Some time back, I was given a rather well-used Weller soldering station.
A friend owned a hifi manufacturing conpany and he was updating some of his Wellers, so he gave me a rather tatty old unit that had been used HEAVILY, in a factory, for many years.
That, by the way, was (IIRC) 1972.
And that “tatty” ol’ thing is still just trundling on, absolutely fine. I’ve replaced a tip or two, and of course, the foam. But the iron and transformer? Fine. Obviously, I’m not using it 8 hours a day or anything, but it has seen a lot of use, even after I got it.
My question would be whether you feel you need what is (or at least certainly used to be, and I doubt it’s changed) a very good grade unit?
Personally, my advice would be that if the cost of Weller (or similar) is not an issue, just get something like that. If the cost stings a bit, well, then you have more of a dilemma.
One of my rules to live life by is, as long as you can afford it, buy right (which often means quite expensive), and buy once. But “buy cheap” usually implies buying often. The real eye-opener for me was kitchen blenders. After I’d been through several, none of which aged well, I finally bought an expensive one. It didn’t rely on sharp blades. In fact, they’re pretty blunt on day 1. Instead, it relies on heavy duty gears etc, and a chonking great motor. That was some 20-25 years ago and that blender works as well today as it did when I bought it.
However, I feel I should make one caveat - while ‘right’ often means quite expensive, ‘expensive’ most definitely doesn’t always mean right. I usually buy what’s designed and built really well, to the best of my ability to tell, despite it being expensive, not because it is.
