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Customers most agreed on the following attributes:
from naples, fl on 8/1/2008
i dont know why everyone is saying its a bad product, i think it cool. I rarely use it. The bad thing is is that you have to position it right so that it starts to heat up.
from Los Angeles on 7/25/2008
Don't EVER buy anything while watching late night TV! Advertisers know that's when you're most vulnerable. Looked fast and easy when they did it. The tip of mine broke off within minutes. I even purchased a second one. I'm used to nudging the tip slightly with a conventional iron. I was a lot easier on this one, and still it was way too fragile. Unless you're a surgeon, I recommend you go back to old school.
[6 of 6 customers found this review helpful]
from California on 6/2/2008
Alright, I had to sit back and laugh at a large number of these 'reviews'. Especially the one where they waited and waited for the tip to heat up, [*] First off this is a great tool... if you have the base intelligence to use it. If you've been using a standard soldering iron and switch to this thing without reading the directions you are in for a very hard and expensive lesson.First, and let me use large letters for all of you previous reviwers, THE TIP DOES NOT HEAT UP. This is a resistance soldering tool. Electricity is passed through the two tip prongs in to the solder which then melts. The solder will heat up your two connecting ends, not the tool. You don't need to apply strong pressure, just enough to make contact. How many of you have broken your tips? That's because you're use to using archaic soldering tools that have steel tips.The Cold Heat tip is a delicate graphite-like composite. This tool should be used for small projects such as wiring model railroad lights, LED work, repairing wires busted in your blender. Not making seals, plumbing work, or welding cables together. So in short, use your brain! Read up on how this tool works, read the directions, and be gentle. This is a delicate tool for delicate work. Sure you may get a defective one now and again or a tip that's been damaged durning shipping, but I've worked on 90+ projects without my tip breaking and my tool hasn't failed me yet.
[0 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
Whoever designed this came across a neat technology but it is not implemented correctly. In order to solder you must heat the solder and the items you are soldering. This does not and can not do that. It uses an arc to melt the solder but can't heat what you are joining. The result...a cold solder joint that pops right off.
It is obvious to me why this is called ColdHeat. Your solder gets hot, project stays cold.
This item is garbage. It doesn't work.
[0 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
from Prescott Valley, AZ on 5/21/2008
Call me stupid, but I purchased three and could not make any work. For only a few seconds, the tips did get very hot. It did melt the solder but did not heat the wires enough to solder them. Maybe my tiny projects are too big for it.
[1 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
This is a terrible product and should not be purchased by anyone. [...] it broke the tip off within an hour. I went to the local radio shack and purchased a replacement tip and that broke within the hour. I probably could have purchased a nice Weller with the money spent on this piece of turd.
[1 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
Received as a christmas gift last year. Never got it to work, wouldn't heat up, mjuch like any others had experienced. It's still sitting in a drawer.
[0 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
from san jose ca on 4/20/2008
this product is good for minor projects i got this as my first solder and the service at the store was excellent the clerk even showed me how to use it he even gave me a set of batteries for free and told me the pros and cons like you cant smell the fumes and it can break on huge projects and the pros were it can heat fast and cool slowly he touched the tip after using it and it did not burn him recommend for beginners
[2 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
from Sioux City,Ia on 4/10/2008
I wouldn't use this on anything like rc cars, little toys, etc. the voltage that is present on the tips will damage the chips. After a use of this (a very small solder job) the device was malfunctioning like crazy! I had to end up using a Radio Shack 40watt soldering iron, which just a few days later started on fire! this product is a waste of money. This product involves short-circuiting the batteries, which produces heat. The tips have a positive and negative poles sometimes you will have the positive side touching the metal, pushing over 2 volts into your circut. I would recommend 15 watt soldering irons for little jobs and 40+watts for even bigger jobs. Please do not buy this product! or even a Radio Shack soldering iron!
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ColdHeat Soldering Iron doesn't Work!
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[3 of 3 customers found this review helpful]
THIS IS TRASH! MIGHT BE OK FOR SMD,S
IT GETS HOT TO THE TOUCH UNLIKE THE BOX SAYS
DOES NOT HEAT UP EVEN IF YOU GAVE IT 1,000 YEARS TO HEAT UP, BUT IT STIL CAN GIVE A NASTY BURN!
