Please post pictures of your Hakko soldering station

Thread Starter

vistula

Joined Dec 20, 2009
22
I have decided to change this post since my suspicions regarding the fake soldering station were verified 100%.

To people who are wondering about buying hakko stations at ebay I have provided short summary of the thread:

Recently I bought what I believed was a genuine Hakko soldering station from ebay but I discovered quickly that the soldering iron 907 was a fake (letters came off). I would also like to stress that the item was not suspiciously cheap (actually it is similarly priced as the real item in the USA) and that there was no telltale signs of fraud.
Through this forum I verified my suspicions and also came in contact with several other people that have also been scammed (read the rest of the thread for details).

The information about the seller have been provided in the next post together with few pictures. If your hakko station's inner parts looks anything like the picture provided in the next post - you have bought a counterfeit product.
 
Last edited:

Thread Starter

vistula

Joined Dec 20, 2009
22
I have decided to upload pictures of the forged hakko I bought from ebay (link to the item/ former sellers name: thearctictrader_com ( as of 8. february 2010 the seller goes under the name arctictactical). Notice that I speak of forgery and not a clone - the item is sold as the real thing and Hakko brand name is used.

Unfortunately I didn't take the pictures of the iron handle when the letters "Hakko 907" came off... Since the color of the letters reacts so fast to the enzymes in human skin's oils (I don't know the proper term in the english language) I doubt that the seller was unaware of the forgery.

Comments to the pictures:
1: The output and the type of the transformer used is different.

2: If you find pictures of the real Hakko you will see difference of the placement of the mark for 850 Fahrenheit.

3: I haven't been able to find pictures of the PCB used in real Hakko stations however a friend of mine that had the real thing when he lived in USA assures me the PCB layout in the hakko forgery I bought is different from the real thing.

4: The heating element is fake.

5: Letters at the iron handle came off...

Be warned - looking at the assembled soldering station the forgery will look like the real thing until letters start to peel off.

The worst thing is that my gut feeling was telling me that this was being scammed and yet I failed to listen to my instincts...
 

Attachments

Last edited:

shaman

Joined Jan 7, 2010
7
Hello,

I bought the same soldering iron (from the same seller) and indeed I'm not impressed by the quality. :(
Can we be sure it's a fake? Perhaps we can try sending pics and serial numbers to Hakko. They should be able to tell us.
 

Thread Starter

vistula

Joined Dec 20, 2009
22
I am 99 % sure that the soldering station is a fake especially after the letters hakko 907 (on my iron handle) came off . I found a picture of Hakko 936 station that has been opened up that you can see below.

Besides that you can count number of ventilation holes and "rings" on the cable connecting the iron and the base station and compare the numbers with real item. I did so and came up with different numbers.

The worst part is that filling complaint with paypal and sending the fake station back to the arctic trader will cost me as much as I paid for the item + shipping (78 USD)... :(

What I suggest that you do is to report to the ebay the items you bought as counterfeit. Probably they will do nothing but if enough people complain perhaps they will react eventually.
 

Attachments

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
Why do you not contact Hakko and ask them about this? If this is a fake I am sure Hakko is interested. And it will give you a better case about this person. If it is a fake. Handle a case in this forum will not help you much.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Did you pay by CC through ebay? Or bankcard? If it is counterfit you can call your CC company and they will void the transaction. If you paid by bankcard its really up to paypal and ebay. They will try to tell you that they don't refund shipping, thats why the item is $10 and the shipping is $60. I would first goto your CC company and try them. Then ebay for the guy selling counterfit goods. They may even suspend his account for this. I've seen similar situations. And then finally try paypal, but by this point your pretty much done.
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
The most important thing is to get Hakko involved in this. Ebay will most probably ignore you as a single user. But they can not ignore a request from the trademark owner.
 

shaman

Joined Jan 7, 2010
7
Did you pay by CC through ebay? Or bankcard? If it is counterfit you can call your CC company and they will void the transaction. If you paid by bankcard its really up to paypal and ebay. They will try to tell you that they don't refund shipping, thats why the item is $10 and the shipping is $60. I would first goto your CC company and try them. Then ebay for the guy selling counterfit goods. They may even suspend his account for this. I've seen similar situations. And then finally try paypal, but by this point your pretty much done.
I payed via Paypal so I can't involve my CC bank in this (Paypal doesn't appreciate that :D ).
Shipping was just $12 but it'll cost me over $40 to send it back to the seller.

