Hakko FX888D-23BY Digital Soldering Station FX-888D FX-888 (blue & yellow)

The price on this unit was more than I usually like to pay, which is why Ive struggled most of my life with inadequate soldering irons. But one day, while trying to take some capacitors off a circuit board, holding the iron on there endlessly in frustration, I decided enough was enough. I scoured the reviews in Amazon, initially looking at a Weller unit, but someone pointed to the Hakko unit and I was impressed by the number of positive reviews. So I plunked down my hard-earned cash, and waited. One week later, I unboxed the unit, noticing the solid construction. And after trying it, I knew I had reached soldering iron nirvana! Here are the features I really appreciate: 1. Hot in seconds flat. Theres a little red LED on the front that tells when the iron is heating. When it goes off, the tip is ready. I didnt time it but turning the heat dial up half-way only takes about 5 to 10 seconds before the tip is ready. Wow! so different from what I was used to. 2. Performance. Most soldering can be done at about half temp. A few times Ive cranked it up all the way, to melt some stubborn joint, and it really works! 3. The brass tip cleaner. I really like the little brass wool that you can rub the tip on. It works very nicely and is much more convenient than water/sponge (although you can use that too). 4. Good stand. Its solid and doesnt fall over easily. Same with the transformer-temp control unit...its really heavy. 5. Flexible cord. Dont you just hate it when you get a tool that has a stiff plastic cord that never seems to straighten out? Well this one doesnt have that. The cord from the iron to the controller is nice and flexible. 6. The heating takes place so quickly that as soon as Im done a joint and have a break, Ill just dial the temp down and leave it on low, knowing that I can get it back up in less than 10 seconds. Im sure that helps the tip last longer. Theres really nothing not to like about this unit. Well, the tips are a bit expensive (about $10), but they look like they will last a while. Ive also seen some sets of tips on eBay for less...not sure about the quality of these though. Im in my early 50s now, and am a bit ashamed that Ive been doing occasional electronics work for about 30 years without such a good tool. Im pretty sure, unless my unit suffers from a defect, that this will be the last soldering iron I buy for the rest of my life. Should have bought it a long time ago...

Hakko is a big name. Their desoldering tool is the best there is--but this soldering station is a hassle to set and doesnt hold temperature all that well. It also doesnt recover quickly. At least not as well as my old Youyue 858D (who?) which had a single temperature knob. One touch. The Hakko, on the other hand, requires several presses to set the temperature. As much as I wanted to love this iron, it slows me down. I recommend the popular cheapo alternative. Not the 888D.

It looks like a toy but is built like a tank. It heats up really fast and maintains the exact temperature while you work. Sure, I wish it had more than two buttons so if you dial in too high a temp you can go one down instead of cycling back around, but I wouldn’t give up any of the FX-888D’s excellent qualities for that one button. There is a Weller that is pretty similar for around $100-110, but this Hakko has a larger heating element and so it will maintain its temperature better (in theory), but that Weller would be the only other unit I would consider.

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 cant beat this stations 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 dont 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 reviewers 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 isnt a way to do this. I dont know why this factory reset information was NOT included in the owners/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 dont 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...

Great products !!!

It’s nice but overkill for hobby work. It heats in seconds and once hot it idles along at reasonable power levels. I cannot seem to get to the presets, the up arrow button does nothing unless you you hold it down to get to the adj settings. However, for this price it should come with a few more tips. The provided one is only good for heavier stuff, you wouldn’t use it to put pigtails on the leads of to92 parts. I’ve had a lot of soldering equipment in 40 years but always pretty much took them for granted, a good station was just not that important. I also bought a $24 kit that honestly is as good as my ancient weller and would serve my purposes now but the quality and solidity of this Hakko is something I appreciate.

