put maybe 5 or so hours of use on it every week. So tip longevity is a pretty silly selling factor either way when they're lasting that long.

To be clear - I'm still not promoting the Weller over the Hakko - but Carl you're making it sound like there's no competition and I simply don't think you're right. No offense - but your post reeks of fanboyism. I say that because you're claiming many things as facts without backing them up or giving any indication that you didn't pull them out of thin air.

I have zero complaints about my Weller - and the things you're saying that are wrong with it simply are not problems that anybody at my company has come across.

What's more - the problems that you are saying are so prevalent have never, ever surfaced at my company. That's why your posts are bugging me so much. It'd be like if somebody came on here and started saying that AVRs have memory corruption issues, or started spouting some other nonsense that we all know is not true. Thus something is clearly off here. I'm not saying you're lying - I highly doubt you are - I'm just saying that something's not adding up. It's like your company and my company got irons from entirely separate batches - and that your all's batch was completely botched. Highly unlikely, obviously.

And to be clear - I never called into question your knowledge, nor did I imply anything of that nature. If my post sounded like that than my apologies. I'm not in the habit of insulting people over the Internets.

I've stated my peace and I'll be exiting this thread before it turns ugly :)

You should have a look for Goot soldering stations. They are Japanese made and are great, i brought one a couple of years ago and i can do pretty much anything if taken care of.

Ok, I really don't want to derail the thread or anything, but I've just brought out my Weller soldering station to give it another go. I figured perhaps I just had a freak bad experience and re-evaluating the performance by giving it another try would be a good idea.

So, this iron has not been used in at least a year at this point. I went ahead and made sure it was clean, fired it up, and waited for it to get hot. Everything looks good so far, so I attempt to prime up the tip. I can feel heat coming back off the guard and hitting my fingers, which I recall getting uncomfortable quickly and is one of the reasons I did not like the iron to begin with. But that heat I figure is a sign it is hot enough. Solder to tip... nothing happens. The iron is cranked up to maximum heat, and it's been about 5 minutes now, the solder should be melting. I continue to apply solder to the tip, and it does in fact melt just a bit, but balls up and rolls off. At this point the tip is visibly becoming black and I start to smell an unpleasant burning/smokey smell. I figure there must be residue on the tip or something, and proceed to get my tip-cleaning stuff out. Then I notice the smoke flowing from the heating element area out where the tip is inserted. I shut off the iron, let it cool down, and pull the tip out. Out comes what I can only describe as burnt rust. After cleaning this burnt rust off the top and outside of the heating element area as best I can I'm not heating the iron up again, and hoping whatever that was was just preventing the tip from getting hot enough. Keep in mind I've used this iron only a handful of times, and have used it to the best of my knowledge properly and taken care to keep it in proper working order. It was never stored in a humid environment, so I have no idea how that much rust got in there in the first place. The heating element looks fine, and so does the tip... so where did it come from? Ok, giving it another shot now.

New tip worked gorgeously! That was actually quite pleasant. The iron performed as I would expect an iron to perform, but I still don't like the clumsy cord and the heat coming back off the iron. I'm thinking my poor experience may have been because I received the iron in poor condition. I did purchase it new mind you, it's not second hand, but whatever was rusted around the tip must have been impeding the performance of the unit from the start. I'll use the Weller some more and hopefully its performance will not be as disappointing as before. I honestly don't think it will replace my Goots, and if this new head gets messed up any time soon I'll be giving it away to anyone who wants it. Goot heads have never failed me, and never gotten gunked up like this Weller one did.

nleahcim:

What I'm about to say I don't mean in any offensive manner, but I'd just like to respond to that statement. I never changed the tip on this iron, nor have I ever immersed it or improperly stored it. The heating was always off, and I guess it was my bad for not checking the tip before I ever used it. But it is obvious to me something was botched in the unit from the point I received it. After cleaning it and changing the tip I can say the iron worked fine, but that's the first time it worked fine. The iron seems to have been in bad condition directly after receiving it, which leads me to conclude it was either stored improperly or manufactured improperly. Was I supposed to disassemble and clean the iron somehow before use? Is this in fact a manufacturing blooper or am I an idiot who doesn't know the proper way to start using a new iron?

For what I know I've been properly tinning, wiping, cleaning, and storing my tips. I've never had a problem with any Goot tips, despite several years of use now. I know I've not used some of those tips for months at a time, and after changing back to them they have always performed properly. What's most amazing to me at this point is the fact I can't get the blackish residue looking stuff off the front of this tip, which is what I believe is preventing it from being properly tinned/primed. I don't want to just scrape it off either, as I know that's not a good idea, but this is the first time I've ever experienced anything like this.