That $60 soldering iron from the hardware store fried my laptop board

Picked up a cheap variable temp iron from Ace Hardware for $60 thinking it would save me on a loose charging port repair on my old Dell. The tip oxidized after two uses and I ended up bridging a tiny capacitor near the port, which killed the whole power rail. Anyone know a decent entry level station under $100 that won't destroy my gear?

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charlie_fisher455mo ago

Don't agree about Hakko... I've seen way too many $100 stations fail just as fast as that hardware store iron.

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pipera505mo ago

My buddy swore by those cheap hardware store irons for years, so I always figured they were fine. But after watching him smoke a motherboard on a Raspberry Pi project last month, I started looking into it more seriously. That $60 price tag is tempting, but the temperature control is usually garbage and the tips are junk. The Hakko FX888D is usually around $100 and it's what I ended up getting, it's way more stable and your components will actually survive.

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