Review on Powerful 25 Watts Soldering Iron: Weller SP25NKUS for Efficient Soldering Tasks by Ben Walls

I only bought this to assemble the PCB kit (Megasquirt) as I didn't have a soldering iron low enough to assemble it. It worked fine for about an hour. I used a tapered tip back then, but soon noticed that the solder wasn't sticking to it anymore. GENERAL! Upon further examining the tip, I found that the entire tip was now black. After that I tried to clean the tip with a brass brush but to no avail. So I blamed myself and switched to a small flat blade, this time taking very good care of my point. It worked fine for a couple of hours until the solder stopped sticking to both sides of the flat blade and only worked on the tip of the blade. Luckily I was able to complete my kit with it. Also, I couldn't help but notice white material-like chalk residue all over the workbench while working on the kit, only to later realize it came from the iron itself. When I opened the iron to check, the rest of the chalk material fell out in chunks. I can only assume it was part of the heating element. Finally, my final disappointment related to the nature of the tips. These are small screw-in tips and I couldn't find a replacement for them locally, so I'm assuming they're proprietary. To be honest I've used them extensively, maybe that's why I've had these premature failures, and I know that a temperature controlled soldering station would be better suited for my particular application. It's just that I have the 40 watt medium duty version and I've never had that much trouble with it, which is why I'm so disappointed. This iron has good points, like a light, comfortable handle, a slightly triangular handle shape that helps it not tip over (you don't even need a stand!), and LED lights, which have helped me a lot since I was working in a dim lighted area. It's cheap so I can't complain too much. I think you get what you pay for. But this is Weller.