Overview
We hear questions all the time about what soldering station repair stores should purchase for their needs so we've decided to answer some of those questions here. At Device Pro Solutions we use and recommend Hakko soldering equipment because of the high quality of their equipment at a reasonable price. Their equipment is also backed by a good warranty along with great out of warranty service should you ever need it. This is the reason many other repair technicians that specialize in micro soldering choose Hakko equipment.
In this blog we'll talk about stations that start around $100 and go up to the $550 price point. Hakko does offer less expensive equipment as well as equipment that costs over $1,000 if you need it. One difference we've found between inexpensive off brand soldering equipment and Hakko is issues with temperature control as well as tip temperature rebound. What this means is that the soldering iron temperature on inexpensive equipment might vary across units or even with each time you use it so you may need to increase or decrease the temperature and you don't always know the actual iron temperature. Tip temperature rebound means how well the tip holds its temperature when you start using it as well as when you try heating up components you want to solder. A good iron will hold its temperature well when you start soldering rather than having the temperature drop and then take a few seconds to heat back up when you touch the tip to what you want to solder.
Hakko FX-888D
The first station we'll discuss is the FX-888D which is considered Hakko's hobby iron and has a price point of around $100. This is a good entry level station that has a variety of tips you can use and we recommend this iron for general repair store soldering including replacing charge ports. This iron doesn't allow you to use a micro iron or micro tweezers so it doesn't have as much versatility as the other stations we'll discuss, but it is a good starting station that can help you get started with soldering without breaking the bank.
Hakko FX-951
The FX-951 is what we call a mid grade station for repair stores and has a price point of around $250. This station supports a couple different irons and has a control card that allows you to lock the temperature in case you want to make sure technicians aren't accidentally changing the temperature and turning it up too high. The most common iron used with this station is the all purpose FM-2027 iron that has over 70 different T15 series tips including bevel, chisel, bent or conical tips with tips as small as 0.15 mm diameter. This is a great iron due to the wide range of tips making it a very versatile iron. The other commonly used iron is the FM-2032 micro soldering iron. This is a great iron for micro soldering as it has tips as small as 0.1 mm in diameter and does have chisel, knife and conical tips available too. It supports a much smaller range of tips with only 6 different types available. The main downside of the FX-951 station is that it doesn't support the FM-2023 micro tweezers that work great for removing small capacitors, resistors and filters on circuit boards. Otherwise the FX-951 is a solid station at an affordable price point.
Hakko FM-203
The last station we'll recommend and discuss is the FM-203 which has a price point of around $550 and supports the use of two soldering irons at the same time. Technicians that use a variety of irons love this station as it has two ports so they can connect two irons at once and they don't have to unplug one and then plug another iron into the station. Another great feature is the sleep mode which reduces the tip temperature of the iron to 200 C keeping the tip from oxidizing while you're not using it. The FM-203 supports the same irons as the FX-951 and also supports the popular FM-2023 hot tweezers which make removing many surface mount components much easier.
Summary
Hakko isn't the only option available for soldering equipment, it does seem to be one of the most popular for micro soldering technicians in the phone repair industry though due to it's great reputation and equipment. We've chosen Hakko for our board repair technicians and use all of the equipment mentioned in our Micro Soldering and Board Repair course so anytime you visit us for training you'll have the chance to try out any of this equipment so you can decide what's right for you before you purchase equipment. We don't sell the soldering stations and recommend Prime Tech Tools (www.primetechtools.com) for purchasing the equipment as they've got great customer service and competitive prices. Feel free to contact us if you need board repair/micro soldering, training or have other questions we can answer for you.