The new breed of irons with temperature measurement built into the tip (invented by JBC, cloned by Geeboon and similar) is amazing. The tip heats to exactly the temp you want in 3 seconds, then cools down to avoid damage when you put it back in the stand. As you solder, the power is automatically controlled to keep the tip at the specified temp regardless of the load you put on it. I never thought I'd replace the Weller station I've used for 20 years, but I'm glad I did.

Edit: For a specific recommendation, look for the Geeboon TC22 on AliExpress or Amazon. Don’t forget the tips, you may need to get them separately.

▲

peteforde 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Share a link! Don't be shy.

	▲	torginus 43 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I have bought the TC22 after going on r/Soldering and can only stand by the recommendation, its an amazing iron for hobbyists and its ability to put tons of power on a tiny area quickly means basically its 100% easier to work with than a ton of cheap irons, and have a much lower chance of killing components than dicking around with less powerful ones and staying on the pin a long time trying to heat it up while it wicks heat away into sensitive electronics. Doubly so when I mess it up or the solder is not fully melted. Another nice thing is with powerful irons you don't have to overshoot the melting temp of solder as much, and tips with less thermal mass in general can be used. Im a rank amateur so take what I said with a grain of salt. With that said, I have made several cool things in my life that many people've said I could charge money for. I guess you can't really see the mess I made when you can't look inside the housing :) I've purchased it from the GEEBOON Store on Aliexpress (no affiliate or anything just looked up my order history): https://geeboontools.aliexpress.com/store/1103439446 All being said you might not be comfortable with supporting the Chinese clone industry, and I can understand that.
	▲	omgtehlion 10 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		any c245 will do (JBC is the best and original, but clones are close)

▲

ssl-3 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It heats to exactly the temperature I want in 3 seconds? Is there evidence to support this claim?

(My bullshit detector is making some rather profound gurgling sounds.)

edit: Seriously, my dudes. Links, or it never happened. Anecdotes are just anecdotes. Anecdotally, my soldering iron heats up very quickly as well and I'm very pleased with this, but I'm not making a claim that it heats to an exact, unspecified user-selected temperature in 3 seconds. If you want to present a benchmark, then please present the bench -- with the mark.

	▲	Doxin 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I can make no claims as to the brands mentioned in the parent post, but a 3 second heating time isn't all that fast for a real nice soldering iron. Previous job had an iron that'd heat between you picking it up and moving it over to the PCB. That one was stupendously expensive from what I heard, but I can only imagine that tech has gotten a lot cheaper since then.
	▲	cyberax 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yup. They specify 3 seconds, but that's for 350C. In my experience, it's always at the right temperature by the time I finish picking it up. It has a 240W power supply, so it's not just marketing.