Electronics > Beginners
Soldering iron that won't melt?
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Audioguru again:
I forgot to say that my electrical utility company gave free compact fluorescent light bulbs to show consumers how to reduce electrical wattage. But reports came in that some dripped burning plastic. They were all recalled and replaced. They found that the Chinese manufacturer stole the safety certificate number from a competitor so these cheap ones were never certified to be safe.
Jookia:
I'm going to ask for a refund from Jaycar, who sells these on their website and in the physical store I bought it at.

There's no photos of the other side of the PCB, so here's one. I the flipped underside to match.

I'm not sure which iron to buy next, but that might be a topic for another thread. An EEVblog episode comparing a Hakko and Weller soldering iron did a burn test on the cables showing how the iron can't burn through them. Is that a common safety feature?

Though, with some Weller stations not having fuses it's a bit concerning how safe these things are.
Rerouter:
your going to be more happy with the hakko, if cost is really a concern, an older hakko clone will still beat out the iron you currently have.
amyk:

--- Quote from: Jookia on August 30, 2019, 01:25:37 pm ---Edit: Uh, does this mean I had mains voltage isolated by just electrical tape?  :-\

--- End quote ---
That is what electrical tape is meant to do, so not really a problem...

You'll find even a 936 clones to be a significant upgrade from that iron. There are several cases where the triac failed shorted and the tip will glow red, but I don't recall anyone saying they melted the handle that way. For a cord that won't melt through, find one with a silicone cord.
Zero999:

--- Quote from: Ian.M on August 30, 2019, 02:48:41 pm ---
--- Quote from: Zero999 on August 30, 2019, 02:27:40 pm ---The soldering iron itself runs off the mains voltage, so insulating the cable with electrical tape is a bad idea. The entire cable should be replaced, preferably with a heat resistant one.

--- End quote ---
Bit late for that now. 

The handle should *NEVER* have melted like that, exposing live connections, as that's a major electrical safety fail.  It should either be made of a thermoset plastic that can't remelt, or there should be a thermal fuse on the back of the mounting flange that blows before it reaches the handle melting point, or the connections should be touch proof even with the handle missing.  Therefore I believe you have a good case that the device was potentially unsafe and therefore 'not fit for purpose' at the date of purchase.
N.B. IANAL nor qualified to do electrical inspections, especially not in Australia.

--- End quote ---
I agree. I think there's a fault in the element causing it to get too hot. A thermal fuse is a must, since any case material, be it thermoset or not, will present a fire/burn hazard once it gets past a certain temperature.
--- Quote from: Jookia on September 01, 2019, 06:38:15 am ---I'm going to ask for a refund from Jaycar, who sells these on their website and in the physical store I bought it at.

There's no photos of the other side of the PCB, so here's one. I the flipped underside to match.

I'm not sure which iron to buy next, but that might be a topic for another thread. An EEVblog episode comparing a Hakko and Weller soldering iron did a burn test on the cables showing how the iron can't burn through them. Is that a common safety feature?

Though, with some Weller stations not having fuses it's a bit concerning how safe these things are.

--- End quote ---
Yes, it's a lamp dimmer. The TO-92 package is a TRIAC and the little blue cylindrical component with axial leads is a DIAC. One of the capacitors will be for timing when the TRIAC fires, depending on the potentiometer setting, another capacitor might be as a ballast for the LED and the rest will be for RFI filtering. The inductors and transformer-like component, which is a common mode choke, again will be for RFI filtering, as phase controllers are noisy and can interfere with radio reception.

Of course they should give you a refund. They should also stop selling such a dangerous PoS. Tell them they should investigate this further, before it burns someone's house down.

I've had a good experience with Hakko. I have the US model and run it from a 110V transformer and it works fine, even though it's 50Hz where I live and it's designed for 60Hz.


--- Quote from: amyk on September 01, 2019, 07:27:30 am ---
--- Quote from: Jookia on August 30, 2019, 01:25:37 pm ---Edit: Uh, does this mean I had mains voltage isolated by just electrical tape?  :-\

--- End quote ---
That is what electrical tape is meant to do, so not really a problem...
--- End quote ---
Not really. It's never a good idea to insulate something with electrical tape. It's not so much of a problem if there's something else already providing protection against shock, such as a plastic or earthed metal enclosure or device is run at a non-hazardous voltage, but is completely unacceptable otherwise. Electrical tape peels far too easily. The adhesive is nowhere near reliable enough for anything safety critical. Just replace the whole cable, rather than splicing it.
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