Side by Side Comparison of: Vastar vs Aven vs American Terminal vs Elenco

First off, until this I have only ever used $10 el cheapo pencil irons you pick up at radio shack or wally world. So I always assumed soldering was just crazy difficult and I had no talent for it. Popped this open, plugged it in, turned it to 375 and magically I was super adequate. I knew the junk irons made things harder than they had to be, but I had no idea just how much harder they made it. Seriously, now I can solder surface mount components like nothing. If you want a great iron and don't wanna plunk down $80 or so, pick this up.

I have suffered for years on odd and end jobs where I needed a soldering iron but not enough to make a huge investment. Consequently, I ended up with cheap "super store" irons and I was always frustrated that I couldn't get my materials hot enough to get a good solder. NOT THE CASE WITH THIS BABY! The tip glows on its highest setting! I used it to solder some heavy gauge wires for an RC Drone battery which use to be pretty much impossible and incredibly frustrating since my old iron couldnt head the lead wire and the brass adapter at the same time. That always lead to weak joints and lots of cussing. This iron is worth every penny. I'm looking for stuff to solder now.

I bought this after misplacing my usual go to iron. Now I am glad I lost it. This heats up substantially faster than my previous soldering iron and the adjustable temperature is a must have feature. Also, the five bits that it comes with are of very high quality. I purchased this with a $5 Elenco soldering iron holder and could not be happier.

Surprising good Solder Iron! I've had a Weller for upwards of 20 years and needed to replace the tips. I was surprised at the cost of the tips (needed 3 new tips). Found the Vastar unit with multiple tips while searching Amazon.Com. After reading the reviews, I decided to give it a try...I've used the Vastar now for 2 weeks. Unit heats quickly, temperature adjustment appears to work properly, unit is lightweight, changing tips is quick and easy (be sure it has cooled down!) and soldering is nice and precise! I highly recommend the unit!FOLLOWUP: I've used the heck out of this Soldering Iron. My original 5 Star Rating stands. Handle gets warm after extended use however, not uncomfortably so. Two important things to keep in mind - 1) Tips must be tinned properly on first use (search internet on "How To") and 2) tighten tip ring before each use as it has a tendency to slightly loosen after repeated heating cycles.Note that I like the Soldering Iron so much, for Christmas 2015, I ordered 2 additional units and gifted them to my Son-in-Law and Brother-in-Law.

It's my first soldering iron, but it seems to get the job done. I've done soldering of wires together, LEDs to wires, etc. Tomorrow I'll be testing it with perfboard, but it hasn't really given me anything to complain about, especially at this price. Included solder works well for what I've used it for.

This is a step up from the "circuit shack" irons available locally. I bought this for the tips and the adjustable temperature. If you crank it up too high, the tip will GLOW!! But anyhow it heats up fast and I had no problem using it for my needed application of the day. Don't hesitate to buy this product. It's good value. (not sure about longevity) but the interchangeable tips are a big plus at this price point. If you keep the tips clean then you should be fine. I bought the ML Tools Soldering Iron Stand holder to go with this. Great match!

First let me note that the one star reviews are correct: if you set the temperature too hot and run it too long, it will melt the housing. The first one I had melted at 400C after about an hour, but the company gave me a refund without asking me to send it back. I've tested it after failure and it can run at 350C for several hours without a compromise, so I bought another one because I can't replace the tips on the first one after the melting incident.The tip gets hot extremely quickly and it does a good job of controlling the temperature if you want it to stay cool, which is a combination you generally have to pay a great deal more for, so despite the fact that the control allows you to melt the iron, I'm still giving it 4 stars. It can't do 400 safely, but even 350 is sufficient for almost anything and as long as you don't turn the knob to 400 it's a great iron.

Just received this product (not for free or a reduced price). Everything appears to be there and intact with no noticeable defects. I sure hope the soldering iron is built better than the spelling on the package. Electical, Transistpr, Condenstor, oslder, somoke, brunt, Arter.... not to mention the incomplete sentences and poor grammar. I guess if it lasts a year and doesn't burn something down I got what I paid for. We will see and I will update the review if necessary.Update: 5/10/2017 - So far this soldering iron has worked well and it still in fine shape. I have used it on multiple projects and it out lasted the Radio Shack soldering iron I purchased in the past. Upgraded to 4 stars.