Ive been a technician for over 30 years and always used the big W brand soldering stations at work. I finally decided I wanted a decent station at home -- instead of a direct plug-in type pencil. I looked at the usual suspects but decided to try simple instead of high tech. Hey, all I want is a soldering pencil, not a flashy tech toy. This little guy has a classic retro kind of Art Deco of look to him. From the photos here you might think that the brightly colored bodies of this Hakko station are plastic. Theyre not. Everything is cast metal, maybe aluminum or more likely pot metal. It feels very sturdy and solid and definitely not like cheepo plastic. The bright color is baked on and matte in finish. The unit is quite heavy (transformer) as well as sturdy and simple. You dont get a fancy digital temp readout or glitzy high tech gizmos to impress your non-techie friends. This is a simple and competent iron with good temperature control and a nice solid feel to it. It would be nice if it came with a few more tips but the one supplied is the type of chisel point I use most often. The price could be more reasonable but its made in Malaysia and not China. If the heating element is reliable then this little guy could last indefinitely. Although I didnt look Im sure the temp control circuit is very basic and reliable. Ive used it for three projects and it works great. It heats up to mid dial @700F in 30 seconds and is immediately responsive to temperature loads. I like it.

one of the best

This station oozes quality. The material used for the iron holder and the control housing is top notch. The holder is solid metal and the control housing shell seems to be some type of plastic. It is built like a brick, and should withstand a good beating. While it does look a little Fisher-Price, the shade of blue is actually a bit darker when looking at it in person, so it looks better than in the picture. The build quality more than makes up for the color. The holder has two mating pieces, so you can clean inside it or replace the metal cleaning ball, then easily put it back together into a solid assembly. My only complaint would be the sponge. It could mate better with the holder for it, but maybe it will be better when wet. In any case, it shouldnt matter, as it doesnt take much pressure to clean a tip. It started up fine on the first try, and quickly heated the tip. It came with the chisel tip, the T18-D16, which is kind of small at 1.6mm in diameter, but it provides better heat transfer than a conical tip, and should be easy to work with in fairly tight board layouts. I might recommend buying a few larger tips for larger components, as I did. I look forward to working with it, seeing all the positive reviews. Your tip might smoke a bit on the first use, but that is normal, as they are usually coated with a protective layer for storage.

Ive been soldering for about 55 years and am an electronic hobbyist. In the 50s, I had a Weller gun. It looked like a gun, had a trigger like a gun and worked fine on radios and TVs that I worked on. As electronics got smaller and more sensitive to overheating, I switched to a Weller or Unger iron. I think one has since bought the other. These irons and 1/8 tiplets served me very well for many years. The only problem was that the tiplet would eventually break and need replacement. They are threaded but it is impossible to get the old one out unless you drill it out. Too much work so I just bought a new heating element and put in a new tiplet. My tiplet broke and I decided to search the internet. Perhaps someone had by now figured out a way to replace the tiplet without drilling. No luck, but I kept seeing replies that essentially said toss your Unger and get a Hakko soldering station. If youve looked at soldering stations, you will see that prices are all over the place with some too expensive for a simple hobbyist like me. I think you could find something for less but then I dont know if it would be as well rated. So, I purchased this unit. I really dont need precise temperature calibration so I just set the dial in the middle. The reason that I like temperature regulation is that the the iron heats up extremely fast, about 15 seconds to melt solder. Im so old that I cant afford to wait 3 to 5 minutes just to solder one joint. Temperature regulation also ensures that the iron wont cool off if you have several joints to solder. I also like the very small handle and very flexible cord. The smaller handle gives you better control when you have to very accurately position the tip. It wasnt clear which tip the unit came with so I ordered a D16 chisel point separately. I was afraid it would come with a pencil tip which I dont like because its sometimes hard to put enough heat into the joint. It did come with the small chisel tip I prefer so I should have waited to order the extra tip. The two tips will outlast me, Im sure. Lastly, the base unit comes with a sponge and a metal cleaning wire which looks like a cross between a Brillo pad and a wad of metal shavings. This seems to work pretty well. Ive always just used paper napkins to remove excess solder and clean the tip. This is not a perfect process as sometimes solder goes places where you wish it wouldnt. Like, I have a solder-splash shaped tatoo on one foot. The quality of this unit looks very good on the outside. There is an article online which shows how to modify this unit so that the light on front indicates ON as well as Tip Heating. As it is, the light only shows when the tip is heating so one might be concerned about leaving the unit on because there isnt an ON light. I wont make this mod because Im very careful about leaving stuff powered. The point here is that the article gave me a chance to see what the guts of the base unit looked like and it also looks to be of high quality. Soldering is not that hard, but there is a learning curve. I would recommend this unit to beginners as well as experienced solderers because it just makes it more easier to make precision joints where connections are closely spaced and parts are more heat sensitive. If youre just soldering railroad track together, you dont need this. For IC and microprocessor work, this unit will save you time by not having to rework cold or bridged joints.