[2 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
This is not a good soldering tool at all, the tip is weak, theres poor heating, takes a long time to heat up, cant really do anything with this one, i dont recommend this product at all, its not worth the money
[3 of 3 customers found this review helpful]
from Senecaville, OH on 2/21/2008
Worked good when I first got it. For some reason it got hot on the inside and it lost the contact with the tip... the whole thing melted on the inside around the tip.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
from Champaign, IL on 2/17/2008
I have been soldering for nearly 30 year and consider myself extremely capable and knowledgeable of the process.I received this item as a Christmas gift; wouldn't have bought one on my own, since I didn't believe it would work. Turns out that I was right. It has never worked from day one! The tip quickly broke after several attempts to heat up a small piece of solder.[...]
[2 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
I bought this item the first week it was for sale, after reading about the designer and manufacturer in a major metro daily paper. With sales through Radio Shack, the company must be laughing all the way to the bank!
The product is frustrating to use, and produces frequent "cold" solder joints. I hold an aerospace-grade soldering certificate, so I know how to solder. This product is NOT a substitute for tried-and-true soldering tools and experience. Spend your money elsewhere!
[2 of 2 customers found this review helpful]
I bought this P.O.S, thinking that it would get the job done. About 10-20 minutes of use, it stopped working. The flashlight would flicker on and off erratically. I tried letting it cool down for a few minutes, and still nothing. I removed the tip, and smelled something that was burning. I don't know if it was supposed to be like that. Anyway, this thing belongs in the trash. Also the on/off switched got messed up. I'll switch it to off, and the light is still on.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
I bought this thing, thinking it would work for soldering deans connectors to rc batteries. This thing never worked from day one. Do not buy this product, I promise you that you will regret it and wish you had bought a REAL Soldering iron...
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
I am a regional field service tech for a major national corp (I cover 4 states). While with modern equipment there isn't very much soldering anymore, however from time to time, I do need to solder a wire or two together. When this first came out, thought it would be perfect. Easy to carry and instant heat, would mean no more clumsy plug in iron, find an outlet, and waiting for iron to heat up. I received 2 for xmas, 1 from my company to all the techs. Well, it makes a great flashlight, but soldering? It has a very hard time trying to melt a bead of thin diameter solder, with new duracell batteries, new tip and any amount of pressure or manuvering. It is just a fad or toy, good luck trying to solder any size joint or wire. Everyone of us at the company had the same issues with it. Most threw them away. I sold mine [...]. Don't buy it. Who said that there's a sucker born every minute? For this thing to be still selling, then that must be true. Total waste of money and shame on major vendors like Radio Shack for still selling this item. [...]
from Mason City, IA on 12/30/2007
I wish I hadn't wasted my time and money on this. I have a hard time getting it to melt even the tinniest bits of solder. The first one I got didn't even turn one, and the second one just didn't have the power to melt solder. Mine is collecting dust somewhere now.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
1st~3rd try was very frustrating. When you
'finally' realize you have to complete an electrical circuit to solder, this thing works great. Remove it from the case & start soldering in 10 seconds. You can do pin head size soldering, & I have. It is delicate & I'm not sure I'd recommend it for heavy use. Probably best suited for small field work in some electronics & modeling. 24~28 guage type wiring. Will work with SolderWick as well. I'd never go above .032 guage solder with this.
[0 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
Great little cordless tool.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
I bought this soldering iron (or what they CALL a soldering iron) for use with soldering components and wires together, on PCB's (resistors, capacitors, IC's, microcontrollers). I could not imagine why the makers were able to successfully market such a thing. The design is horrible. The 'tips' don't contact with the solder often, and you often have to wiggle the coil of solder around in between the tip to get it to contact, and melt the solder. If you push too hard, the delicate tip (which is ridiculously expensive, at least when I bought it) will break. The concept behind it is great, but I can't imagine anyone successfully creating much of anything with this tool, be it an electronic circuit, welding disconnected electrical contacts for, say, sparkplugs in automotive applications, or anything for that matter. I can't believe I wasted my money in it.
