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.

Simply put, I would purchase this station again. There are stations that cost a lot less and some that are in the thousands of dollars. This one is perfect for the user that designs circuit boards and needs the ability to remove or swap out components on prototype boards, specifically those with pad heat sinks. It works as advertised without issues. The display is clear and easy to read. The accessories are just that, accessories. They do not compare to the professional level tools I already own and have no bearing on the station’s performance, but if the station came with professional level tools the price would have to more than double.I could not get the station to convert from C to F and called XTRONIC customer service. Their tech support was only interested in fixing the issues and quickly replaced the original base unit. When the second base unit arrived it would not convert from C to F like the first unit. What happened was that the units shipped with old instructions and the method to convert C to F changed. With the new instructions in hand (email) the second unit worked. My guess is that there was nothing wrong with the first unit. XTRONIC’s customer service is exemplary and when I need to purchase equipment like the 5040-XR3 I am going to see if XTRONIC sells it first.New Instructions:Turn on parts that you want to convert from/to C to F.Press and hold the down arrow for the air gun temperature and the soldering iron temperature for 2 seconds - the display will change to A1Press the down arrow on the soldering ironThen press the up or down arrow on the air gun and you will see the display change from C to F depending on which one you press. Once selected it will save in 3 seconds.This will change the display temperature for all functions that are on when you do this. The hot air gun may not show it while it is in the holder, but it will be changed when you go to use it.

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.