Weller SP23LK 25-Watt Soldering Iron

I've been in the electronics hobby for over 30 years and own a few soldering iron. This time I had to build a high voltage power supply replacement board for a 2,000 watt a linear amplifier and the two soldering guns were just too hot for soldering small components. I found this one at a the Radio Shack site but they wanted too much for the shipping. I can say that this inexpensive tool worked flawlessly is a perfect soldering pencil for small jobs that do not required lots of heat and also for the first-time user who has very basic needs. It includes all the pieces you need for your first soldering project. In my humble opinion, it's worth the price (cheap!) and much better than alternatives that are [...] bucks cheaper

This soldering iron works well. There is nothing to complain about for the soldering iron. The included stand is a piece of garbage. I had never soldered before I bought this, and didn't really think about how hot this thing is, and i burned some paper on my desk because of the stand. Just be careful with it instead of stupid like me, and it could suffice, but i recommend getting some kind of holder. The package includes a small amount of solder, enough for a few projects. The iron has two different tips.

This is a good, inexpensive, consumer-oriented general purpose soldering iron for tasks such as automotive and household wiring and medium-sized electronic component work such as that antique Grundig reel-to-reel tape player you picked up at a yard sale. The included "soldering aid" tool is handy for straightening or bending wires and component leads. If you can, I suggest you pick this up at Wally-World - you'll pay local sales tax but, you'll save shipping costs and time. The Weller brand from Cooper Handtools is outstanding. [...] But, make sure you understand that this particular kit - the SP23LK - is a consumer-grade item. For finer electronics work and somewhat advanced tasks such as "through-hole" and "surface mount technology" soldering and desoldering, the operating temperature of this iron is much too high and the included and available tips are much too large.) If you're just starting out in electronics and are even just somewhat serious about it, the SP23 is NOT the iron to start out on - you'll probably become quickly frustrated, burn up some components, not learn good soldering techniques, and wind up tossing the iron and your new hobby or profession. If your budget can afford it and you think you'll be spending a fair amount of time working with electronics, consider a "soldering station" such as the Weller WES51 Analog Soldering Station, Power Unit, Soldering Pencil, Stand and Sponge (outstanding price on Amazon, even with shipping!). Otherwise, the Weller SP23LK is a good consumer-grade general purpose kit not intended for serious electronics work. I rate it 4-out-of-5-stars only because there are several other equally capable general purpose irons out there.

Just right, works great.

Bought this iron for a little soldering. Works fine, but the tips wore out quite fast, after a few times one of the tips was quite unusable. Probably would go for a higher quality actual soldering station next time.

I had a Soldering Iron (SI) and a Desoldering Iron team that I got from Radio Shack, and anyone I used them around recommended I get a better iron, usually a soldering station. I lost the SI and decided to replace it with this iron after (unsuccessfully) attempting to solder with the desoldering tool... and WOW! Now I see what all the people recommending me a better soldering iron were talking about. This guy is great, but it makes me wonder what could be gained from spending a bit more. Chances are, though, I will be going with Weller again in the future because this product is great. Packaging is a little "old school" to say the least but that's irrelevant months down the road, which I feel strongly this SI will last. I've personally used this on mostly electronics-- creating my own cables, soldering to circuit/mother boards, etc. Most recently I used the iron on an Xbox 360-- again it was perfect. These jobs would have been non-ideal at best with my old SI. Very, very, very highly recommended product. High quality and at a very reasonable price.

I bought this to solder circuits. it barely manages surface mount parts if i wait long enough between soldering parts - but only barely. It is absolutely hopeless with other parts, and the long time it takes to melt the solder will actually damage your parts - I found this out after a few transistors malfunctioned after soldering. Besides not doing the job there are other cons: 1. the chisel tip cracked 5 minutes into soldering, then it broke off. Inside I could see bubbles of air and a thin copper core - incredibly low quality! 2. the pointed tip is neither sharp, nor round enough to make good contact with any type of component - not good. 3. power is way to low to be a useful soldering tool - barely good enough as a toy if you want to dress up as an electrical engineer for Halloween. 4. stand is a piece of bent metal, absolutely unstable and dangerous. 5. The build quality screams that it was produced for a good dollar or two - weller really blew it with this one. They clearly don't care about their brand name anymore, and would rather go for a quick short-term profit rather than brand loyalty - well - weller, you lost one more customer who was looking forward to graduating to one of your "pro" solder stations! If you have heard good things about the brand Weller, look elsewhere - this is a cheap knock-off of a product with absolutely minimal production values - which would be ok if it did it's job - but it doesn't! Stay away!

it works. some things to know. when you first plug this in it smokes like crazy, its the oils used in machining burning off. give it a good 20 minutes. the "safety light" to me at least is dim, but a nice feature. the black plastic piece is a "helper" of sorts, meant to help you hold parts, how you do this and hold the soldering iron and solder is beyond me, but im sure itl come in handy some day. if this is your first soldering iron, pick up some solder. the amount that comes with this is about half an ounce. (maybe an ounce?) its enough to do some practicing. the tips, the tip numbers are in the small instructions sheet (sorry dont have it handy or i would post them) if like me you started out with a soldering iron where the tips where threaded on the "inside" you should know these are threaded on the "out side" and do not have any kind of "grip" so when there hot your not going to be changing them out. the cord is nice and long, the stand is pretty much useless so i would suggest getting a 3rd party stand. the only thing i really have a complaint about is the package it came in, its impossible to get in to with out tearing it completely apart. the instructions indicate a 7 year warranty. so print out the receipt and put it up with the instructions some where safe.

Used it on a couple of projects so far and it heats up the tip quite efficiently, Came with a small supple of solder so out of the box I could use it without having to scrummage my stock which was hidden away. Decent amount of extra tips with different ends for different projects. Only caveat I have is the small piece of aluminum? that is used to hold up the iron, it's pretty basic and most of the time it doesn't hold the soldering iron in place enough for my liking.

Electrical fitting is not compatible with UK sockets. Product is shipped from Canada and return postage exceeds value of item. Thanks Amazon!

I'm terrible with a soldering iron, so take my opinion lightly. I used this iron to de-solder a bad connection and then resolder it. The soldering was A-1 but my skill was fail. I manage to de-solder and resolder the wire several times successfully, but was not able to repair the connection. Not the iron's fault. I also made the mistake of touching the hot end of the iron. It instantly burned a wedge into my fingertip. I take that as a sign that it's probably hitting the 400 degrees celsius that it claims. Minus 1 star because it is so light, a movement in the cord can cause it to flip off its stand too easily. It's a bit dangerous for clumsy people.

Really great little soldering iron. Works well, gets up to temperature pretty quickly and gets the job done. No problems since buying it and I have done a whole variety of jobs with it.

I am an electronic hobbyist, and i already have 2 other soldering iron that i use. I bought 1 of these on Amazon.ca and got it in less than 1 week, very good delivery time. I turned it on, and used it for 1 hour. To my great surprise, the bit point was completely gone. The round tip becaome flat surface. What a joke!! I am back using my cheap $7 iron, which beats this by far... and no burnt tip..