As you may know, soldering irons are employed by professionals across a wide range of professions, pretty much anyone that involves the use of electronics. The designated purpose of a soldering iron is to melt the solder in order for it to connect two separated joints, thus creating a conducting channel between two pieces. Now, when it comes to soldering irons, your choices are between a rather diverse range of tools, from soldering stations to stand-alone soldering irons that share a more traditional design. That said, let us find out what are the ten best soldering irons out there and what to look for when buying one.
10. NiceCable 20170706
This is a quality soldering iron that you can easily turn on and off for safe welding experience while saving energy. Its improved ceramic heater chip provides quick heat up, while an adjustable thermostat offers temperature control for convenience and excellent performance versatility. The solder tip features 4 holes for proper heat dissipation, together with its innovative PCBA with a chip fixed resistor. For its superior performance and easy to use, durable and environment-friendly design, it easily ranks as one of the best soldering irons out there.
9. SEALODY SIK01
This soldering iron has a simple switch on/off button, making it safe and also energy-saving. It heats up efficiently in short time. An adjustable thermostat offers temperature control, while the included 6 interchangeable iron tips provide versatility for various projects you might undertake. Its aluminum, high-pressure vacuum de-soldering pump is simple to use for undesired solder removal to ensure neat and convenient soldering results.
8. Sywon SFS-1
The Sywon SFS-1 is an electric full set soldering kit that supports all your soldering/de-soldering projects. The soldering iron has an advanced heat-insulation material plus quality steel pipe design that ensures the iron doesn’t melt. Its solder tip features ventilation holes for proper heat dissipation, while its silicone handle provides handling comfort. Integrated heated ceramic technology ensures faster iron heating, yet with both energy efficiency and temperature stability.
7. ANBES D-950
This is a professional-grade soldering iron that comes with five tips replacements. Its superior impact and heat resistant design of screw-thread prevents the iron head from dropping anyhow. It heats up fast and also has an adjustable thermostat for easy temperature regulation. It also includes an easy-to-use, rugged metal, high-pressure vacuum desoldering pump for effortless solder removal.
6. Aoyue 9378 Pro
Aoyue 9378 ranks among the more reliable solder stations today. It features a digital thermostat control, offering both Celsius and Fahrenheit readouts and an easy to program sleep function for improved tip life and performance. A highly versatile soldering tool, it includes more than ten tip sizes and 2 temperature presets (programmable). The temperature is also controllable, with its LED display showing the current heat level.
5. Hakko FX888D-23BY
The HAKKO FX-888D is an incredibly appreciable soldering iron that delivers superior heater output—actually 30% more than its predecessor models. It further provides impressive thermal recovery thanks to its T18 series tips since they have proper heat conductivity. This allows you to do soldering at a lower temperature and thus reduces the thermal effect on your components.
4. Tabiger FBA_Tabiger-86
Featuring an easy-adjust soldering iron, five inter-changeable soldering heads, solder wire and more, this soldering kit by Tabiger is ideal for hobbyist, home use, DIY soldering enthusiasts, and also training. Its 60-watt heating element delivers fast heating, while integrated thermostat ensures temperature adjustment to the appropriate level for your jobs. With an advanced steel-pipe design, this soldering iron offers greater efficiency and results.
3. X-Tronic 3020-XTS
The X-Tronic 3020-XTS is an incredibly high quality and ESD-safe soldering iron unit. It has Magic Temperature-Compensation Innovation that helps maintain the stability of its tip temperature. It features a digital LED display for the soldering iron temperature readouts for easy heat adjustment to suit your particular needs. The complete kit is designed for the convenience of both beginners and experts. For its performance efficiency, it delivers high excellence and durability.
2. Vastar VRK10-AXL-1
Made of stainless steel and quality iron-plated tip, the Vastar VRK10-AXL-1 soldering iron delivers quality jobs for its stability as well as reliability. The unit has a unique thermostat circuit for controlling temperature according to your particular soldering task. Moreover, it comes with five soldering iron tips for delivering versatile soldering jobs. It doesn’t need a soldering station—simply plug and there you go.
