I have an unexpected £100 or thereabouts available to spend on a new soldering iron. I'm looking for one which would be ideal for doing small 0402 to relatively large 1206 SMD work. It must be temperature controlled (thermostatically, and not duty cycle only, like the one I bought was.) Does anyone have any suggestions?
High reliability is very important to me. I recently bought a £49 Xytronic LF-369D iron. It failed within a few hours - it wouldn't switch on. The supplier (Rapid Electronics) sent me another one, only for that one to fail now, a few weeks later, exactly the same - not switching on, no display indication, iron not heating up. Rapid have refunded my money, so I have some extra to spend on a really good iron.
High reliability is very important to me. I recently bought a £49 Xytronic LF-369D iron. It failed within a few hours - it wouldn't switch on. The supplier (Rapid Electronics) sent me another one, only for that one to fail now, a few weeks later, exactly the same - not switching on, no display indication, iron not heating up. Rapid have refunded my money, so I have some extra to spend on a really good iron.
