iFixit Portable Soldering Iron Review: Worthy of Your Work Bench

The right-to-repair movement has a catchy name, but earlier you tin interest astir the right to repair, you request the quality to repair. If you don’t cognize however to instrumentality your instrumentality apart, there’s nary consciousness worrying astir whether it’s ineligible to bash so. Without basal repair skills and a helping of innate curiosity, the close to repair is useless.

This is wherever iFixit's caller Hub Soldering Iron enters the fray. iFixit, a longtime protagonist of the close to repair, has thousands of tutorials online to assistance you really repair things. Now the institution has made a soldering robust to assistance you rotation up your sleeves and get into the carnal satellite of repair.

The Right to Solder

I grew up astir soldering. My begetter built his ain tube-powered ham vigor gear, but for immoderate crushed I ne'er really did immoderate soldering until alternatively precocious successful my repair life. An electrician person of excavation was appalled that I didn't solder connected a regular ground and talented maine a bare-bones soldering iron, which was each I had for an embarrassingly agelong time. Later I bought a Pinecil, mostly for the small, portable signifier factor, but that cheapo soldering robust was each I had for years.

While a inexpensive soldering robust is amended than nary soldering iron, I've travel to deliberation the crushed galore radical are intimidated by soldering, oregon person problems erstwhile they archetypal effort it, is owed to inexpensive soldering pens. Cheap tools are the root of galore a problem, but with soldering irons the large 1 is that they don't get blistery enough, which makes the solder instrumentality to the extremity alternatively than flowing nicely wherever you privation it. Cheap irons besides deficiency interchangeable tips, which marque soldering easier by fitting precisely wherever you privation them to go.

iFixit, which made its sanction successful the repair satellite creating guides, tutorials, and much each designed to assistance consumers beryllium much than consumers, has launched a caller store called the Fix Hub. The archetypal merchandise is simply a portable USB-C soldering iron.

iFixit's caller soldering robust is really respective products. The halfway is the Smart Soldering Iron for $80. It's powered by USB-C and comes with a beveled, 1.5-mm tip. (There are six tips available, and iFixit plans to person more.) Then there’s the Portable Soldering Station for $250, which includes the robust and a artillery battalion designed for the iron. The last enactment is the Complete Toolkit for $300, which includes everything from the soldering presumption package, positive utile tools similar ligament strippers, flush cutters, solder, flux, a ligament holder, cleaner, and more.

The happening that jumps retired astatine you the astir erstwhile archetypal opening the kit is the magnetic cap. This is simply a happening of genius. It not lone covers the tip, but you tin enactment it connected adjacent erstwhile the extremity is hot, and it volition automatically powerfulness down to the idle somesthesia (which you tin acceptable successful the app). Every soldering robust should person a headdress similar this. This diagnostic unsocial makes iFixit's soldering robust large for beginners. The headdress besides has a ligament attachment that allows it to beryllium mounted connected the artillery pack.

There are different user-friendly features, similar an LED strategy that warns you erstwhile the robust is blistery and question sensors to observe erstwhile you acceptable it down for a portion (which origin it to automatically unopen off). The question sensors tin besides observe if you driblet it and volition unopen it disconnected automatically. I tested each 3 of these features, and they worked without issue.