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

one of the best

I used to use Wellers professionally, but its been a long time, and so as a non-professional, Ive been using cheap crap for the little jobs Ive needed. I decided to splurge on this Hakko instead of a Weller mostly because theyre nearly identically placed in the market, but I have a bunch of heat set insert and other tips that will work on this Hakko without having to buy new ones. My god, how fast this heats! Its ready to go pretty much by time I get my jar of flux open. Im not sure what everyone is complaining about with the UI. Maybe the under 30 crowd thats only ever used touchscreens? Its a classic UI used on professional test equipment and industrial controls since the dawn of the microprocessor. If youve never used either of these types of equipment, it might be strange to you, but its certainly not hard to use. If youre over 30, its a bit nostalgic! I wish Id gotten this years ago.

Ive been soldering for about 55 years and am an electronic hobbyist. In the 50s, I had a Weller gun. It looked like a gun, had a trigger like a gun and worked fine on radios and TVs that I worked on. As electronics got smaller and more sensitive to overheating, I switched to a Weller or Unger iron. I think one has since bought the other. These irons and 1/8 tiplets served me very well for many years. The only problem was that the tiplet would eventually break and need replacement. They are threaded but it is impossible to get the old one out unless you drill it out. Too much work so I just bought a new heating element and put in a new tiplet. My tiplet broke and I decided to search the internet. Perhaps someone had by now figured out a way to replace the tiplet without drilling. No luck, but I kept seeing replies that essentially said toss your Unger and get a Hakko soldering station. If youve looked at soldering stations, you will see that prices are all over the place with some too expensive for a simple hobbyist like me. I think you could find something for less but then I dont know if it would be as well rated. So, I purchased this unit. I really dont need precise temperature calibration so I just set the dial in the middle. The reason that I like temperature regulation is that the the iron heats up extremely fast, about 15 seconds to melt solder. Im so old that I cant afford to wait 3 to 5 minutes just to solder one joint. Temperature regulation also ensures that the iron wont cool off if you have several joints to solder. I also like the very small handle and very flexible cord. The smaller handle gives you better control when you have to very accurately position the tip. It wasnt clear which tip the unit came with so I ordered a D16 chisel point separately. I was afraid it would come with a pencil tip which I dont like because its sometimes hard to put enough heat into the joint. It did come with the small chisel tip I prefer so I should have waited to order the extra tip. The two tips will outlast me, Im sure. Lastly, the base unit comes with a sponge and a metal cleaning wire which looks like a cross between a Brillo pad and a wad of metal shavings. This seems to work pretty well. Ive always just used paper napkins to remove excess solder and clean the tip. This is not a perfect process as sometimes solder goes places where you wish it wouldnt. Like, I have a solder-splash shaped tatoo on one foot. The quality of this unit looks very good on the outside. There is an article online which shows how to modify this unit so that the light on front indicates ON as well as Tip Heating. As it is, the light only shows when the tip is heating so one might be concerned about leaving the unit on because there isnt an ON light. I wont make this mod because Im very careful about leaving stuff powered. The point here is that the article gave me a chance to see what the guts of the base unit looked like and it also looks to be of high quality. Soldering is not that hard, but there is a learning curve. I would recommend this unit to beginners as well as experienced solderers because it just makes it more easier to make precision joints where connections are closely spaced and parts are more heat sensitive. If youre just soldering railroad track together, you dont need this. For IC and microprocessor work, this unit will save you time by not having to rework cold or bridged joints.

ive always just used a walmart soldering iron, and they always work great for very generic use cases (e.g. soldering automotive wire). bought this for the heat control and finer-tip to work on soldering up proffie/arduino boards. the user interface isnt the greatest, but its not too difficult to understand. heats up crazy fast and solders like a freaking champ. 10/10 would recommend.

I thought that I was bad at soldering. Turns out I just needed to spend more than $15 on a soldering iron. My only complaint with this unit is that it is a bit harder to change temp than in units with both plus and minus buttons. Not a huge issue as I tend to use one of 2 solders so mostly it is set it and forget it, but it might be nice to have a little more fine control based on what type of job Im doing as well as solder type. I also would have liked to go for one of the newer types that have the heater in the replaceable cartridge tips, but I couldnt justify the cost as a hobbyist.

Ive used a fair number of irons from Weller and Hakko and have to say this is probably the best value available if you need a temperature controlled station and do not so enough work to justify an FX-951 (or any of the Hakkos with the FM-20xx series hand piece). My primary station at home is an FM-202, but when I had to purchase irons for the lab at work I didnt have the budget to get irons with the FM hand piece. I was replacing Weller units that the thermal control in the hand piece had quit working and figured I would give Hakkos offerings at the sub $100 price a try. I couldnt be more pleased. Pros: -It heats quickly and maintains temp very well -Huge variety of tips available -It looks good and continues to look good over time (yeah, Im pointing out the Weller blue that fades to puke over time) -The grip on the hand piece is closer to the tip than in other stations at this price point (still nowhere near as good as the FM hand piece) -the stand with the brass ball tip cleaner means you never need to wet a sponge again and that your tips will last longer (wet sponge cleaning of hot tips is not good for them) Cons (Its a stretch to find cons really): -It doesnt come with any extra tips (buy the ones you need for your job, I recommend a D16 for a do all tip) -It doesnt make you a pro. (soldering with a good iron definitely makes doing a good job easier, but it still takes still from the operator) I personally prefer the next step up Hakko iron(anything with the FM hand piece) but you cant get a better iron at this price point.

Update to original review: Ive pulled my old Weller back out of storage. The specific issue is that this Hakko isnt nearly as good for soldering quad copter power leads. The leads tend to be 12 or 14 gauge (I match the leads on the battery I intend to use). It is the ground wires that are most difficult because the circuit boards tend to have heavy ground planes. Sure, I can do the job with the Hakko, but it got annoying after the Nth time. That old Weller makes it fast and easy. Sadly, I hear that the new Wellers dont match up to the old ones. Other than those power leads, almost everything else I do is a lighter job for which the Hakko works fine. ------- Its amazing how the price of these things has changed over the years. This Hakko is replacing my 30 year old Weller. That old Weller doesnt have temperature adjustment and its one temperature was dropping. It was time for a replacement. This Hakko station does everything I want and that brass wool thing is great for tip cleaning. Still getting used to the adjustable temp though. Basically though. its a soldering iron. No surprises there. Flip the switch, it gets hot, melts solder, etc. No drama. The soldering iron is more like a pencil. No problem because it gets hot fast and gets the job done. If I were doing a lot of soldering - as in it were my job, Id have probably gotten another Weller but with adjustable temp. They are more industrial and my old one lasted me 30 years. Thats a strong recommendation. For now, though, I may solder for a few hours on the occasional weekend when Im assembling a quadcopter or arduino gadget. No need for the expensive industrial tooling.

While I had read all the really good ratings and heard good things about this brand and model, I was surprised how sturdy everything was.

I Like the digital temperature display and it does warm up fast. I changed out the tip that came with it for a larger one for the type of projects I am doing. The small tip does work well for finer detailed projects.

Not a soldering guy, but I wanted to try my hand at a semi advanced job attaching a ribbon cable to an smb to an n64. Used my 20$ soldering iron...BIG MISTAKE. completely botched the job, my iron wasnt able to keep a consistent temperature and my cheap solder immediately stuck many legs together. Tried to save it but ended up reading more about the appropriate tools. Well... a few practice rounds later with the dead n64 an it so crazy how different using this soldering iron is. Expensive, but holy moly does it do a good job and Temps are amazingly stable.