Hey everyone,
First off I'd like to say that I've read every soldering iron comparison thread on here - twice. However many are old and the tech has shifted, or they don't address specific things that I'm interested in. This is also a semi-review but what I'd like to get out of this is a comparison by someone who has used both (modern) ERSA and JBC gear. I'm particularly interested in tip wetting and performance of the ERSA.
With that said, I'm gearing up to drop some serious coin on a soldering setup. Or - preferably - my client will agree to it as part of our build-out. I'm currently demoing a JBC system but for the eye-watering price there are a number of things that are not impressing me. I'll get to that, and to why I'm considering ERSA. I've narrowed down to JBC and Ersa, not interested in Metcal or Hakko. I would be open to Weller but there are a few things I'm looking for that they don't have.
This is also an opportunity for anyone interested in this JBC stuff to ask me about it since I've got it all for a period of time.
Here's the stuff I'm demoing:
- 4-tool station
- DR560 desoldering tool + electric desoldering pump
- 245 nitrogen soldering handpiece
- PA120 tweezers
- Nitrogen generator + flow regulator
- PHS-1B IR preheater + PCB holder
The total price for all this is pushing $7k. Not cheap, but I'm at a place where it's becoming a real setback to not have access to these tools. JBC also gives a fairly generous discount if you go back and forth with their sales folks.
The contender ERSA station is this one:
https://www.tequipment.net/Ersa/i-CON-VARIO-4-KIT-4-115v/Desoldering-Equipment/Rework-Stations/Getting to the point, my absolute #1 complaint about the JBC stuff is the tip wetting. I feel like I am now having to devote serious attention to the tips, constantly tinning and wiping and tinning to make sure everything is OK, where as before with my Weller WP80 I never really had to think about it. Give it a wipe and a quick tin and you're good. The JBC tips seem to start oxidizing almost immediately. I did an informal comparison where I wiped the tip on a damp sponge (I have brass also) to fully clean it, let it sit for 10 seconds at temperature, and then tin with solder. Obviously this is not ideal but for test purposes appropriate IMHO. With the Weller this was no problem, the tip takes up solder immediately and it wets very well and spreads across the tip even if it's hot and dry for minutes. With the JBC? It wets a tiny portion and then I have to roll the tip around, poking solder into every little dry spot before it wets fully. And this was
with nitrogen on the JBC! Even if I don't wait, the tip starts to discolor very quickly and generally just give me grief. I've got a 10 year old Weller WD1 with the WP80 iron and it has performed beautifully. I'm not running at insane temperatures either, the test goes the same way whether I'm at 275C or 350C.
This is a real problem because poor tip wetting leads to frustrating soldering especially when you're trying to remove bridges or drag-solder and the solder just doesn't wick back onto the tip. Sure you could tin the hell out of it but then you're just going to create more bridges rather than less. This is my main reason to look into ERSA as I hear their tip quality and wetting ability is second to none. I just can't square the idea of paying so much for tips and having them be anything less than the best. A $4 Weller tip should not outperform a $50 JBC tip in this regard, but it does.
Quick thoughts on the rest of the JBC setup:
- I like the 4-tool station. It's nice, sturdy, lots of setup options, and I like that all the JBC stuff is stackable. Physical buttons would be nice.
- The nitrogen generator rates a solid "meh." Try as I might I did notice any appreciable difference. From the literature I have seen you need to get down to <500ppm of O2 (99.95% purity) to get the benefits of nitrogen soldering, and these nitrogen generators just can't do it at the flowrates necessary for soldering. The generators that
can do it are an order of magnitude more expensive. That leaves one option: high pressure N2 bottles. At 1-2 SLPM a 300 cubic foot bottle will last 70-140 hours, which to me will average a few months of soldering. Not a bad deal IMHO, and the purity is far better than one of these generators. I will say that so far pre-heating makes a
FAR greater difference than the nitrogen in terms of clean drag soldering, eliminating icicles on lead-free stuff, etc...
- The desoldering gun is quite nice. Pretty forceful. Never used a powered one before but I am impressed, it even cleans SMD pads just as well as wick which I wasn't expecting. I had to remove 40 pin headers from 20 PCBs and clearing out the PTHs took <10 seconds for each board. Way better than wick! The pump, on the other hand, is loud and annoying. If you have compressed air definitely get the pneumatic pump as it's less annoying and much more powerful. That's the one I'll pick up if I keep this kit.
- The nitrogen regulator works fine if you can get past paying $500 for a valve and flow meter. This is a perfect DIY candidate.
- The tweezers are good in actual use, but I'm not impressed. The tips on mine required quite a bit of force to insert to the mark, to the point I'm worried about either damaging them ($80 per set!!) or worried about slipping and stabbing myself in the hand. To rotate them you have to unscrew the little grub screw on each and fiddle with them. Very tedious.
There is also no adjustment if they happen to be out of alignment (not in the same plane). The JBC rep says they're about to release updated tweezers which address this.
