Help my wife select a Christmas present :)

[lymon]

My wife took notice of my current (heh) re-interest things of an electronic nature, and took it upon herself to relay a request for a new soldering implement to Santa.

For years I have used a very old Weller soldering iron. Wife found, and ordered this, https://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-Variabl...rds=aoyoue+469

Unfortunately, the dealer did not include the springy iron holder, and the Aoyue will have to be returned.

I really don't do enough soldering to even come close to NEEDing a new one, but in keeping with the spirit (for the most part), would I be better off with https://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Sta...ords=yihua+936 ?

As far as I can tell, the Aoyue is 110 volt, wattage controlled by a hand full of resistors, and the other is 24 volt, with more stuff to go wrong. Any thoughts on which would make a better present are most welcome. Thanks.

[cpt.charlie]

Re: Help my wife select a Christmas present

These units are copies of the hakko models, the ones built by aoyue tend to be better quallity than the yihua or equivalents, these units are fine for hobby but not for a heavy use, have a look at the review made by Dave Jones (not totally inpartial BTW)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdV7XBae74

[diif]

Re: Help my wife select a Christmas present

I have one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0177...rds=bakon+950d

A step up from the one you listed.

[lymon]

Re: Help my wife select a Christmas present

Thanks for the input, and link to the Yutube vid--still not sure what his bottom line opinion was

As I mentioned, I have been doing fine with an old single speed (40 watt ?) Weller, as I just don't currently do much soldering, so anything that actually heats up is more than really NEED.

I'm kind of leaning toward keeping the Aoyue, because it seems simpler. Is there any reason to prefer the larger, slightly more complicated 24 volt version? Is the temperature control better, does it heat better? Thanks.

[diif]

Re: Help my wife select a Christmas present

My old iron was similar to the Aoyue. It didn't hold the heat very well when encountering large ground plains. It was unable to desolder component off a Z-Sustain board.
My Bakon 950D does not struggle with anything and uses the superior T12 tips.
The handle is also smaller and nicer to hold than the Aoyue.
There is nothing complicated about the Bakon 950D.
Push a T12 tip in, turn on the iron and set the temperature. Once it's set it saves it.
Digital readout of the temperature is fairly accurate from a few quick tests I have done.

[lymon]

Re: Help my wife select a Christmas present

My old iron was similar to the Aoyue. It didn't hold the heat very well when encountering large ground plains. It was unable to desolder component off a Z-Sustain board.
My Bakon 950D does not struggle with anything and uses the superior T12 tips.
The handle is also smaller and nicer to hold than the Aoyue.
There is nothing complicated about the Bakon 950D.
Push a T12 tip in, turn on the iron and set the temperature. Once it's set it saves it.
Digital readout of the temperature is fairly accurate from a few quick tests I have done.

You know, that Bakon does look kind of nice. I think I'll try to get a hold of Amazon, and if they'll send out just the missing springy iron holder, without returning the whole thing I'll keep the original, else I'll likely order the Bakon in it's place.