Soldering Irons

[TJ_Kat]

I've seen an ad on TV about a soldering iron that heats up to soldering temperatures within seconds of pushing the button, and is cool enough to touch within seconds of releasing the button.

Soldering Iron

I was wondering if anyone knew if it was any good or not. Since it's a Canadian Tire exclusive product, I don't know how many people will actually know anything about it.  

[kendrick]

This thing is sold under different brand names in the United States and Europe. Runs off of four AA batteries, and for its intended purposes it's quite nice. However, I wouldn't recommend it for work on video game consoles just because it's not all that precise. If you're looking to splice some power wiring together or do some structural metal joins, then it does what you need. If you're looking to unseat a non-socketed IC or do other precision mod work on an existing circuit board, I would much rather use a low-wattage Welker or other AC-powered iron.

That's just my opinion, having seen it in action but not actually having used one. Anybody who disagrees should feel free to pipe up.

-KKC, just getting over a cold.

[Aidan]

See this post on AOAforums. One of the guys has one, and has obviously used it. You might have to scroll down a few posts to find the details!

My personal soldering iron is a 50W temperature controlled one. The temperature control means you're not going to overheat small parts, and the 50W power means you can handle un/soldering parts to/from power planes.

I can't stand small (15W) soldering irons. As far as I'm concerned, they're worse than useless on SMT. By the time you've heated the component up enough to lift it/attach it to the track, you've overheated the component. They're only designed to withstand 5 seconds of contact from a soldering iron!

[TJ_Kat]

Well, all things considered, I decided not to... I'm not a fan of battery operated stuff (both my keyboard and mouse are hard connected to my pc even though I have a very good wireless keyboard and mouse) because the battery always dies/is dead at an inopportune moment.