What is the lifespan of a Radio Shack soldering iron?

[Bill Brasky]

I get about 3-4 hours out of one before it dies.

[+remowilliams]

I've had a 30 watt (i think) one for probably six years now. Just changed the tips every so often.

[EmOneGarand]

I get about 3-4 hours out of one before it dies.

Are you buying the really cheap ones?? The one I have has lasted me several months. I may sound stupid asking this but are you tinning your tip everytime you use it?

[Bill Brasky]

I have one that's switchable between 20-40 watts, so it's not a cheapy. No, I don't tin the tip everytime but I don't tin the tip of my Weller iron everytime either and it always heats up fine.

[Longhorn Engineer]

I seem to go through the radioshack irons every 4-5 months. I got fed up and bought a Weller WP25. So far I am happy.

[Atariman]

So far I've bought 3 Radio Shack soldering irons and haven't had a single one go out on me yet. I'd say that my newest one (that I used to solder 100% of my senior design project) has probably been used for over 4 hours. Of course, I haven't been too hard on it. I think you're only supposed to use them for something like a half-hour at a time (don't remember where I heard that)

[A.J. Franzman]

I've been a garage tinkerer in electronics for something over 25 years now. I'm on my 3rd Radio Shack pencil-style iron now; I think it's a 25 or 30 watt (printing has worn off the label). Prior to this one, the first one I had burned out after some years of use, and I physically destroyed the second one by accident. I may have the heating element from that one stashed somewhere as a spare.

 

I've probably gone through more than a dozen tips though. I find that what eats them up the worst is allowing flux to remain on the tip and turn brown or black. Always keep the tip shiny (tinned) and clean, especially when setting the hot iron down for a while, and it will last longer. Once the tip has been eaten away until it's blunt or deformed beyond useabilbity, I chuck it in a cordless drill (gently so as not to deform the threads) and re-grind it on a bench grinder with the drill running, then immediately tin it. Since the iron plating is gone by this time anyway, a re-ground tip is no worse than it was before grinding, and I get several more hours of use out of it. Note that a re-ground tip will run hotter than the original -- the length controls the temperature by how much heat is lost in the surrounding air. I use re-ground tips on switches, terminals and other larger workpieces that need the extra heat.

 

Besides pencil-type irons, I also use a transformer-style soldering gun on bigger jobs. I have an ancient avocado green Sears Craftsman dual-heat 100 watt (I don't know if that's the low or the high heat setting; probably high) and a newer Weller 140/100 watt. The Weller is the second of this model that I've had; the first had some kind of a serious manufacturing flaw such that when switched on, the tip would glow red hot almost instantly even at the low power setting -- I couldn't even tin the tip because the solder would just burn off, so I returned it. The Weller I have now has a couple of minor problems: the work light presses against the plastic housing and gets hot enough to melt it, and the holes for the screws that hold the tip have stripped out several times and I keep having to put bigger ones in (the core of this iron is solid aluminum rather than copper with iron tips like the Craftsman.)

[Prodos8]

I have a Radio Shack 30W iron from 1998 or so. The tip has never been replaced and is now well worn from the acids in the flux. If I installed a new tip, I figure it'd be like new. It was made in taiwan r.o.c. not the p.r.c. so maybe that's why it's held up so well.

[Shawn]

A Radio Crap Iron I find is good for about 1 to 2 months use at best. As posted above sometimes they can die in a week. Buy the 5 dollar insurace from them and they will replace the Iron free of charge up to 3 times.

[Wilbur McCalmont]

I've had a 30 watt (i think) one for probably six years now. Just changed the tips every so often.

 

 

I had a 3-wire grounded 30 Watt R-Shack iron that was heavily used (went through about 10+ tips) for about 15 years until I accidently burned it's cord.

I replaced it with another one about a year ago. It's typically used when I don't need to use the big bulky temperature-controlled iron that's integrated with a Hot-Air Rework iron. For removing small SMT IC's, cap's, & resistors I use one of those funky tweezer-type irons.

 

I'd recommend that everyone should invest in a good soldering iron holder and a sponge/tip cleaner - they'll extend your iron's lifetime indefinitely. If you work with electronic components (PCB's with IC's on them) as opposed to just electrical wiring you should only use a 3-wire grounded soldering iron - no exceptions.

 

 

I also have an Unger/Weller #7500 Handle with interchangeable 23, 33, & 45-Watt heaters - the 1/4-20 threaded-end allows me to 'easily' make special tips for it ( 20-pin & 32-pin DIPs, LYNX 34-pin cartridge socket... ).

 

My favorite iron was an Unger Princess series unit with interchangeable heaters. That one was small, light and well balanced for SMT work. Unfortunately it was lost/stolen by movers back 1988.

 

 

 

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[supercat]

I get about 3-4 hours out of one before it dies.

 

It may have been a fluke, but I've seen a Radio Shack desoldering iron develop a short between the heater and the tip. Unfortunately, the board being worked upon had a ground connection; some traces were blown off the board, which had to be junked.

[BigO]

Somewhere, I've got a replaceable element version that I've used not so carefully off and on for . . . must be 15 years or more. Have gone through a few tips. I hardly ever use it now that I have a temperature controlled Weller station.

[shadow460]

I've been through four Radio Shack irons in about ten years. The first had to be chucked because it wasn't grounded, and could not be used onboard the ship (has to do with the "no neutral" wiring). The second finally died a couple of months ago when the tip seized in the iron itself. I have the third and fourth ones still, and they work great. One is a 15 watt pencil iron, and the other is their 45 watt desoldering iron that needs a new tip. They heat up enough to work on appliances, but they're gentle enough to work on Ataris, so I'm happy.

[Artlover]

I still have my 40w pencil and 45w desoldering iron that I got back in 1991. I've even left them plugged in for days on more then one occasion over the years.

[Bruce Tomlin]

I don't think I've had a problem with soldering irons buring out. I had one old iron where the tip got really eroded, and I would use a big file to sharpen it, then I got a Weller temperature-controlled iron a couple of years ago. (it's nice to be able to dial it up to 700, and it warms up in about 10-15 seconds)

 

But I've had a couple of Radio Shack de-soldering irons go bad. One had its heater die, and another had the sucker tube clog up. So I took the bulb from one of the bad ones and put it on another I had in my toolbox where the bulb had a hole in it. And if that one dies, I'll see if I can swap the assembly with the sucker tube.

 

But those are the only ones I've had. I ended up with three because I would misplace them sometimes.

[FireTiger]

*smirks* A day longer then the warrenty, a day less then you need it.

[Uzumaki]

I'm on my second iton from Radio Shack. The last one worked for nearly 15 years, I figure about 1,000 total soldering hours before it wouldn't heat up anymore. The second one was new last year and already needs a new tip. I do have a cleaning sponge and it does help a lot.

[Bruce Tomlin]

The second one was new last year and already needs a new tip.

You remembered to tin the tip real good when you first used it, right?

[Almost Rice]

Mine has worked 20+ years.