Hakko FX888D-23BY, 599B-02 Soldering Station with 599B Tip Cleaner, Blue/Gold

I am a beginner hobbyist and I have been soldering parts for years but never on the scale that I have been lately. I have really struggled too because I have poor fine motor skills and my vision seems to change more often than I would prefer. This iron helps me get my tasks done without all the other issues I would have. No more burning of wires. No more cold joints. No more soldering struggling. If you are just starting out, people always recommend you start out with a pencil type iron to do your soldering. I had several pencil type irons before this and they all had their own issues. Soldering is an important skill if you are going to do any electronic projects because you cannot always get the more complex parts with headers on them so you end up paying more to have the item soldered, or you solder headers on the item yourself. You almost always end up paying a premium for those to be soldered and with a smaller budget, it is easy to get expensive parts but in order to stretch your dollar, soldering is the way to go. Especially since you can use it to harvest parts off of broken or older items. This iron heats up quickly, and maintains the temperature nicely. The handle is the right thickness, the cords are long but not too long and I simply cannot begin to tell you how discouraging it is to be unable to solder stuff and watch people on Youtube videos soldering things up like it is nothing. I nearly stopped working on a few different projects because I could not get my soldering iron to work the way I needed it to work, have a tip which can last, and be something easy to use. I have not had a soldering iron tip last nearly as long as I have with this iron and it is still going strong. Not to mention, because it holds the temperature steady, the tip lasts nicely, it is a huge time saver! Not having to sit and wait till the iron is hot enough, or having to wait till it is cool enough was a royal pain. It is a real confidence booster for those struggling with soldering because it makes it easy because of how fast, how steadily it holds the temp, and last but not least, I like that the base is always there and doesn't move. These items are deceptively heavy but for good reason. You are handling items with high temperatures when soldering so it is important to get in, do the work, and get out quickly otherwise you have to have much longer project timelines. You just can't get the same kind of performance out of a $20-$50 iron. I tried Weller irons, and I tried Radio Shack irons, and now I have this. I will not change my iron. You can also get spare parts for the iron too. Bottom line, price aside, you cannot go wrong with this purchase. The price is hard to justify when you are just starting out but after you have to deal with the other options, this stands out from the rest.

Can't go wrong with this station, will hold its temps even under heavy heat draw during bigger projects. After reading other reviews, I thought the first setup with the two buttons would be confusing but after watching a related video I had my presets done in less than a minute. Heats up really fast and cools down in about 5min or so. Get the Hakko T18 chisel pack and you're covered for just about any project. I personally like the T18D16 tip for my all around tip but you have to order it separate from the chisel pack.I use the slots in the sponge to store my tips and just use the separate cleaning bin for all my tip cleaning. Just remember to keep your tip ends covered with lead solder when stored away and they'll last you for a longtime.

I used to have a Weller unit that didn't have a power supply like this unit. It heated slowly and was really a pain to use. This thing heats up very quickly and works very well. It certainly my soldering look much better. Now I wish I had more to solder.For those wondering the iron stand is all metal, not plastic like it appears in the picture.

used these for years. They are great

I have never had a soldering station before, so my review is based on no experience. The best soldering iron I have ever had. Extremely fast heat time. Smoking hot (up to 799 dungerees )Wonderful fine tune control... it stores the previous temp.... I love it. Would be 5 stars if I had more runtime on it... I haven't had a chance to put it through its paces.