Hakko FX888D-23BY Digital Soldering Station FX-888D FX-888 (blue & yellow)

My old Weller and Radio Shack irons took forever to heat and seldom reached high enought temperature even with a clean and tinned tip. This heats up fast and holds an adequately high temperature.

Im using this for various applications, from soldering tabbing wire on delicate solar cells, soldering components on perf boards, to soldering wires of various wires together. The temperature control is a necessity for these various uses and the Hakko works great. This Hakko is great if you plan to solder more than a few things as its quite affordable for the semi serious, but quality enough to please a professional. The time to heat up is very quick and you can start to solder within 10-15 seconds. Other fixed wattage irons Ive used take a minute or more and you cant really tell if its reached its proper temperature. The Hakko will show when its reached the desired temperature. Simply turn it on seconds before you need it and itll be ready. I was impressed. Setting the temperature is actually quite nice, but you might need to read the instruction manual (gasp!) to figure out how to do it the first time since the two button interface isnt intuitive. The iron holder comes with the sponge and wire, which makes cleaning off the iron very easy. Its also very stable feeling and made of metal so it feels like a quality stand. The iron cable is a nice soft silicon which makes handling and moving the iron effortless as the wire wont stiffen up, twist, or get in your way. Fixed irons with their stiff cables retain the bends and twists that they get so you might knock something off your desk thats three feet away. But not with the Hakko and its those little things that make this unit a joy. This is my first variable wattage iron so its leagues above a fixed wattage iron. After using a variable temperature iron, you cant go back.

Paul Carlson of “Mr. Carlson’s Lab” uses one. Mark from “Blueglow Electronics” uses one. 90% of every EE video I see has an FX888D in the background. That’s enough of an endorsement. I bought one and love it. Temperature control is not as bad as everyone claims. It heats up quickly and adjusts the newly-set temperature quickly. The grip is wonderful. It’s such an improvement over any Weller. I *do* wish the iron stand/holder had more heft to it but that’s about it.

I had purchased a cheap rework station and it was absolutely terrible. Would only solder one leg of a resistor before cooling to the point I could not solder the second leg. Returned it and bought the Hakko 888D. The Hakko made a world of difference and have been soldering with no trouble since! This is the right tool for through-hole and SMD PCB soldering. Do not waste your time and money with the cheap units - you will end up here anyway! The tip that comes with the unit is a small chisel tip that is perfect for PCB work. If you are looking at this for PCB work like me, make sure you combine this with the right solder as well. Kester 63/37 .020” (.5mm) leaded solder is the right solder to go with this station. I have seen some reviews about the interface being difficult. That was not the case for me. There are several videos on YouTube by Hakko that walk you through setting up the device and the settings. I highly suggest watching those while waiting for your unit to arrive!

An amazing piece of equipment. My last solder was a $50 device from Amazon and it really is like night and day between that and the Hakko. Its super comfortable, my hand doesnt get hot, I dont even feel the heat on the pen while holding it. The temp goes up to where I want it from a cold start within a minute. I highly recommend this product. Theres no reason to buy anything else at or below this price point.

Ill begin by saying that I dont have very much experience when it comes to soldering. I have owned a butane Weller for a while that I use for soldering wires and large components, but I recently started working with circuit boards both at work and as a hobby. I decided that a decent, temperature-controlled soldering station was a good investment, and went with the Hakko on my fathers recommendation. I took the FX-888 to work to compare it side-by-side with their Weller WES51 stations and was blown away at the difference. To be fair, the Wes51 had a used tip vs. the FX-888s brand new one, but neither was oxidized. The Hakko heated up slightly faster, tinned slightly easier, and was generally a pleasure to work with. The Hakkos cord between the iron and station is also lighter and more flexible - a small detail that I noticed right away. The inclusion of the brass sponge and rubber tip cleaners in addition to the standard sponge is very welcome, and having them all right there in the stand means that you wont have extra items cluttering your desk. I do wish it came with a smaller tip, either a conical tip or a smaller spade. It is also impossible to find tips for the Hakko locally - a problem I wouldnt have with a Weller, since theres a supplier in the area - but I knew both of these issues before I bought it, and they arent major. Overall, Im loving this iron. Its within the budget of a serious hobbyist, but I feel certain it could be used every day at work with no problems.

