Is the Weller WES51 (120V 60Hz 60W) safe to use?

[MenhirMike]

I bought a new Weller WES51 soldering station in July 2012, used it a few times, but then had to postpone the electronics hobby until now. But then I saw the teardown of Dave's non-primary-fused 120V Weller Iron, and Derek's teardown of the 120V WES51 which apparently has no fuse on the secondary side either.

So now I'm worried if I should actually keep using it, or throw it out and get a new one? I am located in the USA, so 120V/60Hz power here, but I don't want to risk burning down the house.

[Hemi345]

I wouldn't throw it out. Looks like it's easy enough to open it up and add a fuse to it with no soldering required:

[martin1454]

Instead of throwing it out - Ship it to me 

Anyway, just add a fuse, it ain't hard, and if you like your iron, it is a good way to feel safe with it.

[Electro Detective]

Worth doing no doubt, unless you want to believe that Weller is so-o-o confident that yours will never become toast for any reason,
with anti-Murphy properties embedded in the windings   

Mine is an older model and recently added primary and secondary fuses, after determining the correct operating and surge fault values at both ends

If you don't get the fuse values and blow type right, it's a waste of time and money, because you'll either have nuisance fuse blows,

or the transformer will cook n crackle nicely to protect the fuse


or you can post it to martin1454 and let him take the risk while you beg borrow n busk,
and beg and borrow some more, for another quality unfused soldering station... 

i.e. nothing wrong with Weller stuff, as with some other brands they drop the baton near the finishing line sometimes

and we have to solder in a simple 'update/upgrade'   



 

[MenhirMike]

Thank you all!

I'm not comfortable with working on anything mains-related, as I'm just starting out and sticking to the 0-12V range (Would be kinda ironic though, starting a fire/getting shocked to death while trying to add a safety mechanism to prevent a fire/fatal shock).

I ended up ordering a FX888D as it seems to be the go-to entry level station to get, and comes with a chisel tip already.

Not sure what to do with the WES51, is someone lives in the NC Triangle you can pick it up , otherwise I'll just let it sit in the same box it's been sitting for the past few years and kick that can down the road.

[Electro Detective]

Don't let us scare you off mate   

The Weller is fine to use as is, no getting zapped potential mods necessary,
just don't leave it on unattended,
and that rule applies to a lot of gear including power supplies, portable fan heaters, and cheapie mains powered and 12 volt hand held soldering irons etc.

My pre-jurassic Weller ran for ages just fine without any fusing before I recently modded it to a sane fused state, so it's one thing less to think about on the repair bench
especially since Weller and other companies apparently don't want to think about such 'trivial' matters... 
 
and it won't hurt to have a dust accumulating backup for the FX888D, or run with both units on a task requiring different tips etc 

Cheers