Weller 5-30 Variable Wattage Precision Grip Soldering Iron Station Expired

Ideally you should be soldiering at a certain temperature, and that temperature is controlled by the iron using a thermistor/sensor. This one doesn't have that feature.

I have several soldering irons. I do mostly small circuit board soldering. My favorite iron is the MINIWARE TS100. I also have a Pinecil, which I like but prefer the TS100.

If you're looking to do small soldering on circuit boards, there are better options then this one.

You need specific temperatures to solder, not power levels. The idea of manually adjusting power is a bad idea, because you as a novice or even an experienced solderer have no idea how much power is actually needed for a particular joint.

The required power to solder should fluctuate constantly, to maintain the proper temperature. When you first contact what you are trying to solder, the iron needs a lot of power to heat things up. When everything is hot, the iron no longer needs as much power.

Having a power knob just means you will always have the wrong amounts of power. Either too little or too much. This is arguably worse than the non temperature regulated irons without a knob, because as a novice how are you supposed to know where the knob should go, when an expert wouldn't know either? You're paying extra for a useless knob, and paying more than irons with temperature regulation. Why buy this?!

You'll either have too low of temperatures from too low of power, or over heat what you are soldering from too high of power.

A person new to soldering needs all the help they can get, a tool like this is a hindrance to learning. At a minimum the iron any novice buys should offer temperature regulation. It doesn't need to be adjustable even, but the iron should be able to regulate to an ideal temperature, around 650-700 degrees F, and hold that temperature. The cost to get a temperature regulated iron over this piece of junk is negligible. There are plenty of temperature regulated irons on Amazon which will do an acceptable job in the sub $50 price range.

The pine64 someone posted in this thread is on par with the irons I use in my electronics lab designing power supplies with regards to temperature regulation, and it's less expensive than this useless Weller.

This iron is a waste of money unless maybe you want to use it for wood burning or other related crafts and not soldering.



That will not work except when the iron is just sitting idle. The temperatures will vary wildly while in actual use, since this doesn't have temperature regulation.