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Nichrome. Nickel-based nichrome wire helix with heat-resistant properties. Such heaters often cover the body, inside which is placed a rod with a sting. The nichrome spiral captivates with its cheapness, high reliability and maintainability. The other side of her coin is a long heating time, coupled with poor adaptability to long-term intensive loads on a regular basis. Some unscrupulous soldering iron manufacturers disguise nichrome heaters as a ceramic tube.
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Ceramic. Ceramic heating rods have a number of advantages over nichrome ones: they reach the set temperature many times faster, have wide limits for power and “degree” heating adjustments, and are distinguished by a long service life with careful attitude. Ceramic heaters are only afraid of bumps and falls, as well as accidental ingress of cold liquid — due to the large temperature difference, ceramics can crack. Keep in mind that soldering irons of dubious origin often have pseudo-ceramic fakes installed as a heating element.
Rated power of the soldering iron; in models with adjustments (see below) — the maximum rated power. The more powerful the tool, the more intense the heat it provides, the better it is for working with large objects, such as soldering thick wires, repairing radiators, etc. However, excess power is just as undesirable as insufficient: a tool that is too “weak” will not achieve normal soldering quality, and a tool that is too “strong” will overheat the parts to be joined and may damage them (not to mention excessive power consumption). Therefore, you need to choose a soldering iron in terms of power, taking into account the work for which it is planned to be used.
So, low-power models up to 10 W are intended mainly for miniature parts and delicate work — like soldering microcircuits. The best option for domestic use is 25 – 35 W; for large elements, you can use more powerful models,
up to 50 W ; these same indicators will suit most radio amateurs. Soldering irons for
50 – 100 W are designed mainly for thick wires, found, for example, in the on-board networks of cars; and high power is typical for a tool designed for large structures: metal containers (pots, buckets, etc.), radiators of the same cars, etc.
A separate case are models for soldering plastic pipes (see "Type"): they give out at least 700 W, and in the most powerful models, the figures can exceed 2 kW. Here, the more powerful the
...tool is, the larger the pipes with which it can work: for example, 700 – 800 W is enough for parts with a diameter of 20 – 25 mm, and for 63 mm pipes it will take no less than the mentioned 2 kW.
Some soldering irons have power controls (see below) that allow you to adjust them to a particular situation and expand the possibilities of application.
Note that high power in itself does not mean a high operating temperature — it only facilitates and accelerates heating.The minimum bar for operating temperature for models with the function of adjusting the "degree" of heating of the executive body. This ranges from a modest 50°C in plastic pipe soldering irons to over 200°C in advanced soldering stations.
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Two power levels. Soldering irons capable of operating at two power settings — reduced and full. Features of such work depend on the type of soldering iron. For example, in contact models of medium power (up to 60 W), the standard mode is usually full power, while reduced power is used for individual delicate work. But in soldering irons for plastic pipes, which have high power, most of the work is carried out at a low intensity, while the “full” tool is turned on only when working with large diameters. For a number of reasons, it makes no sense to use more than two power levels in soldering irons — in particular, it is easier to fine-tune the operating mode by adjusting the temperature.
