Hakko FX-888 Soldering Iron

Overview

The Hakko FX-888 comes with a soldering station/base which has a power switch on the side, a dial to set the temperature, a heater indicator LED and a socket to plug in the soldering iron. The soldering iron is a 65W FX-8801 its quite light and has good ergonomics, I find it comfortable to use even over long periods. The stand is also nice, its simple yet functional and includes areas for a cleaning sponge and cleaning wire.

The Hakko FX-888 soldering iron is not the least expensive soldering iron around however I think it is one of the best value soldering irons out there. Soldering irons with a separate station to control temperature are far superior to soldering irons which plug directly into the power outlet. Typically the cheaper soldering irons which plug directly into the wall are only 20W or 30W and whilst they are ok for basic soldering a soldering iron with its own station will allow you to do basic soldering far better and easier but it is also great at doing more difficult soldering tasks.

The reason the soldering irons with a station are far superior is that the station can drive the soldering iron with more power, in the case of the Hakko FX-888 that is 65W. The added power makes a difference, it allows the iron to heat up more quickly and the soldering iron will also have better thermal recovery, that is when the soldering iron is used and heat is transferred to the object being soldered the temperature will not droop so much and the temperature will recover back to the maximum temperature more quickly. The other reason soldering irons with a station are superior is that they have temperature adjustment allowing you to set the temperature for the task at hand.

I have found that the Hakko FX-888 is a very good and robust soldering iron/soldering station. The build quality of all the parts is extremely good and it performs flawlessly.

However there are some small downsides, firstly in some forums people have commented that its difficult to see it the soldering iron is on or off and that they accidentally leave it on. The Hakko FX-888 does not have a power indicator LED. The LED on the front of the station is a heat indicator LED - it lights up red when the iron is heating up.

Secondly the Hakko FX-888 soldering iron only comes with 1 soldering tip and in my opinion the included tip is not very useful. The Hakko FX-888 comes with a T18-B conical pointed tip (pictured top of photo) the disadvantage with this tip is if you are using the very tip of the iron, which you usually do, then there is not a large surface area to transfer the heat to the object being soldered.

Hakko FX-888 Soldering Iron Tips

I much prefer the T18-D style tips which are chisel or flat-blade screwdriver shaped. Due to there flat end they give more surface area to the object being soldered and hence it's easier for heat transfer and hence also easy for soldering.

When I purchased the Hakko FX-888 I purchased 3 additional T18-D style tips, a T18-D12, T18-D16 & T18-D24 which have tips 1.2mm, 1.6mm & 2.4mm wide respectfully. When soldering I choose the correctly sized tip for the task. I choose approximately the same size tip as the object being soldered so generally a smaller tip for surface mount components and a larger tip for through hole components. Note: These tips also work with the newer Hakko FX-888D Soldering Iron.

Hakko FX-888 Soldering Iron Specifications:

Station:

Soldering Iron (Hakko FX-8801):