Hello! Has anyone owned both of these or tested these against each other. I’m leaning towards the Weller due to screen options and iron options but it’s pricing is higher too. Thanks in advance!
Not tested but I'd take Weller anyway.
I have experience with different models and generally they are for life.
I'm surprised how hard it is for Weller, Hakko, Pace, etc to just put a knob on their irons.
I don't know why the Hakko 936 or Weller WES51 were taken out of production. They dumped money into R&D to make an inferior product.
I do have a weller. Paid about EUR300 for it and although parts of it are well made, other parts are not.
For the model I have the tips are very small and clamped to the front of the heating element, and there is a tube over it to keep them in place.
This is a horrible system. The tips regulary get loose, because the tube that should clamp them expands when the iron heats up.
It also has some other annoying "features"
When I originally bought it, it had a "stop and go" function, which turned out to be nothing more then a switch which totally cuts off the heat when it's pressed. Result is you have to wait 20 seconds for it to het up again when you want to use it.
Never again will I buy a weller.
If I want a high quality iron, it would probably be a JBC.
the T12 clones have nice functions to turn down the temperature a bit (for longer tip life) when the iron is not in use, and from there it can still be brought upto temperature easily.
The T12 clones also come with replaceble electronics as spare parts, and have an STM32 (firmware on github / gitlab) and from that point of view they are also nice to just tinker with.
Add had a wes50 when is malfunctioned I got a wes1010na. When I started reading about T12 clones I decided to try one out. I got a Ksger T12. Now the welder only gets used when I need 2 soldering irons. The wellers take too long to heat up and their sleep function is useless. Having to press a button to wake them up. Whereas t12 clones heat up a most instantly 15 sec cold 5 sec warmup and all you need to do is shake the handle.
Weller sell spare parts
new ws81 7years in active service. abused with 10mm weld joints(a bit slow but it can do it) and still ~90% original capacity. only cleaning done
got old used WSD81 and it works
tip integrated heating element is better for low thermal resistance. good for 4 layer boards and ground planes but good PCB design implement proper thermal reliefs