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Reviews For: Hakko FX-888D soldering station

Category: Tools & Test Equipment for the amateur radio work bench

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Review Summary For : Hakko FX-888D soldering station
Reviews: 5MSRP: 107
Description:
The FX-888D is the digital successor to the FX-888. User selectable preset temperatures and digital calibration simplify user setup and operation, and the new password protection and low temperature alarm provides process control and helps protect against cold solder joints.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hakkousa.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0055
KA3YAN Rating: 2015-10-07
Very good quality for the money Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've now had this soldering station for nearly a year. The quality is excellent. The tip heats quickly and retains heat quite well compared to the less expensive Chinese competitors. I attribute this mostly to the high quality Hakko tips. If you substitute a Chinese tip on the Hakko pencil, you'll immediately notice a difference in thermal retention as they lack the capacity due to inferior metals.

The heating element may also be of higher quality. When I use the Hakko tips on my Chinese soldering station, it takes more than twice as long to heat the tip. The Hakko FX-888D heats the tip in only about 15-20 seconds.

The pencil holder is solid. The holder on my Chinese solder station is mostly plastic, but the Hakko is all metal and stays in place when inserting or extracting the pencil.

I thought briefly about docking the rating by one due to the hideous color choice by Hakko. The blue and yellow stands out like a sore thumb on my work bench, but of course this doesn't affect quality of build or my ability to solder. Less ugly would have been better though.
WI8P Rating: 2015-02-28
Well made and great to use. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
When I started putting kits together, I decided to up grade my soldering equipment from a plain Jane soldering iron to the Hakko soldering station. I chose it based upon Amazon reviews, and will say it has lived up to them quite nicely. So far, the only down side I can find is the cost of replacement tips.
K6ROW Rating: 2015-02-13
Great soldering station, heats quickly Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought one based on earlier recommendations here. It's a great soldering station. It warms up quickly and, despite the irons small size, was able to generate enough heat to allow me to solder coax shield in a UHF connector. It's all I could ask for in a station.
KB3VZL Rating: 2015-01-19
Works well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Company Rep did a demo at a club meeting. Went out next day and bought it to replace a hand me down green soldering station. What a pleasure to work with. Will solder a wire on a microphone capsule and then wire up a PL-259 connector. Great control of temperature and nice feel in the hand. A good and wise investment
N9XQ Rating: 2013-12-30
wonderful tool Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The station is compact, easy to store and a really useful tool if you do more than just occasional soldering. Temperatures are easy to set, and heat-up time is very fast. A huge variety of tips are available including fine-points for SMD work. A hot-tweezer accessory is available if you do a huge amount of SMD work, but it costs more than the station itself. Build quality is top notch; very professional look and feel. Hakko has been in the business a long time, is used by pros, and gives good support.

Total wattage is 70 with up to 65 going to the iron. The ability of a soldering station to vary automatically the wattage to the iron as needed plus precise temperature control is what makes it better than a plain fixed wattage iron. The iron is grounded and some of the plastic, including the sheath on the cord to the iron, is conductive and grounded as well. This minimizes electrostatic discharge, but requires extra care when working around powered equipment including batteries and charged capacitors.

The LED display is easy to read, the iron is comfortable in the hand, and the stand is well designed and includes wells for a damp sponge and metal "wool" for cleaning the tip.

I've used the station intensively for more than a year, mostly doing point to point and through-hole board soldering,and could not be more pleased with it.