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

An amazing piece of equipment. My last solder was a $50 device from Amazon and it really is like night and day between that and the Hakko. Its super comfortable, my hand doesnt get hot, I dont even feel the heat on the pen while holding it. The temp goes up to where I want it from a cold start within a minute. I highly recommend this product. Theres no reason to buy anything else at or below this price point.

For nearly 20 years I have been too cheap to understand the difference between a soldering iron and a digitally controlled soldering tool. If you want to save money, time, frustration/agony, and save the planet by not having to waste precious resources of your time and logistical costs, buy this now! Heck, since you are looking at this, buy this. I have never been able to get a solid understanding of how to solder. TURNS OUT I NEVER HAD THE RIGHT TOOL! If you dont buy this, you will forever regret it. I unboxed it. Fumbled with how to turn it on, and finally noticed the on/off switch on the side. It was set at 750 by default. I instantly became a soldering MASTER! 5 Minutes later, I am here writing this review to save all those out there the woes caused by those cheap soldering irons. SOLDERING MAGIC!!! I CAN SOLDER! YEEEHAW!

I purchased this soldering station to replace a crappy Radio Shack 20watt/40Watt soldering iron. I solder mainly for hobby/repair applications and this soldering station is a REAL step up from my crappy soldering iron. Review Update: Ive been using this soldering station for the last 1.5 years. I love this soldering station! I actually look forward to soldering with it. It is really not even fair comparing this soldering station with my old Radio Shack 20watt/40Watt soldering iron. My old iron seemed to take forever to heat up and the tips were GARBAGE. I love that the Hakko FX-888 soldering station heats up from cold in just a couple seconds. The transformer is nice and heavy and has great rubber feet. The power cord attached to the transformer is heavy weight, and as a result, is rather stiff. Even with a stiff heavy weight power cord, the weight of the transformer (plus the grip of the rubber feet) is enough to keep the transformer where you put it. The pencil holder also stays where you put it. The pencil holder is all metal and is nice and heavy. While in the pencil holder, the heated portions of the iron are almost completely covered. The cord on the soldering iron is a decent weight but the cord is not stiff. Its nice and floppy. The soldering tip is amazing and is very resistant to oxidation. By using the sponge and the wire cleaner built into the pencil holder, it is very easy to maximize the life of the tip. The selection of tips that can be purchased and used with this soldering station, in my amateur opinion, is really impressive. I love this soldering station! Using this soldering station and proper soldering techniques, I am able to consistently produce high quality solder connections without overheating components.

Sturdy well made unit and easy to use.

I made the change from Weller WTCP to this Hakko model after a lot of research. Even so, I was not prepared for the total satisfaction of using this soldering iron. I am a regular and heavy user, building and maintaining recording studios and professional audio equipment. Patchbays, connector panels, cable assembly, and circuit board assembly and repair. This unit replaces two old and, I thought, reliable Weller WTCP stations. I now realize what I was missing. I had forgotten what it was like to have instant and predictable heat transfer to my work. Not only does it save tons of time, but the possibility of mistakes or damage to the work just about disappears. Pros: * Very fast heat up. Temperature indication shows exactly when the iron is ready for work. * Power switch on the side of the supply is super handy. No longer have to unplug or use a dedicated switched outlet. * Exceptionally high quality tips. Heat transfer to the work is instant and predictable. * Separate pencil stand is the only way to go. Reduces clutter in the work area. Very flexible cord on the pencil. * Disconnect for the iron cord is a standard DIN connector. * Pencil shape, size and weight are perfect. The narrow and utterly heat-free grip helps with precision work and long hours. * Pencil stand is very nicely designed. Cleaning wire is perfectly placed. The sponge stays flexible and usable even when completely dry. Cons: * None. Hakko also has a tremendous selection of tips for this model and now that I have used one a lot, I feel they are very reasonably priced. So far I have used the standard kit tip - a 1.6mm chisel - almost exclusively. It is a perfect default tip. The kit is very complete and very affordable. Highly recommended to anyone doing professional soldering work.

I was pleasantly surprised by this station, the temperature accuracy was within 15 degrees of the displayed temperature straight out of the box. After calibrating with my thermometer, it has remained accurate with little deviation. The user interface is no intuitive, but after watching a video on YouTube, it is fairly simple. Overall, I would recommend this station and I would not hesitate to purchase again.