Excellent!!!!!Will buy it over and over and over for all my family and friends and anyone and everyone!!!!
from Sierra Vista, AZ on 11/20/2007
My first impression of this device was that it would work good for most things, upon usage I realized that nothing could be farther from the truth. It is not good for work with small electronics, which basically makes it useless for any projects I may have in the near and long-term future.
Another thing to note is it is not good to keep it in the glove compartment of your car, it can, and will, melt.
The learning curve on this product might exasperate the impatient hobbyist. The original tip broke quite easily, but the product does what it says and makes it difficult for you to burn yourself. Excellent for projects that might suffer from excess heat from other irons.
from High Desert, CA on 9/30/2007
This is THE WORST product I have ever owned. Take [$]out of your wallet and feed it to your dog. You'll get better "RESULTS"!!!
The heat is so cold it doesn't melt solder! I played with this thing for an hour and couldn't get it to heat at all. Don't waste your time or your money. Just buy a cheap soldering iron and don't be [*] about burning your fingers.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
from Houston, TX on 9/10/2007
If you are able to use your psychokinetic powers to melt solder, you may have some use for this iron. If not, as its name implys be aware that it produces huge amounts of coldheat. Unfortunately, it takes hot heat to melt solder.It could be used as poor quality flash light. If it has four good batteries keep the batteries and give the Coldheat iron away as a white elephant gift at the next company party.[...]
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
[...]This is the worst. I've been soldering since the age of 8. This thing works as well as rubbing 2 sticks together.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
from Phoenix, Arizona on 8/31/2007
a complete rip-off The replacement tips are half the cost of the Cold Heat nonsoldering iron, and they break extremely easy.
[0 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
from Odessa Texas on 8/25/2007
works great when you are out in the field.
good for minor repairs
the coldheat has a very fast warm up time and melts solder almost instantly, leave it for 10 seconds, and its warm but not harmful. Great for small projects like electronic boards
Just save your money. Even with fresh batteries, the smallest solder recommended and patience it did not create anything more than a few small solder balls, which immediately solidified where you don't want them and could not be remelted.
This iron will not melt any type of solder with out having it placed between the prongs for five minutes, four with fresh duracells. This is not practical for electronic applications, you can occasionally get better results if you heat the solder with a ligter first then try to sustain the heat for a few seconds with the iron, good luck.
Because the Cold Heat soldering tool requires a different technique it may take a little practice to learn to use properly. The tool does exactly what it claims to do and is quickly mastered. This tool is not for all situations but is an excellent device when used properly.
I have used this product extensively for one project. it works great if you make sure you place the whatever you need to solder in between the two teeth of the tip; however, do not twitst or bend because you will break the tip off. It worked great until the tip breaks. The replacement tips are far too expensive to keep buy. The company that makes this item if the intend to keep making they should include a bag full of tips. For this item to take off the manufacturer should not try and make their money in selling the replacement tips. Again if used properly it works great but the tips will break and you will have to buy a new tip if you want to continue to use it. Because the tips are so expensive my cold solder is stored in the garage drawer for antiquity. I am now back to using the conventional device.
The biggest problem with this product is that most users trying to use it like and compare it to a conventional soldering iron. It is'nt one. It uses an entirely different concept to do soldering. Whatever gets in between the split tip is what gets hot. The tip itself does not conduct heat. Being an "old-timer" I still prefer a conventional soldering iron. This unit is also not very rugged.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
This is the worst product out on the market. A true peice of junk. And heaven forbid you need to contact cutomer service at the company that makes it.. they blame YOU for the problem. They don't respond to emails. This thing couldnt melt butter. It takes forever to get anything to solder and by the time you DO get anything done, the batteries are worn out. Dont buy this trash. Save your money and get an electric one!
I have had two of these so far, both of which have shorted out on the first joint. The first became completely useless, and while the second still warmed up, it wasn't enough to melt through a piece of solder. I'm thinking I'll go for something metal next, whether it be battery powered or butane.
Radio Shack should remove it from their stock. Don't buy, it is truly a piece of junk.
Cold heat?, more like cold joint. This has got to be the worst product I have ever purchased.
I knew it was junk 5 minutes after I removed it from the box...Radio Shack should be ashamed to have this in their stores
I got mine with a $10 off coupon. This makes it priced about right for the product. The tip broke and rendered it useless. The tips are overpriced for what you get. It now makes a pretty good flashlight.