This is a great little iron, it gets the job done-I have used it everyday while working on a project and it has held up no problem. It is not the hottest iron in the world but for electrical soldering it works great! The only issue I have with it is that the tip unscrews with the change in temp so every time you start you iron up again you have to remember to check it-I would use a wrench to tighten it but the body is light weight and doesn't feel super durable so I don't want to break it or get it stuck

At max temperature this worked great to replace ten capacitors on three computer systems at my office. It took a little getting used to. The included solder doesn't have a rosin core. I bought my own. I used a slightly sharper tip with solder wick. This is the first solder iron I've used that had different tips. It was also the third time I soldered anything in my life, with the first being a capacitor on a monitor power supply and the second being a wire harness for my car stereo. Other wise, I don't really have any strong feelings about this device.

Being a 110V 60W iron, it heats up pretty quick and does a good job. I imagined it to be a lot thicker, and it has slight trouble seating in my spring type soldering iron holder, but oh well. The tips need to be tinned before the first use and after each use. You can watch a YouTube video on that if you are unfamiliar. The extra tips can be attached by unscrewing the previous one out of the metal sleeve (when it cools off) and simply loading the next one in place and screwing it back together. The coil of soldier in the tube that the solder iron comes with resembles a spring and is very thin, but works fine. The dial of the temperature control knob has really small print. Using a magnifying glass, I found that it can go from 200- 450 degrees Celsius.

Great soldering iron for printed circuit board work. I like having temperature control. The temperature control know is much smaller than I expected and you might need glasses to read it.

It's pretty flimsy. Tightening the tip retainer nut doesn't inspire confidence. I can also see why some people seem to have had issues with the body melting apart. Mine showed up with no knob for temp control, just a hole in the body and the potentiometer exposed. I have to use a small phillips screwdriver to adjust it. However, it seems to work pretty well. I had to crank it up pretty high to get it to work with the larger tip I was using. I was soldering crimp-on fork terminals onto 8ga wire. Not a challenge for my other Hakko clone soldering station. The tips also seem to oxidize as soon as you wipe them on a wet sponge, but it works. I'll use it until it falls apart, which I'm sure won't be too long.Update 2-14-2017: The seller contacted me about my less than glowing review and offered to try to make it right with either a full refund or a new iron. I chose the replacement iron. This one came with the adjustment dial and the updated solder tube. It still feels kinda flimsy and the handle gets warm near the plastic nut, but both irons still work fine. I've used the old one for soldering terminals onto fairly heavy wire and it hasn't melted yet. I even tried to crank it up and solder a piece of 16ga zinc with it, a job usually reserved for heavy plumber's irons. It didn't work, and I really didn't expect it to, but it didn't fall apart either. I can't give it 4 stars because it is still just an adequate iron, but for the money, it's well worth the risk.

Ordered this to replace my Weller sp40.60w with all the tips for tiny to medium jobs, I thought.Maybe I expected more, being used to the 40w Weller and the heat holding of the heavy tips, this iron loses heat too quick for making battery packs.I'll just use this for work.

Looks pretty fragile, but it works.

Does exactly what it says. My only complaint is that the temperature adjustment dial is very easy to turn so if you're not careful about how you hold it you'll bump the dial up or down 100 C which can make a big difference in temperature-sensitive components. Would be better if the dial took more force to turn.

The product itself works very well, but the fact that you have to pay extra for the stand is just silly. Unless you have an extra person helping you, it could be difficult and even dangerous to solder alone, especially when you're working with multiple items at once, one of which is a freakin' iron at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. I thought it would come with it standard, but turns out it was something that needed to be added.

The product works fine, just as one would think it to work but i received multiple emails wanting me to leave a review. That was annoying.

When I cranked up the heat to over 400 degrees, the connecting between the medal part and its rubber/plastic sheath melted.

