Found out my soldering iron tip was actually 50 degrees off from what it said

I stumbled across an old forum thread last night where a guy tested a bunch of station tips with a thermocouple and posted his results. I decided to check my own Hakko station and sure enough, the reading was showing 350 but the tip was barely at 300. After 3 tries with different tips, I found two that were way out of spec. Has anyone else bothered to actually verify their tip temps with a separate meter?

3 comments

3 Comments

max_torres441mo ago

Man that sucks, I totally feel you on wasting time troubleshooting with bad readings.

nancyj111mo ago

Man @max_torres44 I used to just shrug off bad readings and think it was no big deal but after chasing a ghost issue for two days straight I totally get it now. It changes how you look at everything.

tarabell1mo ago

Different take. I actually don't mind a known offset. If your station reads 350 but hits 300, you just add 50 degrees to the dial. Calibrated in your head, works fine. Chasing ghost issues is real, but a consistent offset is predictable. I'd be more worried if the temp was jumping around randomly.