Review..ish : Velleman VTSS5U

So, I was at Microcenter today, and as I was wandering around looking at the cases, and I happened to remember that I needed a new soldering iron (I may have accidentally ripped the heating element out of my old one.. :whistler: ). ...so I turned around and started looking at the soldering irons instead. :P I love Microcenter. :D

Anyways, so, I was looking at a Weller WES51, thinking something along the lines of "Well yeah, it looks quite nice, but I really don't want to spend that much right now ($130)...what with saving every penny for a downpayment/closing costs...though I will get three paychecks next month and that'll help...anyways, where was I? Oh yes, soldering irons.." ..yeah... Anywhoo, long story short, I looked around a bit, trying to convince myself one way or the other, when I saw something interesting. It was a Velleman VTSS5U. Now, I've never heard of Velleman, so I was a little suspicion of the quality, but it was only $20 and looked to have a similar feature set to the WES51, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

So, here we go, the Velleman VTSS5U.

Obligatory unboxing shots:
The box:

And the stuff inside:

And finally, the assembled product:

Fortunately, despite the picture on the box it did end up being a US-style plug, which is fortunate as I seem to have misplaced my adapter. ...no seriously, I have one around here somewhere...

I haven't really used it yet, just tinned the tip, but so far it is definitely not quite the quality level of a Weller (as expected), but it's much better than the crappy Radio Shack things I've been using up till now.

Some quick stats:
50W
175-480C
analog temperature control
interchangeable bits

The tip has a nice fine point, but solid fine not fragile fine. Here it is compared to my old 45W Radio Shack iron:

So, as far as I can tell at this point, it looks to be well worth the money. Not as nice as the WES51, most likely, but for $110 cheaper, unless you really need professional quality, I think this'll do. ...especially since it's not much more than my old 15/30W Radio Shack iron.

I own the WES51, and it's an amazing iron. The grip is really nice, and the quality it superb.

The Velleman doesn't look to bad, but I don't like the sponge/stand/power supply all in one like that. The Weller has the stand and sponge as a separate base. Also the temp dial doesn't give you any numerical output on the Velleman.

I think if your a bit tight on cash and need a decent iron the Velleman isn't a bad choice. Also, it's hard to justify $130 for a soldering iron sometimes. lol

As for Velleman itself, they make a lot of soldering project kits.
http://www.vellemanusa.com/us/enu/pr...ist/?id=523008
Actually, they make a lot of stuff all together. lol I did a kit when I was in Vo-Tech a few years ago, good stuff.




-CollinstheClown

How the hell do you order from their site? lol

You don't. You can search for distributors here though:
http://www.vellemanusa.com/us/enu/dealer/search/