Quoted from brad808:A lot of people seem to reference the time it takes for their solder station to heat up (not just in this thread). Am I missing something? Sure it sounds impressive for an iron to heat up in a couple of seconds but does it really matter? People make it sound like they are doing formula 1 style pit stops with PCBs on their bench.
If I'm doing a cap kit my iron is going to be on for a minimum of an hour. If I'm replacing an IC it's going to obviously be less but I'm still going to turn it on and leave it on until the job is done and tested. It's not like I'm flicking it on and off every minute. What's important is that it maintains temperature, the handle doesn't heat up, the handle wire is flexible, etc. I would never avoid a soldering station because it took 20 seconds longer to heat up versus another one.
It does play big part in industrial setting where workers solder all day. Leaving the iron on is the worst thing you can do to the iron tip. If you just leave the iron at the operating temp and let it sit, that drastically reduces the lifespan of the tip hence the company has to replace tips more often. JBC stations heat up in about 4 seconds and cools down to hybernate mode in few seconds. This will save a company alot of money. This is why all the top companies like JBC,Metcal,Pace,Hakko,etc will advertise about short heatup/cooldown time.