Hakko FR300-05/P Desoldering Tool

My 808 had a bad heater one day, so I upgraded to the FR300. It hurt to pay about twice as much as the old 808, but I got a few years from it and was spoiled. This sucker is SO much better! Lighter. Quieter. Faster warm up time. Power switch. Easy adjustable temp control. Just a more efficient tool all around. Glad I didn't order the replacement heater for the 808. The upgrade price was worth it. Ordered the 2 larger size tips to go with it. Update - after about 6 weeks of daily use: The unit now powers up, gets hot but does not vacuum. I'm hoping to get a replacement from the seller asap. 2nd update - I sent the unit back to Hakko as sending back to the seller was a big hassle, and Hakko's customer service is 2nd to none. They emailed a UPS return label and after a few days called to let me know there was no charge (repaired under warranty). In the meantime, I breathed some new life into the 808 and bought a new heater from them. Final opinion: whatever the problems are with the pump, Hakko's customer service is the best I have seen in a long time. So refreshing these days!

This tool is well designed and built tough. I tested it non-stop for 45 minutes de-soldering components with varying lead sizes from many different PCBs. Works fast and flawlessly and is easy to clean and maintain. The 1 mm tip is perfect for general purpose use. I bought this tool mainly for working on modern tube amplifiers that use low quality PCBs. When de-soldering, the traces and pads on these boards tend to fall off or disintegrate no matter how careful you are. My testing proved this tool handles these cheep PCBs quickly and accurately.

Although the urge to make a joke about how it totally sucks but that's a good thing crossed my mind, I'm too happy with it to even go there. It solved my biggest issue in recapping older PC Boards-desoldering. I used it non stop for about five hours this evening after it arrived today with zero issues and an ease of use that makes me wonder WTF I didn't get one sooner. I'll never use a solder sucker again!. You should at least be a regular hobbyist or have enough projects lined up to justify the $$$ buy, but the ability to straighten out pins while you remove the solder in one step makes it beyond worth it just in hassle factor alone. Decent weight, great balance and button positioning makes me think pro's will and do use it. Yes the cheap stand/holder is kind of an afterthought, but since the gun is hot full time and what would be the normal trigger position on a soldering iron fires up the suction I can see where it could be easy to forget it's on while laying on its side on your bench and the accidents that would occur. I don't know other desoldering tools out there for half price or less in some cases really compare-I do know there's no excuses on this one, and if you're into any kind of refurbing or restoration work I see no need of spending more. Highest rating

I use this to desolder mechanical keyboards, and it’s an excellent tool if you want to do the job right and not ruin the PCB. I think this tool would be an absolute must for anybody doing any kind of regular desoldering. The unit is really simple and easy to operate. You plug it in, let it heat up, let it melt the solder and then you quickly depress the trigger and suck up the solder. It takes like 5 seconds to desolder a single switch. Know that there’s a slight learning curve to using this on keyboard switches. You DON’T want the iron touching your pads, because if you do it will lift them and ruin the pcb. Simply touch the tip to the solder, give it a second to melt it all, and then pull the trigger. I made the mistake of putting the iron on the copper pads, and they started lifting. Finally, I recommend that you get a slightly bigger head for this if you are desoldering switches. The head that’s included will do the job okay, but doesn’t really fit over the pins all that well. You may have trouble getting all of the solder out of the holes, but a bigger head would help that.