X-Tronic 8000 Series - 8010-XTS - Dual Soldering Iron Station • ESD Safe • 5 Solder Tips • 6 Temperature Presets • Auto Shut Down Function • Calibration Function • °C/°F Conversion • Sleep Timer

I bought the 8020-XTS system in 2015 mainly because of the hot tweezers. It has worked extremely well for several years, but I started having problems with the tweezers. The connection from the handle to the tip assembly would not stay tight. I contacted X-Tronic's customer support and they got a new set of the tip assembly out to me really quickly at no charge even though the product was a couple of years out of warranty. The new tip assemblies were the wrong size for my particular model, unfortunately, but a quick call to the customer support line and they got the correct ones to me, again, really fast. I felt this was exceptional service not to mention that the product performs well and was very reasonably priced. They also provided an explanation about the failure that was very helpful. It turns out the bakelite nuts that hold the tip assembly to the handle get really hot and can be deformed if they are stressed when in that state. So only tighten them when the tweezers are cool and even then just to the point they are snug to avoid over stressing the threads. Very happy with the product overall.

The soldering station works pretty well. The iron's temperature sets fast to the desired level.There is also a very useful feature: the station has a sleep mode when the iron's temperature is dropped to 100C to avoid overheating.This is done automatically when the station detects the iron not-in-use.Furthermore, the customer support is just incredible. I had a little issue, which made me a bit unhappy about my purchase, and in return, I was contacted by the business owner -- a very nice, intelligent, and caring person, and the level of support was just amazing. The company really cares about their customers, and stand for their products. The best customer support ever. Highly recommended!

Got the station brand new and went to use it for the first time and wasn't getting very good heat transfer. Fine, I just need to swap to a larger tip, went to open it and all the ceramic inside is shattered and powder. No wonder it didn't work. Didn't make it 10 minutes. Now I have to go through the trouble of boxing it all back up and returning it to Amazon. Meanwhile, my 20+ year old Hakko 936 and 907 handle still works like new. I will just get hot tweezers for it.

In a nutshell, I'm extremely happy with my purchase. First and foremost, make sure the unit you get has the factory security seal on the box (my first one didn't). The unit came packed very tightly (to the point I probably won't be able to repack it). The combination of tweezer and iron attracted me to this kit. But so far (after about a month of use), I haven't used the tweezer. But it's nice to have if/when I end up having to do SMD work. The magnifier lamp is a nice touch, but mine has dirt/debris stuck between the two lenses, so while it's not very useful as a magnifier, it works extremely well as a work surface light.I'm not a professional, but I did basic SMD rework (down to 0402 size passives with a stereo microscope) at a prior job. Since it had been a while since I tried to solder anything, I've been picking up solder-it-yourself kits from Amazon and elsewhere to re-hone my skills. I've been using only Radio Shack 62/36/2 rosin core solder from way-back-when; quickly looking it looks like you can still get it from other brands.Pros:- The iron gets hot very quickly.- The included brass sponge and flux works very well and keeps my tip looking like new even if the rest of the iron is tarnished from heat.My issues:- The instructions are written in very broken english. It took some time for me to decipher how to change degrees C to F, and to make other settings changes.- The first few times I used it, the nuts holding the iron together came loose, so I had to get out the pilers to tighten them. I haven't had to do this in a few weeks, so I'm gonna chalk that up to a "break in" period.- The magnifier (in the lamp) is dirty. It looks like there's dirt stuck between two lenses.- The auto sleep function is way too sensitive, and doesn't beep when it activates. So I'll be going through soldering a 32 pin DIP package and won't realize that it's cooling down until solder no longer melts, so I end up going back to reflow everything to make sure I don't have any cold solder joints. I ended up disabling the auto sleep function on mine because of this.- With the solder reel attached to the iron holder, it does not sit flat on my bench.Overall this is a very nice kit for a hobbyist. The issues individually aren't major, but combined I think removing one star from an otherwise great kit is justified. I don't think you'll be disappointed by this.

The iron works fine so far but since the very first use the lamp shuts off after a minute of being on. I discovered that if you tap rather hard on the top of the base it will come back on for another minute or two. Probably a poor solder joint, how IRONIC! Another rip off piece of junk. I do not expect the iron to last much longer either.

I have been using this for about two months.This is the best soldering station I have used so far. The body is strong (not plastic). The design is convenient to change soldering tips. It has good number of helpful accessories. The tip gets hot fast.This still has are a lot more functions (auto-sleep, auto-shutdown). I have been using the default settings except for changing temperature and soldering tips. And I love using this so far.From support standpoint, even the helpdesk is friendly and prompt. I dropped them an email at night and got a response the next day morning. When I called them, I spoke with a person without having to go though a lot of automated messages.He solved my issue within minutes. (I was missing the IC popper and he shipped a replacement immediately.)I am very pleased with the product and their support.

its a very nice set up, I looked at many brands and this one look like what i needed. Love the duel systems, but the best feature is the standby, and you have presets or you can set you temp and the time it will till to go on standby. when you want to wake up up just simply tip the tip of the iron downward and it heats back up. The heat up time is amazing too, 30 to 60 seconds and you are ready to roll. Very glad i got this set.