Weller Soldering Station With ZeroSmog Shield Mobile Filtration Unit | WE1010NAS

My husband is loving this. He has used this brand before and loves it.

Pros: - Quality Weller product as expected - Heats up quick - Adjustable temp - Mini filtration Cons: - Filtration range is kinda small, so not the best working on large items

I remember the first "gun" style soldering iron I used back in the 80's to work on my RC cars. Those were terrible for precision work. Then I got my first cheapo soldering iron with a fine point tip and I thought WOW, this is way easier to use. Then I was taught that being able to control temperature was critical to the success of the solder joint. And then I learned having a high quality solder station really is a luxury. After almost 35 years of soldering I've finally achieved what I believe to be the perfect little station for my hobby builds and repairs. I've owned Weller products in the past as well as Hakko (and others) and I no longer have patience to deal with the unknown quality of lessor known brands. Stick with the premium GO-TO brands and you won't be disappointed. So what's different about this combo is the filtration unit. Aka Smoke Sucker. With the filtration fan running I can solder inside the house without filling the room with smoke and fumes. That's really nice because before I'd normally only solder out in the garage. And that's not always ideal. So for me the filtration box is worth the additional cord and the small amount of space required on the work bench. I don't have these units STACKED like shown in most pictures. I've got the solder unit off to my right and place the filter in front of the piece I'm working on. Works great! The temp control seems to be very accurate and stable. Repeated joints all flow out the same and it really makes soldering more of a joy than a hassle. If you are not experienced with soldering I highly recommend spending a little more money on a high quality setup as you will receive better results than if you try to just make do with substandard, but cheap, equipment. There is a difference!

To get the annoyances out of the way first - Weller, why haven’t you switched away from tip destroying water sponges yet? This kit still includes the squished foam sponge with the slits and I stopped using those two decades ago. If nothing else at least provide a spot for the brass wool, or include a brass wool wiper. Beyond that, aside from the high price of name brand, I really like this soldering iron. I’ve been a fan of weller since I first used one in high school - they simply work. No struggling with a tiny high frequency tip that just can’t put the heat out, these are real soldering irons that will always get the job done. The fume filter is a fairly simple fan and filter assembly. The light helps define the area where the fumes will be drawn from, and it works reasonably well. No need to continue to breath flux fumes! The flat spot on top is a reasonable place for the iron, and having the switch on the front is good - it means I’ll actually use it. The soldering iron is a standard 70W weller, and uses the same tips I have on my other soldering irons, including the one all the way back to high school. They are very easy to control and use, and always get the job done. I typically add solder to the tip before turning it off and between that and switching to the brass tip cleaners I’ve never had to tin a tip or replace one. I’m still using tips I had 30 years ago. Big ones for ground plane soldering, tiny ones for 0201 parts (though the hot air soldering works better for those) and everything in between. The temperature control also makes the iron useful for plastic inserts into 3D pens or even plastic welding on the rare occasion that is needed. At this price I would expect the iron and fume extractor to work together, but they don’t. No big deal but it’s something that would make the price a little more reasonable. The filters are square so can be inserted without fiddling with orientation. I haven’t looked for replacement filters yet, but expect to be able to find thirty party filters in a year or so. I complain about price, but the reality is I have yet to be as happy with any other soldering iron I’ve used as I have with the weller irons. They always work and they last forever. I rarely take out the one I got 30 years ago but it still works, and the one I got 20 years ago was my main iron until this one. I don’t doubt that this will last forever as well.

