30W 240V Temperature Controlled Soldering Iron

Don’t waste your time with this cheap iron

The temp control might seem like a great feature but the dial is positioned in the most impractical place, right next to your fingers as your holding the device. In my experience this leads to constantly waiting for the iron to head up components/solder then realising you’ve accidentally moved the dial to a colder setting for the 1000th time and need to change your position to readjust it back. Very frustrating when you need to do lots of awkward soldering of tight components. I instead recommend spending more on a decent variable temp control soldering iron with the dial on the station.

Model TS-1540

I love the control this little soldering iron allows I have also bought 2 of these, the first one got mangled due to operator malfunction, lol. Had worked flawlessly for 3 years prior and current one has been going 1 to 2 years without a problem. No soldering job requires 450 C, so I don’t know what the other reviewers problem was, but I seriously doubt it was the iron.

Exploding Iron

I've had 2 of these, both ended the same way. Explosively, when you turn the temperature up on these they have a tendancy to go boom and fill the inside with black soot. They are dangerous.

Good inexpensive temp controlled iron

I have had one of these for about 17 years and it is still working. I only use it now and then, so not really needing the top of the range work bench model. No it doesn't have a silicon lead which the higher end models have. But for the intermediate user to have in their tool kit for odd jobs and for the occasional electronics kit build, etc I think it is a good iron.

Avoid, 1 star is too high for this.

Plugged it in and it blew up and tripped the RCDs. There is no on/off switch, there is no marker for temp adjustment, Product performs best not plugged in.