Best products from r/soldering

We found 68 comments on r/soldering discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 73 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

15. X-Tronic Model #3020-XTS Digital Display Soldering Iron Station - 10 Minute Sleep Function, Auto Cool Down, C/F Switch, Ergonomic Soldering Iron, Solder Holder, Brass Tip Cleaner with Cleaning Flux

    Features:
  • The X-Tronic Model 3020 Digital 75 Watt Soldering Station is a Powerful “Quick Temp” Unit and is manufactured for the Beginner as well as Expert Users and will Definitely Exceed Your Expectations with its Quality & Durability compared to any Soldering Iron Station in its Class. This Unit takes less than 30 Seconds to heat up from 200°C to 480°C (392°F to 896°F)
  • The Complete Kit Includes: 75-Watt LED Digital Display Soldering Iron Station (60 Watts used for Soldering Iron &15 Watts used for Mini Mother Board in Soldering Iron) with 2 Helping Hands for Propping Up Smaller PCB’s right in front of the unit for you to work on. It also Features a Side Mount Solder Roll Holder with a 50g Roll of 60/40 Solder Included, a Spring Style Soldering Iron Holder and Brass Sponge Tip Cleaner with Supply of Cleaning Flux in the Tin plus a Wet Sponge.
  • Features: ESD Safe, 10 Minute Sleep Timer, Centigrade to Fahrenheit Toggle Switch, Blue LED Readout on Control Panel, PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) Technology often referred to as Magic Temperature Compensation Technology, 40 Inch Very Pliable Soldering Iron Cord (Virtually No Memory) and a 55 Inch Power Cord from Wall Plug to Main Unit.
  • PLEASE NOTE: The Main (First) Photo shows the Brass Sponge Tip Cleaner with the Flux In the Round Metal Tin Separately from the Soldering Station and also shows this same Container Mounted In the Main Unit - This is FOR PHOTO PURPOSES ONLY. There is "ONLY ONE" of these Containers that come with this Soldering Station.
  • ALL X-Tronic Products come with a 30-Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee which also includes a 3-Year Warranty with the Cost of Parts and Labor Included. The 3-year warranty is included in the product price when purchased new from XTronicUSA, no additional warranty purchase is required. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE FOR MANY MORE PHOTOS & INFORMATION ON THIS PRODUCT!
X-Tronic Model #3020-XTS Digital Display Soldering Iron Station - 10 Minute Sleep Function, Auto Cool Down, C/F Switch, Ergonomic Soldering Iron, Solder Holder, Brass Tip Cleaner with Cleaning Flux
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18. WHDTS 4-Digit Digital Clock Kits with PCB for Soldering Practice Learning Electronics with English Instructions

    Features:
  • ⏰【Great School Science Project】: The DIY Clock Kits are used to installed to a 4-Digit Digital Electronic Clock. It is widely used in schools to help students learn basic mechanical and electronic skills. It's a great Science Fair project. Highly recommended to practice soldering skills enjoyably for you and your kids.
  • ⏰【Easy Assembly】: In addition to teaching basic mechanical and electronic principles, the clock kit is easy to build and is so simple. The connection that was clearly mapped and labeled on the board makes it easy to assemble. It's often used to teach basic soldering skills. It's a great first kit for any STEM student. No programming is required.
  • ⏰【Comprehensive Time Functions in Most Electronic Clocks】: Seconds Correction Function. Could switch to display the seconds or minutes interface independently. Accurate Travel Time--the error range ±1 sec every 24 hours. Hourly Chime Function--it supports hourly chime from 8:00 to 20:00 (The function can be turned on or off.). Two-way Alarm Clock--supports twice alarm clock setting. Power Cut Memory Function--the time is still accurate once power-on from power-off.
  • ⏰【Parameters】: This Electronic Clock Kit is equipped with STC11F02E master chip. DC5.5*2.1 power port with 5V power supply, come along with a 3.5mm USB power cable, plug in the USB charger to use it. 4 digit 0.56" red LED module which is specially for the led clock kit. 24 hour display format.
  • ⏰【Perfect After-Sale Service, Supports Wholesale】: This product is DIY kits, not the end product! This Soldering Project requires basic electronic knowledge and hands-on ability. Please read the manual before soldering. Any issues, please do not hesitate to contact us directly for further help. WHDTS has long been engaged in Electronics Related Products wholesale and retail business. Welcome letter to discuss the wholesale business. The bigger the amount is, the more favorable the price is.
WHDTS 4-Digit Digital Clock Kits with PCB for Soldering Practice Learning Electronics with English Instructions
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Top comments mentioning products on r/soldering:

u/CMDR_Muffy · 3 pointsr/soldering

951 is substantially better than the 888D. I personally used an 888D for close to a year and recently upgraded to an FM-202. It's similar to the 951.

