Customer Reviews

Weller WLC100 40-Watt Soldering Station

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

For the same price one can get a "Professional" series Weller iron (like this one) with constant tip temperature, or a less known brand temperature-controlled station (like this one) that will be much nicer to work with.

PROS:
Weller quality and durability.

CONS:
Price is too high for a simple iron without temperature control, the "power control" knob works like a simple light dimmer - with no feedback from the tip, so the temperature will be jumping up and down while you work.

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Side notes: for pleasant work experience and good quality soldering one needs to keep the proper tip temperature - it can't be too low or too high. Note that in both extremes the solder will visibly melt, but the quality of the connection will suffer. When the iron is too cold: you are likely to get "cold solder" joints that look fine outside but lack internal integrity and often drop the connection soon. These are hard to troubleshoot.

If the iron gets too hot, you may burn the copper traces and they will break off the PCB, you may overheat electronic parts, and (most annoying to me) you burn out the flux before it does its job. Ironically, using too hot iron may also result in "cold solder" connections. This happens because the flux will go in smoke before it reaches the soldered surfaces to clean them and make the solder stick properly and permanently.

The only way to ensure correct soldering temperature is to use controlled iron with feedback from the tip (very important). The WLC100 has only appearance of "control" but you can't set and hold the temperature. It is as good as the cheapest iron from Sears or Radio Shack that cost five times less.

Many years ago when I got this iron, it was only $30, and I see it has almost doubled in price, but STILL FAR BELOW the cost of the other Weller soldering iron stations!

And there is really no other reason to get the other ones, when one of the elements goes bad on the other ones, you have to pay more than the price of this whole station just to replace the element! This one doesn't have any element, you just replace the tip, which you can get at any Radio Shack for a dollar or two tops. And I still have not needed to replace the tip on this one after years of use, since I keep the tip nice and tinned.

This heats up nice and fast, is always reliable, just as good as any of the BLUE ones that cost three and four times the cost that the same company sells, and has never let me down.

Get it now, before they raise the price any more!

Once you get it, it should last a lifetime.

this item works very well. run it at 50% for most PCB work. this item is a guality unit and has all the power you need. very affordable for a new unit.

I purchased this needing to do a very delicate (several hour long) solder job, and I needed more than just the little handheld I keep around the house. I used to work professionally in the electronics repair business, but had long since gotten rid of my tools.

This is a very well built soldering station that really holds up. If you are a beginner or professional, you will appreciate the ease of use and nice soldering this station allows you to do. The temperature control makes it great for a multitude of projects.

In short, don't be fooled by the low price. This station will perform as well as any $100.00+ unit out there.

I use a Weller WES51 Weller WES51 Analog Soldering Station, Power Unit, Soldering Pencil, Stand and Sponge at work doing work on circuit boards. I've got probably 24 hours of use on the WES51 so far. I bought the WLC100 for use at home on hobby and DIY work because it is half the price of the WES51. The biggest differences I have seen being: The WLC100 takes MUCH longer to reach operating temperature(but the WES51 only takes 20-30 seconds) and doesn't have the same ability to hold operating temperature when doing large joints. With that said, it's as solid a unit as I've used besides my WES51 and can get every job done that should be needed by a hobbyist. If you are planning to use this for long periods of professional work, I suggest going stepping up, but for smaller jobs this is the station to get.

I bought this in order to learn soldering and I like it so far. Used correctly it does an excellent job.
The only problem I have with this is that the "instructions" are slightly lacking. I've never used a soldering station before so I don't know what I'm doing with the controls or the setup. So I'd like to know what each item does and how to use them.
For example, it doesn't go to eleven ... ;) ... but it goes to five. The problem is: what is five? Who cares? About 3.25 works for me. The instructions don't say what setting is good for what. They just say start at 5 and back down from there.

This is my first soldering station purchase. After reading several reviews on different products, this one seemed to be the most favorable. It hasn't let me down yet. It only comes with one screwdriver tip. I found some extra tips on Amazon.

