I don't do that much electronics, but everytime I wanted to do some, the 10minutes wait time to heat up my cheapos soldering iron that plug directly in the main and the fact that it was getting so hot it was burning so I had to plug and unplug all the time was a huge irritant. But I wasn't ready to shelve out 100's of $ for a temperature controled electronic iron.
I've seen this iron and I gave it a go. I have to say I'm impressed with the quality.
First thing I did is open it to add the ground wire as stated in the descriition. Since I know my place is correctly grounded I did the mod. The case is very easy to open. While inside I noticed that the main is solered to the plug. I would have prefered proper crimps connector on the main plug instead. It's just a better practice to crimp connections. One other thing, the power supply board isn't screwed to the case but it's glued in place in each 4 corners. That's a little cheap way, but at that price point I'll pass over this point with no problems. In the case the power supply take pretty much all the room which is usually a sign of power output. The PCB have cut out between the high voltage and low voltage. It's of a good design and I've seen much worst looking power supply in better known brand of products. I pretty much like the way it's built.
The performance of the iron in itself is stunning. At first I thought I've got a defect since there is no way the iron could reach 300C in 5 sec or less ( from off, the time the boot is finished and the temperature is on the display, well it is ready ). I tried a little bit of solder to confirm and it melted right away.
The iron bip when it's ready at the set temperature. It's a nice thing if you take it out of the holder out of sleep it will tell you it's ready. I don't have a thermistor to check calibration, but I'll assume they aren't too far off. Melting point of 63/37 is about 250C and at that temp it was barely melting.
The cable that connect the iron to the box feel like silicon wire, it is really flexible and lite which is a plus. I really like it. I won't have to fight my wire anymore. The cable isn't extremely long, but just long enough to reach all my bench.
Configurations and settings are very deep and I'll let you go thru them, they are self explanatory. You have shortcuts with one press and two press of the button. I configured mine for one press would be sleep and two press would be switch between two preset temperatures. One thing about the settings, the max temp setting require a password, which is not given anywhere. Although max temp is on mine set a 450C, so I doubt needing more than this ever.
The iron come with 2 tips T12-K and T12-IL, The IL one is a conical tip, which will probably never be used ( they're the worst ), I would have prefered a D16 instead of the IL but the K will do for now.
All in all, this thing is extremely well priced and very nice performance. Even if you would save some $ building it yourself the small difference ( less than 10$ ) isn't worth it.
PROS :
-Heat up so fast your head will spin
-Good settings range
-Good construction/design
-2 tips supplied
-Inexpensive price point for what you're getting
CONS :
-No iron holder
| Manufacturer | ShineNow |
|---|---|
| Parcel Dimensions | 28 x 17.6 x 5.2 cm; 700 g |
| Is discontinued by manufacturer | No |
| Item Package Quantity | 1 |
| Included Components | Soldering Iron, Soldering Wire |
| Batteries Included? | No |
| Item Weight | 700 g |
