Re: Weller PU81 / WS81 - opinions?
I swore I would never buy another Weller after my TCP started blowing fuses. Since I was in the middle of doing something, and couldn't afford to faff around I shoved a higher rated fuse in. That won me a couple of hours - then pop - the fuse went again.
Desperate to continue soldering I put in another, even higher rated fuse. Then smoke came out of the transformer.
It was then I found that the wires inside the cable had crumbled, and were shorting. And because Weller do not have a thermal cutout in the transformer it self destructed with melted windings when the 24V output feeding the iron was shorted. Shockingly poor safety, low temperature rated winding wire insulation, no thermal cutout, and marginal power rating.
Weller pretty much walked away, and even though I sent them photos of the crumbling insulation simply did not want to know. "You should have sent it back to us for repair".
Because I'm a tom fool sometimes I bought a new WTCP about two years ago. Which Weller have since obsoleted. They no longer offer magnastat irons.
Regarding the dead TCP. Because I have something of the animal in me, I took the old burnt out transformer out, cut a rectangular hole in the bottom, and screwed a rather large ex-BBC 4x6.3V transformer I had kicking around on the bottom. I bought a cable to replace the crumbled one and fitted it to the Weller handle. So it is now a blue Weller box screwed on top of a massive transformer, the mains side of which is wired into the fuse holder and IEC socket. But the whole thing is very much a Franken-iron. In spite of its steam punk appearance it course works perfectly.
But given their shocking quality, and dreadful after sales performance, and just to reiterate, I will never, ever buy a Weller product again.
Craig
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