I have had one of these for years. While it is a decent little unit for simple kit building and the like, it's not the best choice for jobs where temperature control is important. Although it has a rheostat for adjusting temperature, it's not a true temperature-controlled soldering station and the tip temperature will run away if the hand piece is left unused in it's holder for too long, causing the tinning to oxidize. This means that you will be constantly re-tinning your tip, which gets frustrating after a while.

I would consider this an entry-level unit; if you're just starting out and aren't sure if you're really serious about electronics work, it's not a bad choice. If you're already serious, then you'll want to look for something better. Alas, this means an proportionally higher price, but you do get what you pay for.

I've had this iron for ten years now. The level of use it's seen has varied up and down, depending on how much time I had available to spend on my electronics hobby. The iron itself is absolutely fine for, you guessed it, hobby and DIY use (no problems with it not being ESD safe, and I've soldered a lot of semiconductors). If I ever need to do a higher volume of work I will upgrade to a WES-51 temp controlled station, but for now this continues to fit the bill quite nicely. The tips are long-lived if you take care of them (keep it tinned even while sitting in the holder, try not to bash it on the holder when you put it in, don't leave it switched on if it won't be used for a while). The standard tip is too big for electronics use and must be replaced with something smaller. For a long time I had a medium-size tip on there and it seemed to function well between 3 and 4 on the heat control, depending on the size of the work. With this station you need to pay quite careful attention to the way the solder flows when you heat the joint, if you want to produce high quality solder joints. The solder should become fully liquid and flow into and around the joint area on its own, without needing to be spread around the sides and back. If not, the temperature isn't high enough. On the other hand, don't set the temp higher than it needs to be or you will shorten the life of the tip and may damage the component you are working on. Remember this and you will quickly learn where the 'normal' setting is and when to turn the iron up or down a bit in response to larger or smaller work.


Now for the really important information that I wanted to pass on to users of this iron:

I was so used to using my medium size tip in this heat range that when it finally burned out and I replaced it with a fine point, I just turned the iron on and waited for it to heat up so I could tin the tip and start using it. But there was a problem: solder simply beaded on the tip and I couldn't tin it. I thought I had a bad tip BUT here's the kicker: heat level 3 was too high for the fine tip, so it immediately overheated and oxidized. Luckily, using fine steel wool and _very_ careful use of 600 grit paper I was able to bring the tip back to a metallic color. I then switched on the iron at its lowest heat and waited for it to heat up, regularly trying to melt solder. Eventually it got there (I had to turn it up to about 1.5) and I tinned the tip. Turns out the operating range for a fine tip is about 1.5 to 1.8 on my dial. Any higher and you can burn the tip, especially a new, untinned tip. Operating in the low power range, it takes a while for the tip to come up to temp, and to recover its temperature after soldering a few joints. This is the reason why I would go to a temp controlled station if I had to do a lot of work. If time isn't money and you are prepared to closely monitor what's going on at the tip, there's no reason why you can't make perfect solder joints with this iron.

Another thing: often when soldering to the metal tabs in RCA connectors I had trouble getting solder to flow onto the tab. for a long time I solved this by sanding or filing the area BUT a much easier and just as effective method is simply to clean the shiny tab with a Q-tip dipped in acetone!

Finally, please consider minimizing the lead pollution of your electronics work. Personally I don't much like lead-free solder but I don't want to put lead solder in the trash (ie landfill, ie groundwater). For at least the ten years I've had this iron, I have kept all solder waste and soldered wire clippings in a flip-top container. It takes up next to no space on the bench and I always have somewhere convenient to eject the contents of my solder sucker. At some point I will take this hazardous waste to a local electronics workshop or the municipal recycling depot, but it accumulates so slowly that it really hasn't been an issue yet. Just make sure to mark the container "lead - do not empty in garbage" if there's a chance that someone might do so.

Thanks for reading, and happy soldering!

This is a nice soldering station at a fraction of the price of professional models. The temperature control is not as precise as more expensive models but is good enough for general use. The standard tip supplied with the unit is too large for most electronic work, but other tips are available for under $10. When I received the unit, the soldering iron did not fit into the holder. Apparently the plastic collar on the iron was warped. I filed it down a bit, and then it was OK.