Review: TOAUTO 80W Digital Soldering Station

Why you should be interested in this review: 

This is a great soldering station if you are a beginner. My grandparents bought me this soldering iron for my birthday. I used cheapy soldering irons before I got this soldering station, but this soldering station is much better.

First Impressions: 

It is great and easy to use! This soldering station heats up in just a few seconds, while the cheap soldering irons took like ten minutes to heat up. This soldering station also has an auto shutoff function after twenty minutes. When I was trying to solder with the cheap soldering irons, I had a really hard time getting the solder to stick onto wires. This soldering station makes soldering easy.

What you get in the box:

Soldering Iron

This is the tool that you actually solder with. You can change the tips for different applications. Caution: you can easily burn yourself. 

Control Station

You can set the temperature and watch the temperature change. You can also change between Fahrenheit and Celsius. I like how it can change the temperature almost instantly. It shows you the actual temperature, so you don't have to guess.

You can easily lock the temperature, so that it will return to that temperature automatically next time you turn it on.

                                 

Soldering Stand

This is an aluminum soldering stand that keeps you from burning yourself. (From the photo, I had expected the black part to be plastic or rubber, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it's actually a hefty chunk of aluminum.)  

This soldering stand is so much safer than the wimpy ones that come with cheap soldering irons because the soldering iron is totally enclosed and it won't fall over.

Extra Soldering Tips

This soldering station comes with extra tips. Tips have different purposes. If you want to learn more about what the different tips do, click here. (The tip in the middle looks funny, because I put a blob of solder on it to prevent oxidation.)

Brass Sponge

Brass sponges help clean the soldering tip to prolong the life of the tip. They are better than wet sponges because wet sponges cool down the soldering iron so you have to wait for the soldering iron to heat back up.

Lead-Free Solder

Although the solder that comes with this soldering station is lead free, it is harder to use compared to lead based solder. I would recommend you buy lead based solder if you are a beginner.  (Caution: Lead-based solder is dangerous.  Make sure you don't inhale the fumes and you wash your hands afterward.  I may do another post later to teach your how to build you own fume hood real cheap.)

 

                                                                    Solder Sucker

Solder suckers are a manually-operated device that removes solder from a printed circuit bored.

Tweezers

Tweezers are for picking up small electronics that can't easily be picked up by human hands.

Why I like it:

I like the soldering station because after ten minutes, it goes into low power mode. After twenty minutes, the soldering station will turn off automatically. It also heats up in just a couple seconds.

After I got this soldering station, I suddenly found I was much better at soldering.  Before with the cheapy soldering iron, most of my attempts at soldering failed, and I was very frustrated.

What I don't:

It costs like 3X as much as the cheapy soldering iron, but it's worth the price difference.  Aside from cost, I have no complaints about this soldering station.

Who this is a good fit for:

This is a good fit for intermediates.

How can I get one?

You can order it here on Amazon.