So, the 888D definitely is not a bad station. It's actually pretty good. For general purpose soldering (wires, large electronics like perfboards, protoboards, etc) it works wonderfully. It uses the standard thread-lock tips, and my personal favorite tip for the 888D was the T18-BR02. It's a bent conical tip, and being bent like that turns it into a very useful multipurpose tip. I used it exclusively for just about all the work I did. This included working on SMD components on smartphone motherboards under a microscope.

HOWEVER, as time went on and I read more and more about the 951 I just wished I got one of those. The 951 contains very many features that the 888D lacks. I'll break those down for you now.

Firstly, the 951 has a built-in auto-sleep. When you put the iron back in the stand, the unit automatically puts the tip to sleep until you take it off the stand again. This dramatically improves tip life. If you find yourself leaving your current iron on for minutes at a time before you actually start using it, then this sleep function will save you a lot of tip replacements. This sleep function is not a replacement for turning the station off. You should always turn it off when you are done, but the sleep will preserve tip life for those few minutes between soldering where you don't want to turn the station off.

Secondly, the 951 uses a very different tip system compared to what you might be familiar with. Most cheaper stations and irons use the standard thread-lock tips. The ones that screw down onto the heating element in the iron. The 951 uses a cartridge-based system. The tips you buy are a lot more expensive (around $20 to $30), but the tips themselves contain the heating element. Since the tips themselves actually have the heating element in them, you never have to worry about buying a new heating element for your soldering station. Just get a new tip if you notice something is off with how it's heating.

This cartridge system is leaps and bounds better than the thread-lock tips. You can very quickly and easily swap tips while the iron is hot with no danger to harming yourself. You'll need to get some Hakko tip sleeves and a tip holder to do this. The sleeves themselves slip over the tips, and lock at a certain depth. The sleeve functions as the locking mechanism that secures the tip into the handpiece. When you swap tips you never have to touch any hot metal. You just clip the sleeve out of the handpiece and stick it into the tip holder, then grab another tip and slide it into the handpiece and lock it. If you want a more accurate description of this system in action let me know, I can record a video. The 202 is different from the 951 but it uses the same handpiece and tip system.

Honestly, you can probably skip this step of the additional sleeves and tip holder if you don't find much of a use currently for switching tips. The J-tip (like the T18-BR02) is my favorite all-around tip because it's very versatile in what it can do. The 951 has a similar tip, the T15-J02. They also have the JL02 and JS02, both are similar to the J02 and T18-BR02 in shape but have different size profiles.

The 951 also has a very unique heating system. The tips themselves contain a feedback sensor that is able to very reliably detect when you are touching the tip to a larger thermal mass (like a ground plane). When tip temperature drops from doing this, the station is able to push out more power to maintain the tip temperature. It has a very state-of-the-art regulation system for keeping tip temperature consistent. The 951 is basically your entry-level "professional" soldering station.

The 951 also allows you to use a micropencil with it. It's basically a soldering iron handpiece that allows you to use very, very fine tips with it that are much smaller than standard tips. These are useful for working with SMD components under a microscope. The 888D does not have support for this.

If you want to futureproof yourself and get a really really nice station, I'd go for the 951. The 888D is not bad, not in the slightest. The 888D is geared more towards hobbyists at this point, but you really can't beat having a professional station like the 951.

u/WildBerrySugarPeach · 2 pointsr/soldering

I saw a very nice Hakko fume well basically a extractor plus a fume trapper. It doesn’t just filter the smoke and push the “clean” air out of the other side it traps it in a box style unit with what looked to be several layered filters. When I looked the model you suggested up.

You get a kit with a vacuum style hose that attaches to the unit. It looks like the hose can go right directly over or next to your work space. I honestly think I need that since my throat is swelling a lot from even a few minutes of soldering, even if it does not produce any smoke. Just the lingering smell in the air makes me start to have a reaction.

The problem is, it is about $700 for the one hose kit. The unit can use two hoses if needed.

I did find and look into the model you suggested. It recommended a hakko arm that suspends the $70 fume extractor over your work space which was around $167 I think, but I really can’t risk any rosin/flux smoke/smell at all at this point


I’ll link you to the more advanced model so you can see what I was looking at on amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FA430-KIT1-Smoke-Absorber-C1571/dp/B018KORZ3C/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1539931023&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=hakko+fume+extractor

I’m rather sad honestly. I didn’t realize how expensive building a hardware repair workstation would be and I sure did not know how much more expensive it would be for a disabled person.

