Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a great value soldering station and, in my opinion, the best in its class! After a little over a year of usage, I would rate its soldering performance as "5-Stars." You really can't beat this station's performance anywhere in its price range. The quality of the Hakko FX888D is first-rate, exactly what one would expect from a Japanese product. But, like most products, it has its flaws (see below). I have used the FX888D for countless soldering tasks associated with DIY HiFi circuit boards and other small electronics tasks. In performing these tasks, I have used "specialized" soldering tips (the T18-D16 chisel tip is standard) with smaller tip mass used to solder circuit boards with small component "pads." One noteworthy point: THE TYPE OF SOLDERING TIP AND ITS MASS WILL AFFECT THE AMOUNT OF HEAT TRANSFERRED. And, the temperature at the tip will NOT necessarily be the temperature indicated on the screen, especially with lower mass tips (lower mass tips will be "colder" than the temperature displayed on the screen). All this is to say that this soldering station DOES NOT have a sensor at the soldering tip/handle assembly. Most, if any, soldering stations in this price range don't have soldering tip/handle temperature sensors. So, the Hakko FX-888D is no exception. Just be aware that what temperature you get at the tip is not necessarily what is shown on the screen when you change out the included trip to another type. As other reviewer's have noted, the two-button design of the FX-888D is less than noteworthy--"unintuitive" would be how I would describe it. Why Hakko designers have the "calibration temperature adjustment" mode on the "UP" button is a mystery. I, like countless others, have accidentally entered the "Performing a temperature adjustment" mode (as the instruction manual calls it) and a "mis-calibration" was made resulting in an inaccurate tip settings incongruent to display screen readings (can be hundreds of degrees off). I accidentally entered this mode by holding in the "UP" button for more than 2 seconds, which is what one would do IF we wanted (intuitively) to raise the temperature of the unit while soldering. Right? NO! Not according to Hakko designers. Holding in the "UP" button for more than two seconds actually puts you into the "Temperature adjustment" MODE and whatever digital inputs you put into the unit at this point WILL CHANGE THE CALIBRATION OF TEMPERATURE SETTINGS (as opposed to just changing the tip temperature) and the result will be in-congruencies between what the screen shows and what your soldering tip temperature is! This anomaly is why I deducted 1 star! What do you do if you, like I did, accidentally mis-calibrate the Hakko FX888D? There are two viable solutions. One is that you purchase a soldering tip temperature reading device/thermometer that will give you an accurate tip reading at high temperatures (not many "thermometers" out there that will do this). Then you can calibrate any soldering tip to the precise temperature setting the job requires. Hakko makes such a device (Hakko FG-100), as well as others. The second and cheaper solution is to reset the FX888D back to factory settings. However this, of course, puts one back at the start with possible inaccurate tip temperatures when using smaller mass soldering tips--BUT, AT LEAST THIS WILL MAKE YOUR SOLDERING STATION USEFUL AGAIN. If you choose to reset the FX888D, it is almost impossible to find documentation on how to do this. AND, many souls out there in Internet ether-land believe that there isn't a way to do this. I don't know why this factory reset information was NOT included in the owner's/instruction manual, SINCE it is so easy to accidentally enter the temperature setting mode to screw up the temperature calibration! Luckily, I have a friend who works for Panasonic, who has a friend who works for Hakko, in Japan. She was able to get me the official Hakko FX888D factory reset instructions. For those that need to reset the FX888D back to factory, default settings, here is the reset sequence: Resetting Hakko FX888D to factory "default" settings: 1. Make sure unit is "off". 2. Hold the "UP" button AND "ENTER" button down at the same time. 3. Turn on the unit. 4. Continue to hold down the two buttons until the screen flashes "A". 5. Release your fingers from all buttons when flashing "A" occurs. 6. Push "UP" button one time--the unit will display a "U". 7. Once screen reads "U", push the "ENTER" button one time to exit the reset mode. 8. Unit will begin to heat up to 750℉ (the factory calibration point) and stop at 750℉. 9. Unit is now reset to factory settings. (You can now set your temperature at the desired setting and begin soldering!) Another minor shortcoming involves the soldering iron "holder base." It frequently slides around when "wiping"/cleaning the tip on the cleaning wire. Suction-type feet would have helped. Maybe Hakko designers will make this change in future versions of this base. It does slide around quite a bit, especially on smoother surfaces. In closing, I would just like to state that I love the FX888D! It is one of the best investments I have ever made. After years of using those flimsy, cheap soldering irons you can buy at discount department stores and other big box stores, it is a plesure to use a precision soldering station like the FX88D. To think that I spent MORE than what I paid for the FX88D on all those pieces of junk! I don't know why I waited so long to get a bonafide soldering station. I highly recommend the FX888D (or the discontinued analog FX888, if you can find one) as an excellent, on-the-job performer. Just be aware of changing the calibration by mistake, which is a biggie...