Electronics > Beginners

Should I be worried about tip lifetime when buying my first soldering station?

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Reiska:
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?

tszaboo:
No, you shouldn't. Running costs are a factor if your iron runs 8 hours a day, but then you invest probably more into it anyway. Also, it is probably better to go for a "starter" iron, and then buy the real deal in a few years anyway.

Brumby:
My first response is not to worry about tip lifetime.  Tip performance is by far the more important consideration.

Shock:

--- Quote from: Reiska on May 07, 2019, 07:41:15 am ---I'm drawn to the JBC station for it's sheer heat-up speed and the tooless tip change
--- End quote ---

If you like robust check out the Pace ADS200 which is 120W all metal construction including the aluminum iron/handpiece (aluminum tweezers are on their way as well). The main differences over the Ersa is it has the much easier cartridge tip swapping (as good as, if not better than JBC) and the station is calibration free so you can insert the 8mm tip and it doesn't skip a beat.

Other stations work around the geometry limitation by using a small iron, cartridge tip or extra padding on the iron, but since Pace uses an aluminum barrel body it acts like a giant heatsink keeping the iron cool to touch, size is never an issue. The working distance of the tip and grip position is shorter than the JBC, Ersa, and heat up speed comparable to JBC. The ADS200 has no overshoot however and single digit degree accuracy.

Pace plate their cartridge tips for long life and are cheaper than the competition. Though the ADS200 is a single channel station I expect they will eventually expand this new Accudrive series into 2 and 3 channel stations like the previous series. Pace makes great tweezers and desoldering stations, the Accudrive handpieces should be interchangeable on future stations.

If you decide to get the ADS200 shop around for the best price and pickup the instant setback model if you want stand detection. Otherwise it has everything else you need all ESD safe (even the cable) uses a transformer, has an easy to see and use interface, sleep and standby modes.

Domagoj T:

--- Quote from: blueskull on May 07, 2019, 07:49:32 am ---If you use a reasonable temperature, and you don't use that stupid water sponge, plus you actually put the iron back to its auto-sleep cradle every time after use, they will last.

--- End quote ---

What do you use for cleaning the tip?
I use the stupid wet sponge and get years out of the original Weller tips. I have the temp set at around 300°C for 90% of the work I do.
The iron doesn't have the autosleep (it's Weller PU 81 base with WSP 80 iron).

I don't consider the cost of tips to be relevant at all, provided you buy quality tips and not just a piece of copper wire, that will melt away in literary couple of hours, as was the case when I had no access to a proper iron and had to make do with a $6 supermarket abomination.

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