I have very shaky hands, bad vision, migraines, this rosin reaction and well I don’t know about 45 other medical conditions as well so I am finding I need specialized equipment. This is all of corse way more expensive and well being disabled you could assume I’m rather poor. I’m unemployed actually. I do a little self employment work fixing computers to try and get by but was hoping maybe getting into hardware fixing could help me make some side money. I love vintage technology, but it just feels like another dream or hobby down the toilet due to cost

Thanks for your advice though I really do appreciate your help.

u/eccentricworkshop · 3 pointsr/soldering

You certainly can use that soldering gun but it won't be fun or easy because it is so large (that's what I started with and used for a few years). I'd suggest picking up a Hakko FX-888D or Hakko FX-951 if you have a desire to continue with electronics.

Definitely add more solder because it has flux in it which will clean the oxides and allow the solder to flow out. You will also need to use a bit of solder wick/desoldering braid to clean up the pad before fixing it. You'll want to get some Kester leaded solder to work with.

Watch these Pace soldering tutorials before you begin to understand the basics. Heat the pad and wire then touch the solder wire to the joint. If you add it to the tip of the gun/iron the flux will burn away and it will start to oxidize. Doing it that way certainly has it's place but it isn't for this type of work as you'll need to add extra flux to protect the joint.

u/martecan · 1 pointr/soldering

Yes, a soldering station will give you better overall performance. The issue is at your current budget I can't recommend any particular brand. I own a Hakko FX-888 that I'm in love with, but that's around $95. If you can swing it, that'll be a purchase that will last you the rest of your life with proper care. The cheaper stations I have no experience with, and the quality control is what I'd be concerned about.

https://www.amazon.com/X-Tronic-3020-XTS-Digital-Display-Soldering/dp/B01DGZFSNE/

This guy looks decent, but like I said I've got no personal experience with it.

To reiterate, you will get 100% better performance with a station compared to the TS80. If portability isn't an issue then go for a station. You'll probably have a better time getting an assortment of tips for the station compared to the TS80 as well.

u/DR650SE · 3 pointsr/soldering

+1 for the Hakko FX888D-23BY

Some solder wick and a desolder pump is something else I would add. Also a cheap tip thinner for a noob (like me). Helping hands are cheap and can be useful. Also a cheap variety pack of tips. Nothing expensive till you are comfortable with keeping them clean and tinned.

These are all things I bought when I purchased my Hakko FX888. All have been useful.

Desolder Pumps and Wick

[Tip tinner] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NS4J6BY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_k1kZDbJ5TS5Q6)

Helping hands w/magnifying glass

Various Tips

Hakko FX888D-23BY


All of this cost me $146 shipped. Right now, it'll all total to $139.83 shipped if in the US

u/sf5852 · 1 pointr/soldering

The sponge, as some have pointed out, may be part of your issue. If you're using paste/liquid flux, and it does not match the flux core in your solder (no-clean core with rosin paste, for example), that can definitely cause problems. Your 80W non-controlled iron is also making it difficult because the tip rapidly shoots past the melting point of solder and zooms into the oxidizing temperature range. It's almost certainly running too hot. If you see your solder turning red-orange and then blue, then that's definitely what's happening.

I would suggest trying a tip tinner. Plug the iron in and immediately start rubbing it (gently) into the tinner. The instant it begins to melt, unplug the iron and continue tinning... it'll keep getting hotter for long enough to finish.

Or, if you're impatient, cool the iron, use that awful green Scotchbrite pad to gently scour the black stuff away, then wrap the tip with solder and add a drop of flux (again... make sure it's the same flux that's inside the solder, or use coreless solder), and plug the iron in. It should partially or completely tin the tip. Then you can use a wadded up paper towel with just a tiny bit of water in it to clean the tip off.

To keep the temperature within usable range, I recommend you get a cheap soldering iron controller. I like the Mini Phaser:

https://www.amazon.com/INLAND-Inland-MiniPhaser-Temperature-Controller/dp/B001R4QWK0/

But you could also just buy a cheap light dimmer from a hardware store and use that to power your iron outlet.. it's exactly the same thing and that's what I use in my stained glass studio. I have an 80W iron and I have to turn the power down on it to solder 1/4" thick beads to windows.. so if you're using this for electronics you definitely want to dial it way back.

