First and foremost: please comment only if you have had experience with at least TWO of these soldering stations and can actually compare them!! I've already spent several hours pointlessly reading about how people love the only station they've ever used - I would really like to hear more actual comparisons!
Secondly: I mostly need help with comparing the Aoyue 2930 with the Aoyue 9378 and figuring which is better. Then afterwards, I'd like to compete the winner of that with either the hakko fx888d or the weller WES51 (the fx888d and WES51 tie IMO)
Note: If it's under $100, I don't care about the cost. Since this is for the rest of my life, assume I do all types of soldering jobs.
Reference data (2930/9378/fx888d/WES51):
Wattage: 75/60/65/50
Amazon price: ~$75/84/92/93
ESD safe: all
Cleaning media: sponge/sponge/sponge&wire/sponge
Auto-shutoff: yes/yes/no/99 minutes
Presets: 2/2/5/0
Temp control: button/button/button/dial
Heat up speed: would like to know!
Tip length/style: long/short/want to know/want to know
Secondly: I mostly need help with comparing the Aoyue 2930 with the Aoyue 9378 and figuring which is better. Then afterwards, I'd like to compete the winner of that with either the hakko fx888d or the weller WES51 (the fx888d and WES51 tie IMO)
Note: If it's under $100, I don't care about the cost. Since this is for the rest of my life, assume I do all types of soldering jobs.
Reference data (2930/9378/fx888d/WES51):
Wattage: 75/60/65/50
Amazon price: ~$75/84/92/93
ESD safe: all
Cleaning media: sponge/sponge/sponge&wire/sponge
Auto-shutoff: yes/yes/no/99 minutes
Presets: 2/2/5/0
Temp control: button/button/button/dial
Heat up speed: would like to know!
Tip length/style: long/short/want to know/want to know