Hey all,
I'm in the market for a new soldering iron and I find myself debating between the Ersa I-CON Nano or Pace ADS200, which are in the same price range. I haven't seen a comparison of the two yet but would love to get your opinions. For the time being, I'll be using this for mostly through-hole but eventually I'd like to use it for SMD work as well.

What would you buy?

 

I simply don't understand why people pay that amount of money for a soldering iron.

I bought a Tenma temperature controlled station for about £45 I think. I've done a heck of a lot of through hole, and SMD and I really can't see how a more expensive station would benefit me. Each to their own I suppose

 

There is a dramatic difference between older, tip-over-heater and modern, integrated heater irons. The capacity difference is dramatic, and it allows for lower temperatures to accomplish the same work. It also allows things like soldering on heavy multilayer boards without overheating component and on large ground planes.

Once you have a more modern iron, actual wattage matters depending on application, and temperature control is also important, but the difference between say, a Hakko FX-951 and an iron twice the price is probably not something that most users will benefit from.

Now that there are very cheap stations that use Hakko tips, you can go even cheaper and get 80% of the Hakko performance as well.

 

The pace one odes look like it has more bits available, and has a bit more power.
Tech wise makes a good point though. At one point I was feeling wealthy and a bought 3 ersa stations, they are very nice, and still going strong, but I am not sure I would pay the same amount again!

There's more of my ramblings in this thread:

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/...station-would-you-advise.157645/#post-1366694

So I won't bore you all again, but I would consider the work I was going to do, how much mixing between through hole and small SMD, and then consider just getting 2 cheap stations, with different tips.

 

Haven't seen it discussed much here, but also keep in mind that you should not use the same tip when switching between leaded and lead-free solder. Lead contamination into lead-free solder can make it go funky.

 

I simply don't understand why people pay that amount of money for a soldering iron.

I bought a Tenma temperature controlled station for about £45 I think. I've done a heck of a lot of through hole, and SMD and I really can't see how a more expensive station would benefit me. Each to their own I suppose

You simply get better quality joints at lower temperature and much faster. That means fewer raised pads and damaged components Plus there are other goodies such as for example ADS200 goes from room temperature to 300C in a matter of 8 seconds or so.

 

I am entirely satisfied with my X-Tronic Model 3020-XTS ~50$ soldering station. The attachable solder spool holder was never attached since I don't feed solder from a spool. My preferred method is to make several wraps around my hand then remove and twist into a nice palm-held piece that I unwind as needed. YMMV