JUNK spelled with a capital J. Tips last no time at all and even then very unreliable for soldering.
What a waste of money. The tips are EXTREMELY fragile, and are only good for very light use. Also, it's hard to solder small electronics boards with this thing. I am very disappointed, and I think I could have purchased a better soldering iron for 1/4 of the price. DO NOT BUY!
Simply the WORST soldering iron. DO NOT get fooled by its claims. You'll spend much more money by buying its delicate and SUPER easy to break tips than you would by buying a good iron to begin with. Soldering connections can be really hard to make at times. You'll frustrate yourself with this product. I have 30+ years of soldering, I know a gimmick and this is one!! I gave it one star because I HAD to. It doesn't even deserve that.
Doesn't get hot enough, tip breaks very easily.
JUST WHAT I WANTED! WORKS GREAT ON SMALL ELECTRONIC ITEMS & MOST OF ALL.....CORDLESS & EASY TO MANIPULATE!
For soldering small wires/connections this unit is great. If you need to solder thicker wire, best plug-in your regular soldering iron. I was warned that this unit eats batteries, so I ran NiMh. They worked great.
Having first used this waste-of-plastic too late to return it, I am forced to agree with all the other one-star ratings; mine has every defect mentioned. RadioShack, you should be ashamed selling a sucker-item like this. I would suggest that the (very) few 'high ratings' on this thing were made and paid for by employees of Cold Heat corporation, itself.
Did not like this product. You have to touch the two leads together perfect and the heads break very easy. Also wouldn't recommend touching right after soldering (HOT). I do ,however, like that this product is cordless.
Worst soldering iron not useful at all.
Does not work well. The second time I used this, the tip broke. It is made out of Graphite, and breaks easily. It is not easy to learn how to use it. It is so sensitive to where ou place it.
This device is a total money waster. I bought it because I saw someone else using it perfectly, and was amazed to find out how difficult it is to use. It seems to only work with a specific size of solder that is too small to do anything. The idea of it heating up and cooling instantly is WONDERFUL, but there should be a manual override button to make it heat up, because when doing the soldering I am doing, there is no connector large enough to create a bridge to tell it to heat up, and the second the solder touches it, it begins to cool. You wind up with a thin peice of solder in disconfigured, partially-melted balls of solder on your circuit board. Then, the tip won't heat up, so, unlike with a normal soldering iron, where you can remelt these balls into a flat, propper solder, the balls melt to the silicon board and have to be desoldered or torn off. Plus, the tip's names, whether "Heavy Duty" or "Percision Soldering," are derisory at BEST. The heavy duty tip's strange shape caused solder to get stuck within it, which, of course, is a large problem because the tip will never heat up when you want it to, so you can't get the solder out without breaking the tip. But that's not a problem, because the tip will EASILY break and allow you to remove the solder (but then you still have a broken tip). The percision soldering tip has fragile pointed tips that will always have ONE tip break, and leave you with a tip that is impossible to connect and therefore never heats up for more than half a second. This device fails to solder and doesn't heat up ENOUGH to desolder. I found it more effective to tear the horrid solder balls off of the circuit board with needle nose pliars. This thing is a WONDERFUL idea, and if the tips would be NORMAL and there was a BUTTON to heat it up, rather than it relying on there being a large metal peice for it to conduct through, I would buy it, but since that's not the case: NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE BY ANYONE! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
This device is useless, don't waste your time or money. The tip is so fragil that it will break as soon as you try your first job. That will be its end. I got one and I returned it after 4 days... Although the idea is good, the overall product is really bad. You need to get an standard soldering tool instead. By the way the wire stripper that comes with it broke apart while I was trying to use it the first time. It is a little pice of junk.
A "gadget"- Good to use if AC power not available-If so ,use regular soldering iron-also be gentle-not for the "industrial" jobs!!!If this is the only solding tool you will have,do not buy it alone!!
Absolute garbage, won't heat unless the tip is just right, with full batteries runs out after a session or two.
this thing is junk it does not solder anything i have had 3 now and the tips break and the batters last like 10min. its junk get a cord and a 30watt solder iron. you will be much happer.
One big mistake all the way around. DON'T BUY THIS!!!