1. Weller WLC100
The WLC100 Soldering Station by Weller comes with all you require to begin using solder for joining metals and creating effective electrical connections. Made with the hobbyists and the DIY enthusiasts in mind, it is a kit with top-quality, lightweight design pencil iron that delivers adjustable power control, a padded foam grip and a replaceable heating element. It also has a safety guard iron holder for good measure.
Soldering Iron Buying Guide
Soldering irons are remarkable tools that are extremely important for people who need to work on electronics and circuit boards, but they’re also tools that can be quite useful to other types of craftsmen, hobbyists or DIY enthusiasts as well. These tools can be used for repairing vacuum tubes, making jewelry, soldering wiring for lamps, and can also be used for about a million other different uses.
Of course, before anyone can use one of these tools to do the projects they need to do, it’s important for a person to buy the best soldering iron possible. And it’s not always easy for people to find the best one, especially if they’re a soldering iron novice. Therefore, we thought it might be wise to create a guide on how to purchase a soldering iron. Below you’ll find a few important things to consider before purchasing a new soldering iron.
Wattage
The first thing anyone interested in buying a soldering iron is the wattage of the tool. Although these tools come in a variety of different wattage levels, it’s important to choose one that’s at least 30-watts. That’s because wattage controls how fast the soldering iron tip heats up, and you’re not going to want to wait around for the iron to get hot. It’s important to note, however, that the wattage level of the iron doesn’t determine how hot it gets, just the speed that it reaches its maximum heat level. It also should be noted that high-wattage irons seem to maintain their temperature better than lower wattage models and tend to reheat faster after they’ve transferred their heat to the solder.
Temperature Control
Yes, we know that temperature is considered by many hobbyists to be a luxury, but we think it is very handy to have—even for professionals. Although all a soldering iron technically needs to do is get hot, being able to control the temperature a little bit is quite nice. Besides, it doesn’t add a whole lot to the end cost of the unit, so wouldn’t a hobbyist splurge a little bit on their most important tool they’re going to be using?
A Replaceable Tip
Yes, we know. Every soldering iron worth buying has replaceable tips, but it’s important to state that you should either buy a soldering iron that comes with extra tips, or you should purchase extra soldering iron tips at the time you purchase the iron. Some people are really surprised at how fast they go through tips, so always make sure to keep a few on hand because you never know when you’ll need them.
Soldering Iron Tip Compatibility
Speaking of soldering iron tips, it’s important to make sure that you purchase a model that not only can use different size tips but that it can use just about any tip available. Unfortunately, there’s a trend among some soldering iron manufacturers to create tools that require a specific brand of tips. These companies make consumers buy their proprietary set of tips, and of course, these tips usually cost more. Therefore, be sure to buy an iron that can use many different types of tips to save yourself money and a whole lot of frustration.
A Grounded Plug
If you’re are planning on working on circuit boards or other sensitive electronic equipment, then you might want to make sure that the soldering iron you’re planning on buying has a 3-prong grounded circuit. These irons are less likely to build up static electricity that can damage the electronic equipment. However, if you’re not going to use the iron for electronics but are instead only going to use it for fixing jewelry or similar projects, then you don’t have to worry too much about the cord.
Soldering Iron Stations
If you’re buying a soldering iron for the first time, or if you don’t already have a soldering iron stand, then you probably should just go ahead and buy a soldering iron station. These stations contain everything a person needs to get up and running. What are some of the items that can be found in a typical soldering iron station kit? Below is a list of some of the more common components.
- Soldering Iron
- Soldering Tips
- Desoldering Pump
- Soldering Iron Stand
- Tweezers
- Tin Wire
- Wire Strippers
- Solder Sponges
Some of them even come with hobby knives, digital multimeters and/or screwdrivers. And most of the kits we’ve seen also come with some sort of back to keep everything together during storage or for transporting the equipment to another location.
In Conclusion
As can be clearly seen, there are a few things to consider before purchasing a new soldering iron. However, if a person does their due diligence, pays attention to their options and chooses among the best solder guns available, then they will dramatically improve their odds of buying an iron that serves them for many years to come.
