X-Tronic's • Cutting Edge in Technology • Model 5040-XR3 All-In-One Hot Air Rework & Soldering Iron Station with Preheater. Now Includes Plug & Play Hot Air Gun With Iron Holder & Sponge Cleaner

I am a senior electrical engineering major. I recently accepted a position on the software development side of things - meaning that I would not be able to enjoy soldering at work. Assuming that my hobbies would fall along the hardware side of things, I decided to buy myself a soldering station that I could grow into. I kept noticing the Xtronic products in my search and I read many reviews for the 2015 version of this station "ALL IN ONE" X-TRONIC - MODEL #5040-XTS HOT AIR REWORK SOLDERING IRON STATION & PREHEATING STATION - 4 Hot Air Nozzles - 10 Asst. Solder Tips - Pinpoint Tweezers - IC Popper, Gootwick - FREE 5X Mag Lamp - "THIS IS A USA EXCLUSIVE PRODUCT"! The reviews were excellent, and I noticed that the company replied to any negative reviews rapidly. I decided to take the risk, and I'm glad I did.The assembly did take a while. They do a really efficient job of packaging it, but it's not any harder to do than IKEA. I had one small issue with the screw for the IC plucker being too long, but you can use the tweezers for the same job anyways. I just clipped the screw with a pliers and called it good. Everything else assembled smoothly.I am hoping to complete many projects with this station, but unfortunately, my last semester was filled with bookwork, so there is a shortage of things to solder right now. I did take home a solder-able breadboard and a bundle of wires though. The 100% free replacement warranty only lasts a month, so I made sure to take the advice of another review and run all the attachments to the maximum temperatures for five minutes a couple of times. Everything worked great. The iron itself heats up faster than the expensive Weller units I'm used to and everything holds its temperature really well. The hot air gun smoked much less than I was led to expect the first time I turned it on. I've soldered and de-soldered a good handful of connections with both the gun and iron so far.All in all, I am very satisfied with the station and very ready to sit down and design another large PCB. I did notice that there were a few changes with this re-release. For one, there was some concern about the plastic in the reviews of the older model. This has been addressed. The soldering iron holder is made of solid metal, and I'm pretty sure that I could stand on it with no issues. The iron and hot air gun are the only largely plastic parts, but they seem very high quality. The lamp is still a cheap add-in, but it seems to work just fine. If anything changes, I'll be sure to update the review, but I have faith that this station will take me through many projects.

This is the best unit I've ever used! I've had one issue, and a few days ago I had called in and spoke with someone about problems I was having with my soldering station. I was treated so nicely and told that my Iron element had probably failed from the situation I had described. I was told that shouldn't have happened only being a few months old and that you would send me out a new Iron. I said if you could send me a new element I could install it and I was promptly told NO that is a pain and we will just send a new Iron. I asked if I could purchase some replacement elements in case I had problems in the future so I would have some on hand so I could get going again. Again I was told NO, I will just send you some free of charge! I WAS SHOCKED! This day and age you just don't receive this kind of customer service. My hat is off to you! And I commend you for your integrity and willingness to stand behind your product!Follow up: I received the components as promised quickly and in great condition! I took the new iron plugged it in and presto the unit work as it did when it was new. So I took one of the "FREE ELEMENTS" you had so kindly sent me and repaired my old iron. And guess what it works now too! (and it wasn't to bad to repair and was good practice) So thanks to your great customer service you have a customer for LIFE! And I now have a spare iron, and an extra element should I have any future problems. (I'M HAPPY) I'm sure there are other companies out there that have good customer service, (we try to be one in our business) but these day's they are becoming fewer and farther between. I had tried to go on Amazon and review but for some reason I couldn't find this purchase so I wanted to send you this email to show my appreciation for all you have done. If you want to send a link to this email address to where I can leave that feedback I will watch for it and respond. As well you are welcome to post any part of this email as a testimonial for your product and unimaginable support. From time to time in my business people will call or drop an email and let us know what a great job we're doing. I know how great that feels, so I thought I would take the time to do the same with you.

Let's start with the good.1. The soldering iron, pre-heater, and hot air gun all heat up very quickly and put out more than enough power to do the work I want to do.2. The user interface is very well done.3. The overall station appears to be well made, however I haven't taken it apart to see if the internals are quality.4. Due to the above three comments, the workstation is a joy to use. I used it for at least 6 hours yesterday, assembling a custom circuit board I designed for class, and had zero issues.5. The iron is compatible with Hakko tips, which is what all of my current tips are.Now the bad.1. The accessories are trash, although I haven't tried the soldering iron tips. I don't understand why they even bothered including them.(a) When turned on, the lamp will regularly flicker out.(b) The IC popper is the flimsiest thing I've ever laid my eyes on. I threw it in the trash without a second thought.(c) The tweezers at first glance appear to be quality. You would be wrong in thinking so, as the tips are uneven, making it impossible to use for picking up surface mount components.2. The construction of the guides on the workstation have about a quarter inch of play, which is really irritating when you need them to hold your board securely. I taped them in place, which fixes the issue well enough. The bars that rest on the rails also have a lot of play, you can of course clamp them down, but there should really be a linear bearing between them and the rails.This is still a great product and I recommend it to anyone who plans to be doing hobbyist level circuit board work. If they made the guide rail system less flimsy and didn't include the trash accessories I would be giving this product a five start review.