Overall it's not too bad. It can be tricky to get it to heat both the PCB surface and the lead you are soldering, or even to heat anything at all. One thing that may help is cleaning the tip by stripping about 1/2" of insulation off a solid wire, and running it slowly (and gently) over the tip to burn off excess flux residue. To increase power I used NiMh batteries. They worked great at first. I could burn the traces off a PCB, and solder melted instantly (more instantly than normal). Small pieces of copper would glow red if placed in the tip for a few seconds. Then I was soldering a large blob (I wanted to make a connection across 3 parallel traces with components in each hole (a grid of 9 holes)) and it took a while to heat up. By the time I was almost done it stopped working. The tip was extremely hot, so I pulled it off with pliers. I saw that the little white plastic part just below the tip (between the contacts) had melted. It would not turn on any more (the white LED wouldn't even come on). NiMh batteries help a lot (if you are careful), but they still don't last very long. After about 10 joints and 4 blobs they seemed to need a charge. (lesson: Don't solder blobs with a Cold Heat.) Unfortunately the tips cost half as much as the tool, and I don't think it is worth it to replace one. Mine is slowly eroding and had a deposit between the halves, but it still works. It is handy to have, but it can't replace a regular soldering iron. I would not recommend this to beginners.
One word description: gimmick. This device broke on me the first time I used it, it wouldn't get hot enough to melt the joint I was attempting. I held it there for 20 seconds and the tip cracked (not even putting pressure ont it). I emailed the company to see if they would send me a new tip; they declined and said the tips aren't under warranty. The tips cost half the price of the device. What a joke; especially in light of how fragile the tips are. I replied to the email stating that whenever given the chance to review this product whether online or in conversation - I would strongly express my opinion of their product, marketing, and customer service. Piece of garbage.
from Dayton, OH on 4/12/2006
I have tried to use mine twice, and neither time would it get hot enough to solder. It's going back to the store today. I hope I can get my $ back or exchange for another type.
-Broke the first time I used it. -uses a lot of battries. -DONT GET IT!!!!!!!
IT IS GREAT! I love it! I do a lot of work with electronics and i have tried a bunch of other soldering tools, but this is, without a doubt, the best one. It is very easy to use and a great deal! Some of the other soldering tools i tried were up to $60. The only bad thing that is that the tips will break if you're not careful. I would recommend this product to any "do-it-yorselfer"!
Tip broke, but my fault. I didn't read the instructions. I enjoyed the process with smaller devices. It was simple and clean. I am a novice when it comes to soldering. Not sure who to recommend this product to.
Horrible, it broke the first time I used it, and at $10 a replacement tip this is a huge waste of money.
[1 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
Cool new tehcnology , but very fragile in implementation.Tip broke first time I used it. A bit of solder had solidified between the tip halves. rendering tip useless. Tried to remove the solder and the tip crumbled. Because of the way the tool generates heat, and the way you must position it to get it to heat, it can't be used for PC boards. It barely will solder fine wires together. Not even sturdy enough for light duty use. Really disapointed. Had hoped to use it for emergency fixes at gigs for my band, but I can't even rely on it to do that. Save your money and buy a butane iron, or the Weller battery iron instead, if you need cordless.
When I first got this, I was a little bit worried because of the reviews I read. I see now that they were right. I needed to get the tip in exactly the right position for the light to turn on. Even when the light came on, it did not always solder. I applied a little bit of force to make a solid connection, and the tip chipped. It is virtually impossible to tin wires like one can with a traditional iron, because both sides of the tip need to make contact. Unusable for PCB or small hobby soldering. My success rate: 5-10%. Although it takes longer to heat up, the traditional iron is much more dependable. The traditional iron is worth the extra money. The ColdHeat iron's tip replacements alone would overbalance the traditional iron's cost.
terrible, just absolutley terrible. buy yourself a soldering gun for $10 more. cools the same and much, much more reliable.
The soldering iron was working fine for about a month but when I took the top covering the tip off, I found the tip's right side had broken off. So I had to throw it away and buy another one.
Very easy to use one you get use to it. Practice with it a few time and you may toss out your old iron. Wish the light was mounted to shine on the working part of the tip.
OMG I hate this thing with a passion. I bought it and the tip was broken on arrival, so I took it back to radioshack and got another tip, tried soldering and that one broke. This thing won't even melt the solder I was using!
