Aoyue 936 Soldering Station

[patrick398]

Just wanted to share my experiences with this soldering station i bought recently in case it's useful to anyone looking to upgrade etc.

It's a very cheap (£40ish) Hakko 936 clone made by a fairly reputable Chinese company. I think for the price it is absolutely fantastic. Seems to be very well made, true temperature control, ESD safe and quality of the tip seems excellent.
I should say that i've never used a high end or expensive soldering station so i can't compare but for someone like me its a great step up from the weller pencil i was using before. With the weller my tip would last about 2 builds before it started to show signs of deterioration and would eventually completely collapse.
The tip on this is a nice fine conical tip and still looks as good as the day it arrived.

Seems like a great station for beginner/intermediate hobbyist who doesn't want to break the bank on a soldering iron

[Kipper4]

Pat I have the Same iron.
I advice to get a spare pencil and some ceramic heaters spare.
I nearly wrecked mine when I yanked it off the bench and pulled all the wires out. Took me ages to get it going again.
Worth the money though I paid about 75£
Ps make sure you get the right ceramic heating element.
I now have spares for an iron I don't have..... doh

[stallik]

Mistaken post sorry

[ElectricDruid]

I have a similar but different iron, a Atten 938. Like this:

https://www.batronix.com/shop/soldering/Atten-AT938D.html

Not that impressed, unfortunately. It's ok, but I don't know that it is the step up over the Antex 25W iron I'd used for thirty years before that and become proficient with. The temperature control is handy, but I find that the tip comes loose, and it doesn't seem to clean up well. The tips on my old Antex lasted for years, but this one always seems to have a scummy tip. That's a far bigger deal than being able to turn the temperature up for the few times I need that feature (like soldering large bits of metal like jacks - I used to just hold it on longer and wait...)

A *proper* upgrade might be in my future...would you guys recommend the Aoyue 936 then? Would I be better off with one of those, or do I need to get serious and get a  Hakko? (I hate taking things seriously...life's a joke, then you die.)

[stallik]

I have the same Atten iron but with a different label. I've been extremely impressed with it but mine was an upgrade from a mildly hot stick. The original tip lasted about 2 years, remained clean and tinned really well. Replacements have been less successful. I picked up a spare unit at the Maplin closing down sale so I doubt I'll ever need to buy another

[patrick398]

Pat I have the Same iron.
I advice to get a spare pencil and some ceramic heaters spare.
I nearly wrecked mine when I yanked it off the bench and pulled all the wires out. Took me ages to get it going again.
Worth the money though I paid about 75£
Ps make sure you get the right ceramic heating element.
I now have spares for an iron I don't have..... doh

Mine came with a spare heating element which is a bonus. I guess they go wrong often enough that they just started including a spare one in the package.
I like the fact that every part of the station has readily available replacements, might end up with a bit of a 'Triggers' broom' scenario though ha

A *proper* upgrade might be in my future...would you guys recommend the Aoyue 936 then? Would I be better off with one of those, or do I need to get serious and get a  Hakko? (I hate taking things seriously...life's a joke, then you die.)

I'd certainly recommend it but like i say, the only thing i have to compare it against is that weller pencil i had previously. I've also not had this unit that long so who knows, maybe this post is going to come back and bite me in the arse.
I did do a lot of research before purchasing and this one did consistently come up as one of the best clones.

[nation]

I too have something. Had two units, one crapped out a few days after warranty so had to buy a new one. The second one has been going strong for 6 years now, I'd say close to 100 hours of use, at times for on for 4 to 5 hours at a stretch. Great iron station, the weak link is the handle but an easy fix if you have spare iron handy and spare ceramic heater. But if you use it gently it shouldn't be a problem. Coincidental I broke the plastic thread screw where you hold the handle just this weekend. Luckily I still had the old broken handle from my first unit so and it was quick replacement of the plastic casing.