Really wise words there from
@tooki and others.
With your revised 180 euro budget, I still would first strongly consider a used product.
I've got nothing against Chinese products, but for soldering irons for electronics design work, there are at least certain expectations that need to be very high; reliability, and earthed tip. Some of the clones will fail on the latter, and many on the former.
The clone handles are not the same incidentally (you mentioned it earlier), because the connectors are different, and internally, the contacts are not well formed. So that is almost guaranteed to fail, and in some cases might damage the station if the handle failure is catastrophic. Plus, there's a lot of plastic in some of the clones; the new clone soldering station will look ugly after some use, and will have almost zero resale value (in contrast, you could sell a broken genuine station and still find buyers willing to repair them).
If a used station doesn't meet it's description, eBay will refund you the money. If there is a fault, you'll likely notice it within a day or two. If there isn't an initial fault, then the chances are high that your used soldering station will provide you with good service for many years (more than five! and will be repairable even if the unexpected happens).
I looked at the eBay Italy website, it was hard for me to use it, but I couldn't see any decent used soldering stations, but your budget is now reasonable (180 euro), I think if you keep an eye out on ebay, you should be able to find something within a few weeks (or expand the search to EU if the shipping cost is not too much). For instance (this is just an example) there's a Metcal soldering station in the UK, you could make an offer (but I don't advise it unless you're absolutely sure of any potential customs fees; better to stick to EU).
Recent Posts
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register