I hope '1' means poor. This thing is JUNK! Tip broke the very first time I tried to use it.
[0 of 1 customers found this review helpful]
when doing a test the tip broke off, i took it back and got another one to try, i have never seen a soldering tool so worthless!!
Worst thing I ever bought from radio shack. It's hard to use and when you get used to it it's still doesn't do a good solder job. Also barely touching the tip to project and tip broke, now I got to spend half the price of the whole tool to get a new tip. Needless to say I'm very unhappy with it.
after 5 minutes the tip broken
Well, it's a great idea but, the product stinks. Within 10 minutes of purchasing the unit the tip broke while doing a test solder joint. The tip is way too soft and breaks easily. Also appeared not to generate enough heat for certain joints. Not worth buying until they make some modifications.
I should have read reviews, it immediately split the tip and no useful purpose after trying it!!!
tip is way to delicate
Huge disappointment. The tip is split, and you must make contact with both sides for this to work. However, even when making contact, it's hard to make solid contact as the iron constantly is burning away fragments of it's tip. For the very first solder joint it was ok. After that it was hard to make a good connection. I planned on using this to solder into audio connections, but this iron can't even heat up a small 1/4" plug enough for me to melt solder over the hole. I honestly can't think of one application for this device. It's only useful for very small joints, but the tip is split too far to be able to solder anything small. This device could be greatly improved with a pointed tip, and maybe a button on it to turn on the power.
I think that this is a very good item. I read all of the reviews and am very dissapointed that they were unsatisfied. Although, this item works perfectly for me. Thank you Radioshack. Perfect item for anyone! Buy it dont hesitate.
I read the reviews before I bought this unit and they were mixed. I should have paid attention to only the bad reviews. To sum it up, the unit is worthless. It will not even tin wire much less solder an item. Do not waste your money or time. Stick with the traditional iron.
Total disappointment... first of all, most people have to be really passionate about a product to write a review. I'm certainly no exception. Yes, I believed the TV commercials and thought this would be the perfect soldering iron for light work around the house. Turned out to be a big disappointment to me. First of all the tip doesn't cool down immediately, I got burnt several times with it. As a matter of fact the tip got so hot that it melted the plastic contact spacers that the tips connects to. Now the tip no longer stays attached to the iron. If all of the bugs could get worked out, this would probably be a pretty useful product...
It is a shame i did not read other customers reviews before buying it. It is like the user has to adapt to the way the unit works, turn the tip, avoid semiconductor legs across the sloted tip, etc. What really gets me is that the TV advertisement never tells you about the sloted tip. Do not waste your time and money buying it unless you've never done any soldering before.
This iron is awesome. I don't have to wait for the old corded irons to heat up. Everyone says it isn't worth buying. I decided to give it a try. It works like a charm. Just make sure you read the instructions how to use it. The only problem the tips are expensive.
Wow, if someone had to go into the field and make an emergency solder job, this would definately let them down. Sure its innovative and all, but it is not something a professional would use. It's not even fit for a begginner. Please save your money and buy a trusty and reliable 15 watt grounded one and save the time that you would waste going back and returning it. It doesn't work well at all, my solder jobs turn out with little beads of solder all over the place. It really is not connvenient at all whatsoever.
Not worth the 20 dollers. I already broke to heads because they are so fragile. You have to get the tip just right to get it to heat. Sometimes it is more of a hassle to get it to heat than it is to compleat your work.
total disappointment. i work with audio and visual equipment and was not satistfied with the tool.
Great Idea!!! works fine but is kinda messy to solder with.. Maybe its because its my first time soldering. But other that That it is fine. well worth my $20.
It works well enough for larger-gauge wire. It's great for doing light repairs in the field or on vehicle electrical system. The poor reviews this has received have probably been as a result of trying to use it on fine-gauge wire or on PCBs. It's more suited for electrical/audio/video wiring than electronics. All-in-all, for $20, it's a good addition to any field-repair kit.
Absolutely useless !!!! Will melt solder but wont solder fine wire. Should have known, started on TV Infomercial. Sure glad it was a gift.
The best iron I've ever used, easy to use,fast to heat up and cool down.love it worth the money by far!!!