u/w00tiSecurity_weenie · 1 pointr/soldering

Right before I graduated from college I was getting into soldering and decided once I got my diplomas I would treat myself to some nice HAKKO equipment using the 30% discount while I was still considered a student. The stuff below is what I purchased. Note that the 30% discount is only applied to the soldering station nothing else. Anyway, if you can splurge, I highly recommend the FX-951-66. It is truly fucking AWESOME. If you are on a tight budget and not sure if soldering as a hobby will stick, get the cheapest HAKKO they sell and it will still be a good unit. I am a huge fan of hakko so clearly I am biased but they are a well-known reputable brand

Hakko Soldering Station, FX-951-66

Hakko T15-JS02 Conical Bent Tip R0.2 / 30deg x 1.6 x 7.9mm for FX-951

Hakko CHP 3-SA Stainless Steel Non-Magnetic Precision Tweezers with Very Fine Point Tips for Microelectronics Applications, 4-3/4" Length

Hakko CHP-170 Micro Soft Wire Cutter, 1.5mm Stand-off, Flush Cut, 2.5mm Hardened Carbon Steel Construction, 21-Degree Angled Jaw, 8mm Jaw Length, 16 Gauge Maximum Cutting Capacity

u/MakesWebsites · 2 pointsr/soldering

Make sure to tin your tip and keep it clean. You can wipe it off on a wet sponge, or get a tip cleaner. I use that tip cleaner, and for $9 it's awesome.

u/lord_derpshire · 2 pointsr/soldering

I'd put this one in the not horrible but leaving something to be desired but very good for the deal category

u/thejoelslack · 1 pointr/soldering

If you need to solder on a pcb you'll want a temperature controlled soldering station, other essentials are rosin core solder, some flux to apply before soldering, and a helping hand to hold the pcb/component and wire in place when soldering. I leave my soldering station at a little less than 350 when I'm tinning wires and soldering on a pcb. Wipe excess solder off the iron, heat up the spot you want to solder to with the wire in place, then apply solder to the wire when the flux has smoked off, it should flow into the joint. You don't want to keep heat on a pcb for too long as it can damage components on the board. Make sure you tin the tip/s of the soldering iron with solder before and often during use, or the tips will oxidize and refuse to tin until you scrape the oxides off with a razor knife. Typically a problem at high temps, around 300C solder will melt and oxides form very slowly and the tip will stay hot without needing a retin for a 5-10 minutes. I usually set my temp on max when I first turn it on and hold a bit of solder to the tip and then turn it down when the solder melts. Saves a few minutes of warm up between use.

If you need to heat up a larger surface area (like a battery terminal) for tinning or soldering it helps to bump up the heat - sanding a large surface also will help. Steel and other metals may require use of a corrosive flux made specially for that.

That's about all I know XD

u/Celemourn · 5 pointsr/soldering

Thanks! got it on amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q5TK3QQ/

There are several basic types of these boards, from several vendors. I think the cheapest ones were a 10 pack for about $15-20, if I recall.

u/Chuffedas · 1 pointr/soldering

Thanks for your comment.
I have now got a Pace RT70.


I have some decisions to make.

  1. Which of the above three irons to keep.
    (I think it comes down to which can I get tips for as I am struggling with that)
  2. I need to get some power modules, so I need to work out what temps to get.
  3. What size tips to get. I have nothing to compare with. I will be soldering a teensy 2.0
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LZ98KUX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    Then I would also want a 'normal' tip. But don't know what that would be either :)
    (As in what size in mm)
  4. What size solder would I need for the above.
u/conman__1040 · 1 pointr/soldering

I personally bought my self the X-Tronic https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGZFSNE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_hjyVAbP2MTKXZ

It is fantastic and includes everything I need

u/Verax86 · 1 pointr/soldering

If you want to practice your soldering technique I suggest buying a cheap practice kit on Amazon. Something like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0711MHKDZ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_My2iDbACSXY8Y or just search online for soldering practice kits.

u/Kimomaru · 1 pointr/soldering

When soldering with lead, what kind of precautions should I take besides making sure that the area is well ventilated? Is any kind of mask recommended? Would this do? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BGW4245/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_S0YRDbHHFF5X3

u/Big_B0y_B3pIs · 1 pointr/soldering

I’m using this right now. Do you recommend a specific one from Amazon?

u/Envqy · 3 pointsr/soldering

I use Kester lead solder for modding consoles. It’s thin and it works well for soldering magnet enamel wire and you can buy it
here.
It costs a bit but it lasts a really long time and it lasts around 2 1/2 years if you solder a lot.

Also works well for SMD components and THT soldering.

u/fukitol- · 3 pointsr/soldering

If you can up your price range a bit I've got this iron and rather like it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AS28UC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_4D.wCbHNZGMGS

But if you're willing to spend $100 the difference in performance is incredible.