Did I mention I had already left positive feedback before I noticed it's probably fake? :rolleyes:
Seeing that over 40 of those have been sold and the guy has no negative feedback about it make me feel a tiny bit less stupid..

The way I see it, unless there is a way I can get my money back and keep the item, there is no way I can limit my loss. I can only try to warn Hakko and eBay, to save other people. Oh, and hope this thing will at least work as good as Hakko clones do (even if I payed more than a clone would cost me).
 

Thread Starter

vistula

Joined Dec 20, 2009
22
Exactly. :(

I've contacted Hakko. I'll see what they say about it.


I have also contacted Hakko (more specifically Hakko USA) and provided pictures (similar to the ones posted here). Which email address did you use?
However I don't expect Hakko to do much about it except perhaps pressure Ebay to block the user.

(...) Handle a case in this forum will not help you much.
I started this thread because I expected to get quicker response than I would from Hakko (why should they bother with me loosing my money?) however when I verified that the item I bought from was a fake my motive changed to warn other potential victims. Perhaps someone will use google and accidentally will come over this thread or discover that the station he or she bought is a fake.
 

R!f@@

Joined Apr 2, 2009
9,918
Those iron's are fake, and they have been in Maldives for years, may be all over the world.... #^%^# Chinese fakes.


Rifaa
 

shaman

Joined Jan 7, 2010
7
Hey Vist,

You might want to check this thread out:
What you get in a Hakko soldering station

There are some pics comparing some original Hakko parts to cloned ones. I've posted there hoping we can see a pic of the original control board.

It's interesting to note that I checked mine and the ceramic heater is an original Hakko one (has the blue leads and Hakko printed all over it). Yours seems to be legit too. Does it have Hakko written with silver letters?

The innards are the same as yours though, and they don't look like the original Hakko pics found here.

Another thing I notices is that the original ones have a tap to protect the calibration pot, while the one I got doesn't come with any - there is just a gaping hole there.
Did I mention they didn't even bother to include a copy of the manual?
 
Last edited:

Thread Starter

vistula

Joined Dec 20, 2009
22
I have checked out that thread already - thats where I got the picture of original hakko pcb.

Mine heat element is defiantly fake. It doesnt have Hakko written on it but it looks like one of the generic heating elements out there.


Btw, you can't judge authenticity of the heating element by the colors of wire isolation alone or the text on the ceramic heater.

I have included description of the real ceramic heater below:

A real A1321 ceramic heater is a thin translucent ceramic tube.
The heater metal is printed on the insides of the tube.
Something tells me that heating element you got is just another fake albeit of better quality than mine.
 

shaman

Joined Jan 7, 2010
7
I'm sure it's fake the whole unit is fake. I've found many little details that give it off.
Most importantly, the whole soldering station feels cheap, if you know what I mean.
Perhaps they improved the heating element cloning and the letters on the front or something but still..

The heating element does look translucent, like the ones on the pic. I'm not sure I'll be able to show the effect with my old camera but I'll try.

I'm gonna post pics of mine as soon as my ancient digital camera charges and you'll see what I mean.
They're going to come in handy when Hakko gets back to me, anyway (btw, I've used the contact form at the Japanese website).
 
Last edited:

shaman

Joined Jan 7, 2010
7
I've uploaded the pics here.

There are numerous differences that I could point out if someone is interested.
The only thing that looks legit is the heating element (hope you can see it's a bit transparent in the picture - it's even more obvious when you hit it with direct light but I only have two hands!).
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
I do not think Hakko use Phenol Paper Copper Clad Laminate. Hope both of you manage to solve this, at least put the scammer out of business for some time.
 
Last edited:

Thread Starter

vistula

Joined Dec 20, 2009
22
Shaman if you receive any communication from Hakko please take contact with me. I will do the same if Hakko USA gets back to me.
 
Top