Bundle Includes Soldering Station and CHP170 Cutter

I highly recommend the Hakko FX-888D. I build tweed and blackface guitar amps as a hobby as well as install pickups and pots in my electric guitars. When I first got into it, I was using the cheaper Weller irons, but the tips wore out quickly and were expensive to replace, or they sporadically just quit working, so I did some research on soldering stations. I picked the FX-888D over the Weller WE1010NA mostly because of how dissatisfied I was with their less expensive models. Ive had the FX-888D for about 4 years at this point (purchased April 2017), and it has worked flawlessly. The transformer is heavy--youre not going to accidentally pull it off the table. The iron holder is heavy as well--made of metal. When you have the iron resting in it, its secure--it wont fall out, and the yellow part is a heat sink, so the base doesnt get hot. The tips last forever, and the variety of tips available for it give me a lot of versatility for different soldering jobs. Also, the design of the wand is excellent engineering, which youll see when you trade out the tips. Its not only a smart and durable design, its also serviceable should parts of it break down from wear and tear. The other big plus is fantastic customer support from Hakko. Recently, I began to have a problem with it due to my own tendency to unplug the iron from the base when I store it (and probably jerking the cord around) where the pin sockets in the receptacle had become loose. I sent an email to user support on the American Hakko site, and within minutes, I received a reply from an actual human being who sent me the part number and instructions for how to order it. Fifteen minutes later, Id purchased the part, and it came via FedEx before the end of the week. So in the final analysis: 1) Its an excellent soldering iron. The quality of my electronics projects improved exponentially after I got it. The high quality of the tips and the pinpoint control over the temperature made all the difference. 2) Its safe. Unlike the coil bases that most irons have, the base for the FX-888D is really stable, and it does a great job of dissipating the heat. I accidentally left it on when I went to work one day. Not only did it not burn down the house, it didnt even heat the surface it was sitting on. 3) Its solid. If you plan on doing soldering on a regular basis at all, its worth your money to invest in this product. I ended up spending almost this much on cheaper irons that died--and were just a lot harder to solder with--before investing in this. 4) If it breaks, you can fix it for cheaper than it costs for a new one. The receptacle cost $9. I bought two of them and a couple of tips and got free FedEx shipping. 5) Customer service is excellent. Youre dealing with a person, and I got the fastest, friendliest response Ive ever gotten for any product. First rate.

Good quality solder iron, fast service! Easy to use. Heats up very quickly. Highly recommend..

Boy do I love this product.

This soldering iron will make you want to give away all your old ones. I should have bought this a long time ago. Its a pleasure to use and is a quality product.

I got a project kit that required quite a bit of soldering so I wanted to get something a step up from the basic soldering pen that plugs directly into the outlet. I was looking at the bargain models and some of the reviews had me questioning them. The Weller model was the next level up and seemed decent enough. I saw some battery powered ones and was reading reviews of those on eham.net which I hadnt thought of checking out but is a perfect place for reviews of this type of equipment. They had negative reviews of the handheld ones I was looking at, but there also was this Hakko brand I was not familiar with. So I went back and searched for Hakko soldering irons and this station came up with great reviews. It turned out it was also reccomended on a youtube electrical engineering blog I follow in their video covering some basic equipment for beginners. I have also seen dissections of the components and Hakko is top notch. Some of the cheaper knock offs are poorly made inside and out with parts that look re-purposed or old. Blah blah blah, thats the story on how I found this soldering station. Now I will just list what I like about it: -Very well built inside and out. Nice heavy base for its size. -Great design with small footprint -Comes with both the sponge and cleaning wire (and the cleaning wire works amazingly) -Digital readout lets you know the temperature and you can see it as it warms up -Comes with a small chisel tip which worked out fine (Other brands often come with a conical tip) -This particular bundle comes with a nice cutter -The pen has a comfortable grip

Great

I had one of these at work so got me one for home since I liked it so much.

Temp setting is a little cumbersome, and this unit doesnt have as much wattage as competitors models. If you are trying to solder tabs onto batteries, tin wires thicker than 14g this probably isnt the iron for work. Good for through hole PCB work, but thats about it. For the ultimate all around hobby iron id look for one with more power.

Love this iron, but sad it died after only one year of daily use. Hakko offered to fix it for nearly the cost of a new one. No thanks! Too bad, because the pen is well-made and the iron maintained a really consistent temperature until about a year in. Then it simply would not go any hotter than 450 degrees from then on. I tried all the factory resets they recommended, to no avail.

Great product.