[G0HZU_JMR]

The old Weller TCP irons are dreadful things in my opinion. Just about everyone at work hated them (handle too fat, distance to tip too long and poor soldering performance) and nobody wanted to save any of them when we threw maybe 150 TCP irons in the skip at work maybe 25 years ago. I think there was some issue to do with ESD or ROHS which meant they couldn't be used and the company bought the WSD81 as a replacement. I already had a couple of TCP irons here at home and soon got tired of the various failures. Sometime the bit gets welded stuck, sometime the internal gubbins fails and I have heard of transformer issues as well. The tips had limited life and there was the annoying click sound from the inside of the handle each time it regulated the temperature. I can still remember hearing the ringing sounds of the iron being put back in the noisy spring holder. My desk at work used to be near the model shop and TCP irons were in use by several operators and I could hear the sound of TCP irons being taken out and put back in the holder all day long. Definitely a Room 101 contender for me...