UPDATE: I have received a refund for the device and it has been sent back. I purchased a Hakko 888D from Adafruit and am looking forward to receiving it.
Hello there!
I'd like to provide a warning to anyone who is perhaps looking to purchase a Hakko 936 off of eBay. I have found a seller who I believe is knowingly selling counterfeit Hakko 936 units, and I would like to advise people from purchasing these units from this auction.
The auction in question is here:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/131298761024?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649I purchased this unit as I found that it wasn't a bad deal, and I am just getting into soldering and wanted a decent and reliable unit. As it is difficult for me to find Hakko units in Canada that don't have ridiculous shipping and duty/taxes on them, I was trying my hardest to find a retailer/seller in Canada.
When I received it, I honestly believed it was a genuine unit. The handle feels great, it came with several tips (two of which have Hakko branding on them, and I believe may actually be genuine), and overall the unit seemed to be the real deal. It wasn't until I noticed that there was no Hakko branding on the ceramic heater, that there was a slight plastic rattle inside the control box, and that the iron itself was barely capable of wetting the solder on a smaller inductor that I figured it was bogus.
This is a list of the things I found wrong with the unit:
Regarding the iron:
1. The lettering is not properly silkscreened and as such some of the letters are not complete. It is not completely obvious, but the letter does not match up to the genuine handle.
2. The protective rubber that is supposed to reach up to the end of the handle before the heating element and tip only reaches halfway.
3. While the genuine Hakko handles *DO NOT* get hot after prolonged use, this handle gets unbearably hot within 30 to 40 minutes at 300C. The genuine Hakko handles do not suffer from this problem.
Regarding the ceramic heaters:
1. The ceramic outside of the heater is missing the Hakko branding.
2. The wiring is incorrectly coloured and is amateurly soldered, making is essentially dangerous to use.
Regarding the control box itself:
1. The serial and model number sticker on the bottom is incorrectly sized and does not match up to the genuine information sticker.
2. Within the actual unit, the transformer's sides are wrapped in yellow while the official Hakko transformer is not.
3. The control PCB itself has "YengPeng-2" silkscreened on it, which is absolutely ridiculous. The genuine control board has Hakko branding on it, and is not a yellow PCB.
4. TWO of the four screw mounts were damaged when I opened it up; I guarantee I did not cause this damage while I was opening it.
5. The casing itself is not the same casing as the official one;
Regarding the soldering iron holder:
1. The soldering iron does not sit correctly into the base, making it wiggle and nearly fall out. The genuine Hakko holder holds the iron securely and does not move.
2. The sponge that came in the base was not wrapped whatsoever; the genuine Hakko cleaning sponge comes wrapped in a Hakko bag with the lettering "Cleaning Sponge". It also has a hole missing in the middle, which the official one does not.
3. The actual construction of the holder does not match the construction of the official product.
Below, I will be adding photos of the unit, inside and out. I apologize about how many there are, I wanted to be as detailed as possible with this post.