First, my bank is very stuffed and the last thing I have room for is extra wired items. This soldering station is quite compact and everything you need is right at your fingertips. Once I figured out the menus and navigation things were pretty easy. I always left my soldering irons on even when I was taking a break because soldering irons usually take 5 minutes to heat up. This iron was hot and ready to melt within 15 seconds, couldn't believe it heats up so quickly, I checked the temperature and it was pretty accurate, only 1.5 degrees. It maintains its temperature very well, so if you're soldering a lot of components, or some with thick wires, it won't cool the tip, meaning you won't have to leave it in contact with your part for as long as it's warm. Detail killer, so the shorter the contact time, the more successful your follow-up work. Many soldering stations are pushed to their limits, making it difficult for them to maintain temperature whether you're soldering or desoldering. This unit seems to heat up with very little effort and stay warm with little to no effort, so it's really not "stressing" the system, which will hopefully keep it running for a long time. The heat gun is something I have very little experience with other than your traditional heat shrink guns. This unit gives off a lot of heat shrink but also has surface mount air conditioning tips and delivers a lot of very hot air into a very small airflow. For the amount and temperature of air that comes out of the heat gun, it's surprisingly comfortable to hold. Fits snugly in my hand and allows me to direct the heat where I need it without soldering everything around it or burning my fingers. Hold on to your work because they draw too much heat from the iron. This iron had no problem providing all the heat they could handle, and fast. The iron also comes with 4 extra attachments for other jobs. If you've ever used those little heat shrink tubes with solder tape inside, you know the iron just ruins them, and the traditional heat gun blows out so much air it's hard to control. The heat gun on this unit, combined with one of the air formers, melted the solder ring and seated the tube flawlessly.