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Soldering Iron ReviewsThe following reviews are reviews of the most popular irons in USA and Canada. Weller soldering irons and Pace soldering stations are the best soldering irons available in USA and Canada. Aoyue soldering irons are not as good and famous as Weller and Pace soldering irons but they are cheaper – Aoyue soldering irons are the combination of good quality and great price. If you are going to buy soldering iron in USA or Canada, I hope that the following reviews will help you to choose best soldering iron for your needs.
The WESD51 Weller soldering iron has been developed for hand soldering in industrial manufacturing as well as for rework and repair of circuit boards. When you buy soldering iron WESD51, you will receive a power unit, detachable 50W soldering pencil (PES51), iron holder and tip-cleaning sponge, and 3-wire power cord. There is a power on/off switch, power-on LED, and temperature adjusting knob on the power unit. The soldering station has microprocessor control and digital display. The WESD51 Weller iron is the digital readout version of the popular analog WES51 soldering iron. The unit display shows a “Read” mode by default, which displays the current temperature of the tip. To switch into the “Set” mode, turn the temperature control knob slightly and the display will show the current “Set” temperature. In other words, while adjusting the temperature, the display shows your target temperature and then automatically switches to show the current tip temperature.
The WES51 Weller soldering iron is very similar to WESD51 Weller soldering iron but does not have a digital readout (digital display shows current temperature of iron’s tip during operation or set-up). The WES51 Weller soldering iron is great soldering iron that is designed and manufactured by famous Weller Company. It is perfect for all kinds of soldering applications including repairs, rework, industrial manufacturing, etc. Its economical price makes it also a good soldering iron for occasional users such as hobbyist or home electronics enthusiast. Weller soldering iron WES51 is best selling soldering iron on Amazon. And Weller company has been around for generations. Weller has started in 1940s. Even though Cooper Tools acquired Weller Soldering in 1970s, the Weller brand name is well-respected and recognized throughout the world as a best manufacturer of soldering equipment. When you buy soldering iron WES51, you will receive the main power unit, the pencil, the pencil stand and a sponge attached to the pencil stand that you can use to clean the iron’s tip. All of those tools combined into the soldering station setup, provide you everything that you need to start your soldering project. Some of features of WES51 Weller soldering iron:
The WES51 Weller soldering iron comes with PES51 soldering pencil that has a comfortable foam grip that improves the ease of use and reduces heat transfer from the iron into your fingertips. I found the soldering pencil to be really quite comfortable to grip for extended periods. It features a stainless steel heating element which extends the soldering iron’s life by minimizing corrosion. Soldering pencil PES51 uses ET series tips - Weller has a huge range of tips in ET series to suit all kinds of soldering jobs. Main problem with most of soldering irons is that you need to wait for them to heat up from cold stage to ready-for-soldering stage, not only when you start using them, but also in between jobs if you leave them alone for a long period of time. For example, one of my soldering irons automatically powers down after 15 minutes of inactivity. Unfortunately, this particular setting is not adjustable so you cannot customize it for your needs. In other words, you cannot increase this time if you do little bit of soldering with a long periods of time between two soldering jobs. WES51 Weller soldering iron has a built in activator that allows it to automatically powers down after 99 minutes of inactivity. That is right setting of this shut down time – you have enough time even if you have some longer interval between two soldering jobs. Another great feature of the WES51 Weller soldering iron is that it has very accurate electronic temperature control. Temperature of iron can be adjusted with the front panel temperature control knob - you can precisely control the temperature of iron to within 9 degrees Fahrenheit. Electronic temperature control means you'll always know if the tip of the soldering iron is hot enough for the material you are soldering. It makes your soldering task a whole lot easier. In addition, electronic temperature control allows precise control of the heat level at the tip of Weller soldering iron. This means that you can rest assured that your Weller soldering iron is hot enough and ready for soldering, and at same time you know that it is not too hot to burn some temperature-sensitive components on circuit board. If you do not pay attention on temperature of iron’s tip you can accidentally damage or ruin your soldering project by applying too much heat. For every soldering task you need enough heat to quickly and reliably melt the solder and apply it to soldering joints, but you do not want too much heat that can burn or melt delicate electronic components or circuit boards.
The SP23LK Weller Soldering Iron is a good iron for the money. This 25-watt iron is what you need if you solder once in while for small soldering projects in electronics or for a hobby. When you buy Weller soldering iron SP23LK you will receive also some accessories including iron stand, three nickel-plated replaceable tips, and a small amount of solder wire - so if you have a small soldering project, you have everything you need included in this soldering kit. There is one piece in this soldering kit that I really do not like - the stand for iron. This stand is a complete garbage. It gets very hot when the iron rests on it, so be careful where you place this stand. The stand is also very low, and therefore the tip of the soldering iron (which gets very hot during soldering) is close to surface of the bench. I do not recommend using this stand at all. If you decide to get this kit, I hightly recommend you purchase a safe and relaible funnel style stand for it.
I have already worked with 2702A Aoyue soldering station and everything went smoothly. It is a really complete soldering system; very fast temperature response, lots of accessories. I have been using this Aoyue soldering station when soldering very fine surface mount components (SMD) in sizes 0402, 0603. The station maintains a constant temperature when the set value is reached. This soldering system Aoyue 2702A consists of 3 main parts: In addition, this packege contains:
This soldering iron comes with a smoke absorber. This is great feature of Aoyue soldering iron – I love it. This is good safety feature as well. Smoke absorber absorbs all hazardous smokes from flux and solder that are dangerous for human health. Smoke absorber is attached on handle of Aoyue soldering iron and air intake of smoke absorber is positioned just little bit above the iron tip. The 2702 Aoyue soldering station is great $250 soldering system – the combination of high quality and great price. It is a great workstation for repairs on all types of boards. I like that I give 5 out of 5 stars to this Aoyue soldering station.
Recently, I had to replace one part of my MBT-250 Pace Soldering Station : the heater assembly for the TJ-70 Mini ThermoJet handpiece. The ThermoJet handpiece provides continuous flow of precision focused hot air for component installation and surface-mount land preparation. The cost of the part was $125.00 (without shipping charges). It is also possible to buy the complete ThermoJet handpiece assembly TJ-70 for the Pace soldering station for $335.00. I have been using this soldering station mostly for soldering and desoldering surface mount components with the use of a microscope (a microscope is not part of Pace soldering station MBT250). It really is a joy to work with this station and it's great feeling knowing that it can satisfy all your soldering needs.
PS-90 soldering iron is a very slim iron ideal for soldering of surface- mount components as well as for soldering of through-hole components. I give 5 out of 5 stars to this soldering station. 
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