Comparison Yihua 878D vs BAKKU BK-878L

— 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.

— 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.

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.

The maximum air consumption of the hot air gun from the soldering station. In other words, this is the volume of air passed by the product per minute of operation. The more air will pass through the nozzle, the more efficient the hair dryer will work.

— 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.