"X-TRONIC" Model #9020-XTS Hot Air Rework & Soldering Iron Station

Great hot air station for the money. Air heats up very fast and the smart shutdown is great. The diaphragm pump moves just enough air for the hot air gun with the bigger nozzles attached, and it is very quiet. With the smaller nozzles, I have to turn the air down to avoid moving solder/parts. The electronics and programming appear to be great. But the rest of the station is not the greatest.After noticing the pickup tool didn't work for squat, I found out the nozzle was completely clogged with solder. After reading some of the other reviews, it appears there are more than a few people that think a half mm diameter unheated tube that comes with rubber suction cup tips is for sucking up molten solder. Talk about a facepalm. So I have to drop one star just because of receiving a used device with a damaged part.So today I learned a clogged pickup tool nozzle can be cleared with a heat gun, vice grips, and an air compressor. Just be careful you don't let molten solder drip into your heat gun. That could cause a nasty short.Soldering iron:Other reviewers are raving about the warm up time of only 15 seconds. One even likened this soldering iron to a metcal. This is not true of mine. According to the manual, this soldering iron has a 70W supply. It warms up to "regular" soldering temps in approximately 25 seconds, just the same as my 70W Hakko.The big difference is the Xtronic falsely indicates that it reaches set temp in about 15 seconds, well before reality, whereas when the heater indicator on the Hakko turns off, it actually IS at the set temp. The Xtronic indicator will march right on up to 250C, and the heater indicator will start blinking on/off, suggesting that it is carefully maintaining that temperature.... yet it won't melt solder for another 10 seconds? (And that's despite the fact that this is the only soldering station I have ever owned that will melt solder at a reported 140C). So it melts solder at 140C, but not at 250C, until you wait for 10 seconds.Edit: after some tinkering with the station, I have found the read temp is, indeed, accurate (well, aside from the calibration being well off). It's simply the case that the thermocouple reading is up to 10 seconds ahead of the temperature at the tip. This is probably because the tips do not fit snugly over the end of the heater.Still the iron seems to have approximately its rated power. And it works fine for a 70W temp-regulated iron. So this is just a mini rant in response to the increased expectations I had due to other reviews.Now, let's consider the iron wand itself. The iron is an obvious knockoff of Hakko. The wand design is the same down to every detail and dimension... except the materials used and "production value". First off, it's crooked. It's quite noticeable that the metal part of the iron is not parallel with the handle. This is because the threaded metal base is molded into the plastic lock ring crooked by a few degrees. No way to fix this. The molded ridges on the plastic lock ring look crude, like the injection molding machinery isn't working right. There's also no "grippy" overlay on this version, and the plastic is slippery to touch.The sleep function works fine. You must use the stand that it came with, or some other stand largely made of metal. There is a sensor in the iron which I believe detects changes in magnetic field. If no change is detected for the duration of the sleep timer, the iron will go to standby.It's nice that these irons are compatible with Hakko tips. The plug is different, though. You cannot plug a Hakko iron into this station, or vice versa.Iron holder:The iron holder is made of thin, bendy, sheet metal with a rough flat black paint. It appears sturdy enough to do the job, if not dropped too often. I'm actually totally ok with the sheet metal construction... but the holder doesn't hold the iron as nice as it could. The iron wiggles and droops in the stand a little more than I'm used to.Pickup tool:The iron has to be on for the pickup tool to work, even though there is a separate switch for iron and vacuum. I wish you could use the pickup tool without turning the iron on. Also, active use of the pickup tool blocks the hot air. So it has some quirks for usage. The vacuum is very weak, but it seems like it should be strong enough for picking up IC's. It doesn't make much noise, at least.Fume extraction:This is a negative, IMO. The vacuum is just not strong enough to gather much fumes, except when the iron is being held very still and perfectly upright. I almost feel like they should just put the fume extractor in the soldering iron stand. The fume extractor gets in the way of soldering, and it also blocks the tip if you use a bronze wool type of tip cleaner. And it makes the cord bulkier. So to put up with that, it should at least be strong enough to get the majority of fumes.Other:The rubbery smell of this device is awful. FYI, a lot of the smell appears to be coming from the vacuum tubing. This can be replaced with silicone aquarium tubing.The blue/white LCD screen is pretty neat, but it's a bit of a gimmick. It does not show up when viewed at a very oblique angle, particularly when viewed from eye level. You have to view the LCD from above to see it clearly. This doesn't work out if you place the unit on a shelf at or above eye level, for instance. Also, if the LCD gets damaged, you may be out of luck trying to repair it.A lot of this review may seem negative. My gripes with this device are actually relatively minor. The hot air is fantastic.

