Be careful with wattage. 30W is somewhat weak. It will do for tiny jobs, like RC toys. 80-100W are more common nowadays and make the job much easier. And don't forget that you still need solder, flux and preferably a stand. Not to mention different soldering tips.
IMHO, this is not worth $5, save and get a better soldering iron. Or if you need a backup to go in your bag, car, truck, etc, get a cheap butane soldering iron.
^ You can do many common soldering tasks with only 30W but a couple of factors are it will take a while to recover, get back to a hot enough temperature after doing more than a small joint, and since this has the low cost, nickel plated copper tip design, that will erode away and need filed, sanded, or ground down to clean copper eventually, start to forum a cavity in it that is oxidized and a poor thermal conductor.
At that point in the tip wear, you're better off reshaping the tip to be bevel shaped rather than conical, keeping more of the nickle plating on the shaft intact. Of course you can just buy new tips instead, but if settling for an iron this cheap then that's another way to economize, but at least with Weller you're getting something sturdy including the cord. Chinese generics around this price, the cord is pathetic and arguably dangerous.
IMHO, this is not worth $5, save and get a better soldering iron. Or if you need a backup to go in your bag, car, truck, etc, get a cheap butane soldering iron. - amrx
Starting out an electronics hobby many years ago, I did "well enough" with a not very different, $10 Radio Shack iron.
You can get things done with this, but it takes a little more patience than with a nicer soldering iron using a chisel (real) iron tip, or especially a temperature controlled station.
Butane, meh I never needed one to be that portable, considering any are low enough wattage that they have no problem operating from even a thin/high-gauge extension cord. If you do need portability, sure but that's probably going to be a 2nd or 3rd iron so the cost keeps adding up while this $5 iron is viable for occasional medium-small jobs.
Once you get into soldering more, you'll have a better idea when to upgrade and how much to spend, but price of entry doesn't need to be $100+ like a decent station costs.
Weller stuff is generally pretty good in my experience. But this is probably too low-power to do much beyond an occasional spot solder. Plus I'm guessing it would get frustrating constantly waiting for it to come back up to temperature.
Comments & Reviews (14)
At that point in the tip wear, you're better off reshaping the tip to be bevel shaped rather than conical, keeping more of the nickle plating on the shaft intact. Of course you can just buy new tips instead, but if settling for an iron this cheap then that's another way to economize, but at least with Weller you're getting something sturdy including the cord. Chinese generics around this price, the cord is pathetic and arguably dangerous.
You can get things done with this, but it takes a little more patience than with a nicer soldering iron using a chisel (real) iron tip, or especially a temperature controlled station.
Butane, meh I never needed one to be that portable, considering any are low enough wattage that they have no problem operating from even a thin/high-gauge extension cord. If you do need portability, sure but that's probably going to be a 2nd or 3rd iron so the cost keeps adding up while this $5 iron is viable for occasional medium-small jobs.
Once you get into soldering more, you'll have a better idea when to upgrade and how much to spend, but price of entry doesn't need to be $100+ like a decent station costs.
Thank you!