Used one time and the iron MELTED ITSELF, within three minutes at 370... It dropped just inches from me and nearly caused serious injury. Ridiculous! This product is just as bad as those with exploding batteries. Given other recent reviews, they obviously didn't always make the product this way, they must have recently started using cheaper parts. And given the extremely short length of time it took to melt, there is no possible way this design, with these cheaper posts, was properly tested... All at the expense of there customer's safety. Shameful! I will never buy this companies products again. Safety is important to me, just as it's supposed to be important to Vastar.Update: AlizonTech contacted me to offer a refund. They mentioned that that issue I experienced is rare, but can happen in some defective devices. I increased the star rating as some may want to purchase anyhow, with the knowledge that it should be well tested before use... But AlizonTech will work with you if something goes wrong. I'd increase it more if this danger of defect was clearly stated.

Update: They did refund my money. So this broke after my second use. The handle melted off. It would get extremely hot. Clearly it was not insulated at all. I am very disappointed. I've included a picture of what it looks like now. I contacted the seller and they told me they were sorry. They said I must have received a faulty item and they would love to send me a new one. They would not refund me the money. Why would I want the same crappy item a second time? Please read the bad reviews and do not get this item if you will use it more than once and more than 5 minutes. This is not a professional item.

Worked for the firts 10 or fifteen uses, but the iron was left on for about 5 minutes afterwards, and the plastic surrounding the metal melted off, and the tip heated up so much thatit was red hot, completely corroded and unusable.

I bought this soldering iron based on the description - in particular the words "thermostat range 200 °C-450 °C." Unfortunately this unit does not contain a thermostat - the knob merely adjusts the power delivered to the heater. There is no thermostatic control to maintain the tip at a constant temperature - it just just keeps getting hotter and hotter until it reaches thermal equilibrium. It may be a lot to expect for the price, but the word 'thermostat" has a specific meaning and this iron doesn't do it.If you want a good iron that won't lift tracks off a PCB, get a real temperature controlled iron, not this one.

You are really getting what you pay for here. The overall design of this soldering iron feels very cheap. I would not recommend this to most people. If you are planning on soldering only once in a while, this may be a good fit for you, but if you are going to use this more than twice or three times, I would spend the extra few dollars on a higher quality soldering iron.

This is kind of a dangerous product. It melted the first time I used it, just as other reviews are stating. I thought maybe they were being dramatic... but this iron is really bad. It can be turned up to 450C and I was only using it at 350C...

The hot metal barrel melted the plastic that holds the soldering iron together. Now the metal part is loose, sagging and falling out of the handle. It's dangerous. I guess most of the folks were using it at lower temperatures and did not have this problem. Bad design when it melts under it's own heat!

Just used for the first time, one week past the return cut off... I had the iron on the stand while I prepared my next solder joint and the joint where the metal meets the plastic melted and bent the tip out of position. Tried to fix but the heating element broke. Wouldn't recommend.09-29-16 Update: The same day I left the above review, I received an email from the vendor AlizonTech apologizing and wanting to correct the situation. They offered to send another iron free of charge for testing/review or to refund my purchase. I replied either would be fine and they very promptly refunded my purchase which is already back in my account.So one star for product but 5 stars for AlizonTech's customer service! Thank you.

Very nice product for the work I do. I had to buy some extra long thin tips for the LED lamps I have to repair, and so far this product is what I needed. The only reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5, is simply because the handle gets really hot. I have a few other products similar to these, and they do not get as hot when holding it.Update. So after being on the road and using this product for a while I'm seeing why its so cheap. The piece that screws down over the heating element is always falling apart. This is a HUGE annoyance when you're 30' in the air trying to repair LEDs on a video wall....especially when it falls off when you grab it to do a repair and all you hear is clink, clank, click, ting.......ugh. This problem and the handle getting too hot together makes this a very sub par product in my book. The ring doesn't hold this shaft piece in place.Update #2. So I am experiencing the same as others here with the handle melting. I was running it at 350° and this thing is rated for 450°!? Ummmm....nope!

The soldering iron's temperature control doesn't work correctly, I bought this primarily for welding plastic (PLA) which melts at 200C. When this iron is set to 200C it gets hot enough to burn it black. So I think it's just heating up as much as possible despite what the control is set to.This may cause damage in what you are soldering or potentially be dangerous.

Do not buy. This thing is dangerous. The heating element melted the plastic housing and fell apart within 20 minutes of use at the medium setting.