I'm a pure hobbyist, though an electrical engineer by schooling and doing something totally different for work, and fed-up with the old hand-me-down mains powered soldering irons that I have and have decided to purchase a proper temp. controlled soldering station.
While looking at the options on the market in Europe it doesn't seem to be much of a price difference between a JBC CD-2BQE with the 245A handle or an Ersa i-Con 2V with their iTool handle. I'm drawn to the JBC station for it's sheer heat-up speed and the tooless tip change, but at the same time the Ersa seems promising for the capability to use the SMD Chip Tool (tweezers), two tools simultaneously (working with my son) as well as a standard soldering iron which to my understanding would require a significantly more expensive JBC model to pull off? (And yes I know that both these stations are overkill for my use, but life is too short to fudge with tools and I can afford my hobby gadgets, just trying to optimize pleasure and expenditure)
So I'm kind of leaning towards the Ersa as it seems 'more professional' and 'versatile', but then the JBC is being reviewed as the 'best professional' setup so I'm trying to make up my mind which one to purchase and substantiate the running costs of each station in a non-professional setup.
I've found many posts complaining that the JBC's cartridged have a short lifetime compared to the Ersa tips, but no-one substantiates what that means in practical lifetime.
The Ersa tips (7€ and up) are slightly cheaper than the JCB ones (25€ and up) but I'd like to understand will I ever even go through a single tip in the use I'm going to put this station to i.e. occational soldering of Arduino-type projects with my son? Maybe one day a month for a couple of hours at a time?
Should I even worry about this if I'm doing reasonable tip care i.e. whet the tip with solder after use, don't drench it in wet sponges, use distilled water in the sponge and occationally clean with flux?