A good soldering station is perhaps one of the most useful pieces of equipment for someone who works with electronics. Not only is it important to have in the repertoire but it is also easy to get stuck with a poorly performing station if you aren’t careful what you buy.
That is where Hakko comes into the picture. Anyone who has been around for a little while knows that Hakko soldering stations are beasts of the electronics industry, with excellent designs, great output and quality equipment for every budget. If you are looking for soldering stations that are going to survive the test of time and give you perfect performance over and over again, you really can’t go wrong with one of these machines.
That being said, buying a soldering station is a long term investment, so getting one that suits your purposes is really important. With many people wondering what makes Hakko so special, here is a detailed outline of its main features and benefits.
Hakko Brand
With a history stretching back to 1953, Hakko started its career selling forged tools and solder. From then it has grown into one of the most influential brands in the industry. Hakko not only produces high quality tools that are designed to withstand years of heavy use but also continually pushes the boundaries of what is possible. They have made life changing innovations to soldering stations including inventing ceramic heating elements, adjustable soldering stations and improved soldering tips.
Key Features of Hakko Soldering Stations
Good soldering stations have a fast heating element, fine temperature control, easy readouts, quality replaceable tips and a solid stand with tip cleaners. Let’s take a look at how Hakko incorporates these key features into its design.
Fast heating element: Hakko has excellent output and one of the fastest heating elements in the industry. The secret to their success is the invention of the ceramic heating element, which allows them to heat up or cool down very quickly, and can withstand heat up to 700 degrees celsius. As a result their tips tend to heat significantly faster than like-for-like models from other brands.
Fine temperature control: Hakko has excellent temperature control features and offers a wider temperature range than many other brands in the industry, so they can go cooler or hotter than most other soldering stations. Even more importantly their excellent design means that they tend to experience less of a temperature drop after use and a faster recovery time.
Easy readouts: Hakko has a simple and easy to read display, making it easy to check the temperature at a glance. Its operations are meant to be simple, ensuring that users can spend more time soldering and less time trying to figure out a complex machine.
Replaceable tips: Hakko has some of the best quality replaceable tips on the market. The T12 tips for example combine the soldering tip, heating element and temperature indicator into a single device that allows them a compact size, high accuracy and fast cooling and heating.
Solid stand with tips cleaners: Hakko’s stand is more than just a colourful design, it tends to have a smaller and sturdier footprint than other brands, which make it appeal to people who want to save a little space on their workbench. More importantly though Hakko has both a dry brass and wet sponge tip cleaner as a part of the stand. This saves people from having to buy these separately just to clean off the excess solder.