Ive had the same old Ungar iron for over 20 years, but Id been wanting a multi-temp unit for a while. I waffled between the Hakko and analog Weller and eventually settled on the Hakko. Once you get past the Fisher Price colors, youll find that the unit is pretty nice. Like everyones said, it gets to temp insanely fast, and I really like the integrated sponge/wire cleaner. The footprint is pretty small, and the iron cable is flexible. Ive had the chance to use the iron in a few different scenarios like normal soldering for components on my 3D printer to some thicker R/C motor wires that my previous iron couldnt get through. The menu process can be a little counter-intuitive. Out of the box my unit had no presets configured. And it took a while to figure out oh, I need to enable presets and then go in and put temps in. Once the presets are in then its simple to quickly go between them. But then I wanted to change a preset temp and had to go back and look up how to do it. Im sure its a matter of just getting used to the unit, but this was a good example where I wished Id got the analog Weller so Id just have to turn a knob.

This station oozes quality. The material used for the iron holder and the control housing is top notch. The holder is solid metal and the control housing shell seems to be some type of plastic. It is built like a brick, and should withstand a good beating. While it does look a little Fisher-Price, the shade of blue is actually a bit darker when looking at it in person, so it looks better than in the picture. The build quality more than makes up for the color. The holder has two mating pieces, so you can clean inside it or replace the metal cleaning ball, then easily put it back together into a solid assembly. My only complaint would be the sponge. It could mate better with the holder for it, but maybe it will be better when wet. In any case, it shouldnt matter, as it doesnt take much pressure to clean a tip. It started up fine on the first try, and quickly heated the tip. It came with the chisel tip, the T18-D16, which is kind of small at 1.6mm in diameter, but it provides better heat transfer than a conical tip, and should be easy to work with in fairly tight board layouts. I might recommend buying a few larger tips for larger components, as I did. I look forward to working with it, seeing all the positive reviews. Your tip might smoke a bit on the first use, but that is normal, as they are usually coated with a protective layer for storage.

Hakko is a big name. Their desoldering tool is the best there is--but this soldering station is a hassle to set and doesnt hold temperature all that well. It also doesnt recover quickly. At least not as well as my old Youyue 858D (who?) which had a single temperature knob. One touch. The Hakko, on the other hand, requires several presses to set the temperature. As much as I wanted to love this iron, it slows me down. I recommend the popular cheapo alternative. Not the 888D.

Ive used this product extensively at my previous electronics company, and it was always beyond dependable and the temperature accuracy was usually very good. We still had to calibrate it every year, but it was never too far off. Pros: Will melt any solder that I worked with. Its temperature range is more than adequate. If you need any hotter, youll surely damage a component. Comfortable grip, and never had an issue with its holder. It displays the temperature as it is reaching your desired temperature, which is nice to see how long you have until its ready for you. Nice to have a brash mesh to clean the tip, albeit I seldom used it. Changing tips is quite easy, as long as you dont accidentally weld it on (keeping it on max temperature for an extended period of time will do it), but parts are relatively cheap if you do, as you will surely break it (if you weld it). I would say its irons leash is a perfect length, measuring around 4 ft. Power switch is on the right side of the unit. Cons: Now, I am nitpicking here. It does have a digital input and it takes a little bit to change the temperature. I do prefer an analog knob for my soldering station so I can easily change temperature rapidly. However, some people may find a digital display is more professional. Its non-square sponge holder means a basic yellow square sponge will not fit without some modification. Tips can be expensive, but can easily last a year or two of heavy use, if you take care of them. All that said, I would still definitely recommend this product. It is much better than just a plug-in iron. Very well priced as it is definitely a professional grade station, but more than welcoming to the amateur hobbyist.