Hakko FX951 Review
January 27, 2008 By Jeremy Brock
Hakko is known for making quality soldering products that stand the test of time. The Hakko FX951 is designed to replace the FP10x Series and the first noticeable difference is the digital display and size. Digital displays are great because you know the exact temperature of the tip which is very useful when dealing with IC’s and other components that are heat sensitive. The iron is 70W and has a temperature range of 400-840F, the station ships preset at 750F which works well for my soldering needs (DC Jacks, Surface Mounts, Capacitor Replacement, etc).
The iron is light weight, slim, and the foam grip gives you the feeling that you’re working with a precision instrument. The tip reaches 750F in less than 10 seconds. When inside the iron holder the station will enter sleep mode where it idles the tip at 250F to prevent tip damage from oxidation. Due to the fast thermal recovery time the tip will heat back up to 750F almost instantly.
Hakko manufactures a wide variety of tips for many types of surface mounts. Soldering tips are hot swappable, simply unclip the holder, use the heat resistant pad to remove the hot tip, and insert the new tip. The cold tip will quickly heat up and you can continue soldering.
If you solder a lot of components you may be annoyed by the beep produced when the iron reaches its preset temperature or is placed in the iron holder. The key card prevents “unauthorized” temperature changes, not very useful for me, however manufactures might like it.
The station DOES NOT come with tips and costs about $249. Be aware that there are MANY Chinese knockoffs, some are better then others.
Product Page (Japan)
Product Page (USA)
| Pros | Wide temerature range Good for lead free soldering Fast thermal recovery Light weight Lots of soldering tips available |
| Cons | Price (its Hakko) The beep made when inserting the iron in the holder |
What tips are you using? (DC Jack Repair, Solder rework, etc.)
this is a great station . I use at work fm-203 , as tips i prefer the BCM2 respectivly BCM3 tips for usual soldering, but for special needs i use others . T15-JL02 tip used for very small smd ,T15-KL for solder bridge corrections, T15-1402 for fast desolder of dil IC package and soldering heatshinks and grounding metal planes.
Usualy people buy the shape T15-BLL i think because this is from the oldest soldering pencils , and the problem of the humanity is that if someone uses to work with a tool even it is not goot he will choose the same type of tools in the future. ( eg. if you learn Photoshop, you will allways compare all the good software and try to find cons about the rest)
The usual shape T15-BLL that is finded even on 2$ soldering irons is good but the solder is not stayng where you want,usualy the head is oxidizing and a normal tip cleaning will clean only the conical part. so , if you solder a thin component you will end with a large solder ball.
!!! when you buy a soldering station keep in mind to think at the power of it and what is the bigger component that you will ever solder with it. (eg: if you solder SMD on just double layer board is ok any station >40 W , but when you will want to desolder a D-PAK package on a PC motherboard you will see that all the 40W are sucked by the power planes from the PCB.
Power does not mean temperature. I sow a lot of people that are increasing temperature to have more power, but if a producer says 750 degree farenheit for maximum 3 seconds .... and you will use 1000 degree for 10 seconds ... you will sock the component and you will decrease the lifetime of that product.
I hope that my knowledge share will be usefull for someone that want to invest in a soldering station .
best regards.