This unit packs a lot of features into a sub-$200 price. Obviously, you should expect that you'll get what you pay for.Everything was neatly packaged and wrapped. Sadly, upon opening everything, I was disappointed and unimpressed by the quality.The station itself and the heat gun looked good. The solder tip was bent but I was able to correct this by realigning the heating element. The provided sponge is surprisingly small and it does not fill the tray at all.The silicon tubing had white stains, cuts, and scrapes (luckily no holes). The silicon tubing for the suction hose was tied so tightly, for so long, that straightening the line stressed the bent kinks. This caused the tubing to start cracking like a dried rubber band. Luckily, it was only some surface cracking and it is still useable for now. I will likely need to replace all of it.The IC popper was actually rusted inside a sealed bag. It's pretty much useless. The ESD safe tweezers are great and certainly very useful.The lamp is horrendously cheap and unmarked. X-Tronic claims this lamp offers a $39.95 value. That is a grossly over estimated and I would not pay more than $8 for it. The base is scratched up and a little warped (which appears to be caused by removing the plastic from the mold too soon). The 15x detail viewer is literally a plastic lens glued right onto the larger plastic viewer. Obviously, this means the 15x view area is distorted and hazy. The main problem is that this lamp is extremely top-heavy. You will need to spend some time playing with the alignment to get a useful angle while still allowing the lamp to stand on it's own. It provides some decent white light.In general, the appearance was an odd mixture of new and used. Perhaps I paid full price for a refurbished model. I suspect these products are simply manufactured under poor conditions.My included warranty was incomplete and unsigned. I'm not sure how much it matters.Now, according to their official website, X-Tronic is based out of Lincoln, Nebraska, USA (see: [...]). Yet, the warning labels and manual are full of poorly constructed sentences that could only have been authored by non-English speakers. Here are the warning labels directly from the station (spelling, grammar, and formatting copied exactly):"* After shutdown ,the system automatically detect the gun temperature. when the temperature is below the safe value,the station will be automatically cut off the power. So that the gun will keep long life for used and the station will more secure. * Before used,pls take off the station bottom of red screw. Transportation pls put in the red screw.""Before use please pay sttention: please release the bottom red markscrews before use the machine."For the price, I expect these units to be made in cheap foreign factories, such as China. However, the glaring oversights, lack of attention to detail, and bad English leads me question exactly how much of this product is even designed in the USA.After using it for a few weeks, the station works well enough. It heats up quickly. I'm not entirely sure how accurate the temperature reading is though. The fume suction is pretty quiet but it's also extremely weak. It does not provide much assistance with fumes. The very first time I heated up the iron, the chrome plating of the included solder tip started to crack and peel away. This did not happen with all of the tips but clearly another sign of poor quality.The iron holster is nice and heavy. I love the spool rack but I keep finding that it's easier to remove my spool of solder for direct application. It's easy to switch because it's very quick to remove and replace spools. The spindle simply rests on top.The heat gun also works well and provides a decent range in air flow. It is fairly weak, but you do not want high airflow on surface mount components. The nozzles are decent except they have one major flaw. The screw and nut to fasten the nozzle onto the heat gun are welded on very poorly. They will snap right off if you apply any pressure. I noticed that they conveniently hide this fact by the angle of the produce photos. So, don't waste your time trying to tighten the screw. So far, it's been a pretty firm fit without tightening the screw.There seems to be some kind of sensor when to turn off the heat gun when it's placed in it's holster. This is very cool but I can't seem to make sense of it because, unfortunately, it's fairly inconsistent. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.To conclude, it does what it's supposed to do but do not expect a quality product for this price. I do not need to solder regularly and only need it for occasional projects. I'm not sure how long it will last unfortunately because I have to assume that X-Tronic is offering nothing more than a rebranded Chinese product with little concern for quality.