I got this soldering station because I do more projects now that require small pcb type of work to be done. The tip that comes with this is huge, I bought about 10 other tips of various sizes and it's much easier to solder SMD leds with the other tips than what's included. I have noticed that my unit will spike temps at time. I set it for 280'c and it gets to that temp very quickly but then seconds later it will shoot up to 310'c before dropping and staying at 280'c. I wonder if it's a loose wire inside the soldering station or wand? Speaking of the soldering station... it REALLY needs to be better quality. The plastic is so cheap feeling and mine came damage with a broke tab on the inside. I was able to fix it, but after reading the reviews I can see why people's are broken. It's extremely cheap. The filtration box is big and silly. You have to have the soldering wand right up to it before it sucks up the smoke... on the stuff I am soldering it doesn't do anything. It just takes up space and is loud. I'd 100% do without that and just use the soldering station without the filtration device. I like the soldering station. Seems to be an upgrade to what I have so I will continue using it.

I received this Weller soldering station and immediately put it to use soldering some wires together for a car stereo install. I have a much cheaper, no name brand soldering iron as well, but Weller is generally agreed to make some of the best soldering irons out there. To cut to the chase, I'm very impressed with the results I got with this Weller. Using the same flux core solder I've used on my cheaper soldering iron yielded better solder joints with this Weller. I don't know if it's just more accurately controlling temperature on the tip compared to my cheaper iron or what, but the results I got were great and even better able to be replicated from one joint to the next. This is not the case sometimes with my cheaper iron that must be varying the temps a bit too much. The interface on this soldering iron is very easy to work with too. Simply press the up and down arrows to change temps and hold to change the standby time, which I did after I saw the default setting was 2 minutes. I set mine to 3 minutes as that gives me enough time to prep my joints. The iron takes about 30 seconds or so to get to working temp. The game changer here for me though is the fume extractor fan. Sure, it's easy enough to simply place a fan blowing at the tip, but I try not to do this as it cools the iron too much and I find it distracting as most fans even on low just blow too much air. The "Shield" unit that comes in this kit is quiet and moves just enough air to pull the fumes away but not cool the iron. The filter does a good job too as I noticed it really cut down on not only the fumes, but the smells as well. My only complaint is the light is so dim it's basically useless. Overall this is a top quality soldering station backed by one of the best names in soldering. The price is high but I think this will last decades.

This is my 2nd Weller WE1010, the first one I picked up at a ham radio show years ago. In case you're not familiar with the Weller product lines, the "Orange" Wellers are the "consumer" line, and the "Blue" Wellers are the "pro" line. In no uncertain terms, the 1010 is a gold standard soldering station. I've been soldering for a long time, and have worked as a hand solderer in the electronics industry, so I have a good feel for it by now. There are a TON of cheaper (much cheaper, in fact) soldering stations on the market. I don't have any of them on my workbench. I have a Weller. Why? Because it's ready to get to work long before I am, and it's still going strong long after I'm ready for a nap. Because it works and works and works and works and my 1010 has NEVER let me down. One thing you'll want to do is adjust the "sleep" to about 5 minutes from default. It tends to go to sleep too soon on me, lol. If you do any volume of soldering at all, you will want to invest in a quality soldering station. The Weller 1010 is THE soldering station. The fact it comes in this kit with a fume extractor is very nice, I just wish it had an adjustable speed like the "Pro" version. It still works great, though. Much better than nothing at all. In all, it's one of the more expensive soldering stations on the market. There's a reason I own 2 of them. They're work horses and my 1010 has never let me down. They're worth every penny. 5 stars!

Both the fume extractor and the soldering iron are top quality, work and look great on my workstation. The only reason I'm knocking off a star is.. - The fume extractor needs to be very close to whatever you are working on. In some cases in can be obstructive and get in the way. - Maybe I'm spoiled by the TS80 soldering iron, but the standby feature on this soldering iron is just a timer. It's not aware if you're using the soldering iron and will just cool down while you're in the middle of something. Lastly, in case you're wondering what the differences are between the Pro and non-Pro models is. The Pro has a variable speed slider and a connection for certain Weller soldering stations which I believe is to control it as one unit. This non-Pro model only has an on-off switch which makes it 0 or 100%. I don't think the variable speed thing is a big deal in this case.