Ive been doing electronics work for a long time - both for fun and at radio stations and my home recording studio - and Ive used a lot of irons. Ive used mostly the pencil sort and not paid any attention to how worn the tip was and such, because Ive always thought of the extras more as frills, and if I can do surface-mount laptop motherboard repairs with a 25w Weller, why do I need anything else? Because it makes life easier, thats why, and I was an idiot. Sure, its not as portable, and I still have my pencil irons for when I have to reach into cabinet equipment, but on the whole I wish Id had one of these 10 years ago. Mostly I just love the speed; theres no wait to speak of for heat up or cool-down, you dont have to dive in and out super-quickly for temperature-sensitive components, and, most of all, I dont have to worry so much about some of that stupidly fragile (and heat-sensitive) insulation thats floating around out there in audio cables these days. I havent had to re-do a cable end due to insulation heat failure since I bought this iron, and I _very_ much like that. I put extra tips in the back behind the metal sponge, and it all just fits together nicely. Its a lovely little design. If you dont like the looks - and I think it looks fine, I dont know what people are complaining about - wait till its out of warranty and paint it. But buy it, regardless. Its a good little iron.

This station oozes quality. The material used for the iron holder and the control housing is top notch. The holder is solid metal and the control housing shell seems to be some type of plastic. It is built like a brick, and should withstand a good beating. While it does look a little Fisher-Price, the shade of blue is actually a bit darker when looking at it in person, so it looks better than in the picture. The build quality more than makes up for the color. The holder has two mating pieces, so you can clean inside it or replace the metal cleaning ball, then easily put it back together into a solid assembly. My only complaint would be the sponge. It could mate better with the holder for it, but maybe it will be better when wet. In any case, it shouldnt matter, as it doesnt take much pressure to clean a tip. It started up fine on the first try, and quickly heated the tip. It came with the chisel tip, the T18-D16, which is kind of small at 1.6mm in diameter, but it provides better heat transfer than a conical tip, and should be easy to work with in fairly tight board layouts. I might recommend buying a few larger tips for larger components, as I did. I look forward to working with it, seeing all the positive reviews. Your tip might smoke a bit on the first use, but that is normal, as they are usually coated with a protective layer for storage.

I used to work at a company that has a couple of Hakko soldering stations. They worked well. But because of the price, I never considered buying one for my own use at home. Every soldering iron Ive ever had cost less than ten bucks. And after a couple of years, it was no surprise that they were ready for the trash can. I looked at several nice irons in the $40.00 to $60.00 range. But I figured if I was willing to spend that much, I would spend a little more to get something really nice. PROS: 1. It heats up really fast. In about forty-five (45) seconds, its up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit and ready to use. 2. Stable temps. And it has a fast recovery. 3. Digital readout of the temp (selectable for Celsius or Fahrenheit). 4. Has up to five pre-programmed temp settings (600F, 700F, 750F, 800F, and 850F) that can be quickly accessed (you can change the preset temps to your own temps if desired). 5. Has a wide operation range of 120F to 899F. 6. Accuracy of the tip temperature can be calibrated (if you have the right thermometer). 7. The iron holder is separate, and not part of the power base. This provides more versatility as to how/where you set up your workstation. 8. The iron holder is heavy and not tipped over easily. Plus, it holds both a sponge and a wire-type cleaner. 9. Many different tip styles are available from Hakko. And the tips are easy to change. 10. The iron is comfortable to hold. And it doesnt get hot during use. 11. Although not important to me, the settings can be protected with a password. This would come in handy if other people use the iron, and you dont want unwanted changes. 12. The iron plugs into the power base. If the iron burns out or gets damaged, you can replace it without having to replace the entire soldering iron. 13. When you turn the power on, it defaults to your last temperature setting. CONS: 1. Because there are only two buttons on the front of the power base, programming or making adjustments are not intuitive. Some changes/adjustments require you to press and hold certain buttons before turning the unit on. Other changes require you to hold a button down for two seconds, then do something else, etc. Once you understand how, the programming isnt difficult. The difficult part is remembering how to do it. Unless you use this device every day and make frequent adjustments, youre probably not going to remember how to make changes the next time you need to solder something. And if you should make a mistake by pressing the wrong button, you may have to do a factory reset (I did). Lets see. Where did I leave the instruction manual for this thing? Hakko has several on-line videos that explain how to make changes and adjustments. Theyre very helpful. But what would have been even more helpful, is if Hakko had decided on a simple and intuitive design. Guess what? Such a design already exists. Its called a rotary knob. Remember knobs? You know. Theyre those round things that are intuitive in operation. A couple of rotary knobs on this unit would have made adjustments self-explanatory. But I guess Hakko considers knobs to be too old fashioned and quaint. COMMENTS: Thats it. I have no other cons. However, I would like to point out that this unit was not made in Japan. Although Hakko is a Japanese company, some parts/accessories are marked Made in China. And on the bottom of the power base, it says, Made in Malaysia. Oh well. Its all about global manufacturing now. Regardless of where the parts were made (or where it was assembled), the quality of this unit seems very good so far. Despite the non-intuitive adjustment/programming process, the unit works well. I havent had this soldering iron very long. Ive only used it for a couple of projects so far. Time will tell if it lasts. Ill do an update in a year or so.

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.