Which Weller Iron?

[arko]

Whooo, nice! Thanks!

But "Including Swiss customs"? How's that?

True that Distrelec prices are quite obscene at times...

[tooki]

tooki, this is indeed a very nice deal! I'm not sure I'm up to that price range tho, now considering the i-Con 1 or nano prices... Hmmmm...

Did you end up buying it? I see the ad for the station has been pulled, so I assume it's been sold.

But "Including Swiss customs"? How's that?

Amazon has a program called Amazon Global, which is basically Amazon handling the customs clearance. When you order, Amazon charges you in advance for customs fees. So by the time the package arrives in Switzerland, it's already cleared customs, so no surprise bills from Post GLS for Fr. 3 in Swiss VAT and Fr. 35 "administrative fees". The total you pay Amazon is the final price, period. And in fact, if Amazon's estimated customs fees end up being higher than the actual fees, then about 2 months later you'll receive a refund for the excess you paid (and if the estimated fees are too low, Amazon eats the difference!!).

In the case of Switzerland, which is not part of the EU, if you order from an EU Amazon (where prices are required to be posted including VAT), then the cart will actually remove VAT on checkout. The screenshot below shows what it looks like on Amazon.de. The cart shows the VAT-inclusive prices for each item, and the subtotal also still includes VAT. But if you click the "Estimate VAT, Postage and Packaging" widget, you'll see that the item cost has dropped (no VAT) and that there's an "Import fees deposit". Even with shipping to Switzerland, the "Estimated Order Total" is usually less than the VAT-inclusive price. (And they're doing free shipping at the moment, making it unambiguously less.)

Here's the critical thing: This applies only to items sold by Amazon itself, NOT third-party sellers!! (I think it may also apply to third-party sellers that use Amazon's fulfillment and billing services. If you see the import fees deposit, then you know you're good.)

[arko]

Thank you tooki, that's very helpful information here! Will sure try that out soon!

Did you end up buying it? I see the ad for the station has been pulled, so I assume it's been sold.

Nope, wasn't me! Someone else took it.

I'm pretty much sold on the i-Con 1 now. And while I'm not in a hurry, it would be certainly too late when it goes out. Still, I'm curious to see the next EEVblog Weller review.

Back to the thread, Dave have you chosen the unit by now?

[Alfons]

Since you're located in Europe, I'd encourage you to take a look at an Ersa i-Con Nano instead (or an i-Con 1 if you mean to add additional hand pieces).

I have to correct, because that is not true. I also thought at first, that you can connect different tools to the I-Con 1 , but it only works the I-Tool. Only the first version of the I-con (I-Con without "1") can deal with different tools. Ersa has changed this later. If you absolutely want to use different tools, you should look out for an old Ersa I-Con (without "1") or get the I-Con 2 immediately. I now have both, the new I-Con 1 and the old I-Con and know the differences.  I'm angry about Ersa because of this strange model policy and had therefore with Ersa a long e-mail traffic.

[tooki]

Interesting, Alfons!

Out of curiosity, could you maybe post pictures of both, including the accessories that came with them?


Arko, if you do indeed want the flexibility to connect other tools, look at the vario version, the i-CON 1V. It supports a large array of tools.

[Alfons]

Here are some pictures. I will maybe open an extra thread with teardown. I find it quite remarkable what Ersa doing.

Pic 1: Left the old Ersa I-Con (without "1") - on the right the new I-Con1.

I hope you can see that:

Pic 2: The connector from the old I-Con is full occupied.
Pic 3: The plug from the new Icon 1 is only partially occupied.
Pic 4: This menu displays the old I-Con, this does not exist in the new I-con1

The old I-Con was significantly more expensive than the new I-Con1. The very first I-Con did not have a sleep mode, that was changed in the second Version (Firmware 2006 vs. Firmware 2007)