- The biggest problem with the tweezers is the terrible stand. I'll get a picture later, but the tweezers are held in the stand by a little lip which engages the plastic protrusion on the underside of the tweezers. They then rotate back until the sharp-edged metal on the stand hits the metal shaft on the tips. This mean that if you put any pressure on the top of the tweezers while in the stand, you will force the tips into that metal edge and damage them. They also wobble around in the stand and if you even think about bumping the cable the tweezers will fall out of the stand. I have a cramped desk and I'm knocking the damn things out constantly.
- The IR preheater is something like $1700 with the PCB holder. It's a nice product, but for that price you can get a
Pace PH100 which is much larger, no direct IR, more power, and a better interface. Which is probably what I'll do. Pics of the JBC:
The stand is pretty nice but has a really stupid issue - the little black thumb screws have a hex head, and the stand comes with a little driver for them to tighten them down. On more than half of them the hex head is way too loosely toleranced and the driver just spins. This is such a dumb problem to have for a $1700 preheater. This alone makes me not want it because...seriously? The screws should be figured out.
Functionally the pre-heater is pretty good. Not a huge fan of the direct IR as it's already burned some connectors on the bottom side, and this was with a thermocouple placed on the top (closest to heater) of the connector and covered with kapton. There is one more dealbreaker however, and it's this damn control dongle:
Unlike the JBC tool controllers, this screen is angled straight up. It's matte, and the screen itself is low contrast and has a narrow viewing angle. Which means that the above is mostly what I see when I look at it. A reflection of my bench lighting. Hell nah. The buttons themselves are also pretty mushy, of the "wait did I actually press it?" variety. More like a cheap TV remote than what you'd expect from the buttons on the JBC stations.
As for the ERSA station, here's what I like and don't like vs. the JBC:
- The tweezers seem to be much better designed and more ergonomic.
- The station accepts the 250W handpiece without needing another $1k station as with the JBC. That said I am intensely curious if anyone has ever managed to hit 100% power on even the regular JBC handpiece. I plunked the largest chisel I have into a cold solder pot and swished it around and I barely broke 30%.
- The ERSA nitrogen attachment is cheap, doesn't require a different handpiece, and snaps on easily. It seems to center itself. The JBC on the other hand has this:
The squishy ring goes into the handpiece. This has two side effects. One is that you can no longer pull the iron straight out, you have to pull it back a little bit and then lift it straight up, else the tool rest catches the nozzle and pulls it off. After years of developing muscle memory you will forget this. Constantly. Then you have to fish the hot nozzle out of the stand somehow. Two is that there is no indication that the nozzle is inserted. You just kind of mush it in there and hope it holds, and it's never centered the first time. It's free to wobble around that silicone ring and you have to look at it, push it towards the center, look again, push again from a different side, etc... until the nozzle is centered around the tip.
- I don't like that the ERSA station has an electric desoldering pump with no pneumatic options. I also think the JBC desoldering gun is more ergonomic based on appearances, but without using the ERSA one I can't say. EDIT: The ERSA seems more smartly designed though. The JBC is a "straight through" design. There's the tip, then a glass tube which has a filter on the opposite end and a strip of metal twisted 180° in the center to keep molten solder from the filter. The problem here is that when desoldering large quantities of solder, the solder will build up on the leading edge of that metal strip and block air flow. You then have to remove the tube and bang it on the desk until the metal strip comes out. If it doesn't you need to push the whole thing out of the tube which also results in the filter coming out and rolling away somewhere. The ERSA uses a reversed flow design where the air changes direction inside the solder reservoir. The molten solder just flies back until it hits the silicone stopper, rather than building up and blocking airflow. I doubt from my experience so far that the JBC desoldering gun
can do this without getting clogged.
- It comes with hot air. The JBC hot air looks very nice, but I feel that the ERSA hot air will suit me well for almost anything.
- The tip changing. Let's talk about the much-praised JBC quick change tips for a second. Without building a custom rack, the JBC tip change is a two handed operation. Here's the process right now:
1) Insert the tip into the stand.
2) Hold the stand so it doesn't move while removing the tip.
3) Find another tip and - with your hands, since there's nowhere else to put it, insert it into the iron.
4) Push the tip into the table surface (ESD mat, no worries) to seat it.
5) If you have to change back shortly after, carefully pick up the one you just removed from the stand without burning yourself and set it...somewhere. Repeat.
The dream of one-handed, effortless tip changes remains elusive. The ERSA system honestly seems faster and more convenient. I thought the opposite until I got some real time in on the JBC. The ERSA stand can hold 4 tips easily and securely and you could make a custom holder for 20 of them in an hour.
On the plus side the JBC does have more tip options but frankly it's an academic difference. ERSA has more than enough for any conceivable scenario. I have 10 JBC tips (borrowed from work) and I really only use 2 of them. I will say however that the specialized JBC tip for soldering thru-hole pins is awesome. The tip wetting still sucks but it heats the pin + pad immediately. Very nice for soldering lots of thru-hole components.
If anyone is interested and/or I explained any of this poorly I can make a video going over it.
The JBC system overall is pretty nice and I like it, but there are a lot of little annoyances that frankly should not exist. It's usually unreasonable to demand perfection but this is an insanely expensive system. I believe it's warranted. If anyone has made it this far and has used ERSA stuff I would really love to get your feedback on any of these points!
For those who followed my other PCBA thread - fear not, things are moving along but at a glacial pace.