Hakko FX888D-23BY Digital Soldering Station FX-888D FX-888 (blue & yellow)

With a few different tips, I've been able to use this with surface-mount parts (I even did some 0402 parts with this thing. It's a pain, but doable!), through-hole parts, and even some big ol' transformer anchor lugs.First off, I'm spoiled by the equipment I have access to at work, but that's a full-blown professional setup that costs three orders of magnitude more. (Yes, seriously.) With that in mind, here are my thoughts on this little soldering station:- Thermal control. THERMAL CONTROL. Every soldering device should have thermal control. It just makes life easier. This thing has it, and mine was calibrated well right out of the box.- It takes a 15 seconds or so to warm up. (again, spoiled rotten. By force of habit, I expect the tip to be at operating temperature within 2-3 seconds.)- It takes long enough to unscrew the tip that you really should wait for it to cool before swapping tips. It's possible, but I'm clumsy enough that I almost burn myself way too often.- The handpiece is a bit bulky for surface-mount work. I'd love to see a handpiece about half this thing's size for SMD work.- The main power cable isn't detachable. I initially placed the control unit up near head level, with the cable draped down to the stand on the bench. I like having detachable power cables; it makes rearranging cables or moving equipment a little easier to deal with.- And, while you can get tweezers for this station, it only has the one tool plug, so you won't be doing a multi-tool setup.Now. All of that being said, this thing is pretty awesome. For what I paid for it, I am quite happy with it; it's been reliable and has done its job well. Its construction is quite robust, its temperature control, while not perfect, is acceptable, and it's just flat out easy enough to use.My baseline for an excellent tool is one that becomes transparent to me -- I don't think them about while I'm using them; they just work, easily and reliably. This soldering station really does meet that criteria. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it gets the job done, time and again.

So happy with this purchase, always got cheap soldering irons thinking I can replace it if needed and I'm no soldering expert so don't use it that often, so might as well go under $50. As I was about to purchase my 4th iron (which would have taken my total spent on soldering irons to around $150) I decided to take a chance and spend the money to get a Hakko.The unit is much smaller than I anticipated (size didn't matter to me so never looked at dimensions) which is great, it is very easy to tuck out of the way.Saw some people don't like the separate iron stand, but personally that is the best for me. The station and stand can sit in the corner under my monitor at all times and I can just pull out the stand when I need to solder and I don't have to worry about any heat affecting my monitor. And the stand itself is all metal and feels quality. Time will tell with the sponge, saw some people not liking it, but haven't run into anything myself as of yet.Heat up and temp stabilization are crazy fast, coming from cheap units this one surprised me when I first turned it on, was used to turning on the soldering iron and then in a few minutes could expect it to be stabilized. With the Hakko I turned it on and stood up expecting to have some time, and I wasn't 10 feet away by the time it hit temp and was almost stabilized. So very fast, which shouldn't be surprising if you have only been using the cheap units.Lastly is the interface, that was the thing I saw in reviews that made me almost not get this unit which would have been a mistake. Like I said I am not a good solderer by any means, so for me I tend to have 1 type of solder wire and keep the iron at the same temp almost always. If I changed temps regularly I would take the time to set up the presets to the temps I use most frequently. In my situation though, pressing the enter button and then adjusting the temp takes maybe 10 seconds and is done very infrequently.The interface is similar to another item I own where you press enter to start adjusting the temp and then the arrow to change the number, so for me it made immediate sense on what buttons to push. For anyone that intuitively thinks they should press the arrow to change the temp, I would highly recommend writing on the unit itself so you know what to do. Even a simple 1 and 2 to know which to press first would do it for you.But really that is how the system works, press Enter and the first digit flashes so you can press the arrow to change that digit, press enter again to go to the next digit, repeat till you have the temp you want. Unless you need an exact temp, you will never change the last number away from 0, so you will just change the first or second digit. Most times I am changing it up/down in hundreds so I just change the first digit and then hit enter twice to skip the next to digits.Anyone even remotely tech savvy or under a certain age will be totally fine with this, the only way the interface is an issue is if you are constantly changing temps, and even then it depends on the temps you are using and how many different temps since you can set custom presets to switch between.Will update this review if any issues arise, I expect to never have to buy another soldering iron in my life, so will definitely adjust this review if that turns out not to be the case.

Glad I picked this up as my entry level soldering iron/hot air station just kicked the bucket. It's a great soldering iron that heats up fairly quickly. This is an excellent entry level iron that I would recommend anyone. Doesn't take up too much space and comes with the iron holder, basic tip and cleaning sponge/braid. Don't cheap out like I did before, even if you're just beginning.