This is the best soldering iron I have ever used. At a previous job I used a nice digital iron and at home I have used a variety of crappy, superheated, tip devouring irons because I had never met this iron.
The speed at which this iron reaches temperature, and holds it no matter how much copper I ask it to heat, blows my mind. Kind of like Crystal Pepsi, cola and clear? How is that possible??
I am in love.

Bah, apparently comments are limited to 500 characters. That's annoying. How can I write a proper review in 500 characters?
Anyway, this is a very nice station. It controls temperature nicely, heats up quickly, and the iron holder is sturdy and includes a handy solder spool holder. It worked very well when I tested it by soldering a 20 pin 0.1" header onto an LCD. It's a huge step up from my solder-burning radioshack iron, and a nice step up from the WLC100s I use at school.

Anyone know a place I can buy tips for this model? Now that its retired here I can't seem to find it or tips for this model anywhere.

OK Bought in April (10 Mos old with maybe 5 total hours of on time) - I now get 5 beeps - the online (pdf) manual does not have the troubleshooting manual - but page 11 is missing.

If anyone can help please do so.

Anyone been able to get the iron to sit in the stand correctly? I haven't... Also been wondering what the metal thing on the side of the stand is for. Other than the iron not sitting in the stand as one would expect (not touching the heatshield) it's a good iron. The sponge it comes with should probably be swapped out for some brass sponge instead but for now I just another thicker sponge in its place.

The best soldering iron i have ever used. It heats up very quickly, maintains it's temperature, and the tip is very durable. The only thing i could think of that is bad about this station is that the provided holder does not match the iron very well. the tip touches the heat shield, causing it too cool down, unless you put a lot of pressure on it, with can cause damage. But other than that, simply amazing.

This is a nice iron. I just hosed my ATMEGA8U2 Breakout by plugging a crappy usb cable into it. The mini connector side damaged a pin on the ATMEGA8U2 board. It would not talk to the computer after that. After cussing a bit and cutting apart the bad USB cable. I decided to "fix" the problem. First thing I did is use the hot air phaser (heat gun) to remove the connector from the ATMEGA8U2 board. Then I carefully used a small pliers (really small) to open up the connector to get at the soft plastic innards. I pulled the damaged pin out and moved the "spare" pin to that location. Then I carefully put the connector back together. Then I used this solder station to connect it back to the board. I am happy to say the operation was successful and there is no recovery period for the device.
Point is that this is decent equipment and combined with other stuff is suitable for surgery of small devices.

Okay, I just got this iron and it has this "heat resistant pad" and I have no idea what to do with it. I have used many irons and have never seen one before. What is it for? Where does it go? Picture?
Does it go under the station?

After all, is it possible to be used with the European power standart (220/50Hz) ? :(

I've used the iron a few times since getting it.
PROS
Heats up insanely fast. As others have said, 10-15 seconds to fully heat. The unit beeps when it reaches the set temp and if you change it while its on, the unit beep again when it cools or heats to the new set temp. Love that feature.
The iron is very skinny and lightweight which I like for maneuverability.
Has a light that flashes when when its heating. Kind of gives you an idea of the thermal load if you will.
CONS
The base case/knob seem a bit cheap as you would probably expect but has caused no issues thus far but I wouldn't travel this away from the bench. Use a fire starter for that.
The unit has made three successive beeps at me in the middle of soldering. It does not heat while doing this but returns to normal after. It wasn't much of an issue until my last use when it did it many times in just a few minutes. Someone indicated this could be connection issues with the tip so I've reinserted it and will see if this helps. Anyone else had this?
Overall a very good iron that is ready almost instantly when needed, as long as it keeps working!

After getting the brass sponge, I seemed to have ruined my first tip. It acts funky and will not wet properly. I have tried tip tinner and multiple sponge cleanings, but no joy. Can you use a Weller Polish Bar on these tips? BTW - could we get PDF manual posted?

I have enjoyed the upgrade to the TOL-00084, but while using it on my underwater robot, it fell off and hit tip first. It seems to have damaged the cable where the tips slide in. Where can I buy a replacement cable? It looks from the images above that the cable should be easy to replace.
Mike

Nice station. Works well. Please post a pdf manual for pre-sales and for those that lost it. :-)

On the website it acually pictures a different iron that goes down to 200C. Am i going to get this one or that one. http://www.aoyue.com/en/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=328

I like this soldering iron because it is temperature controlled.

An update after several months of moderate use (hundreds of hours) at home, by a very experienced (>30 years) user:
The replaceable tips are a good idea, but I have already worn out one -- and they are a lot more expensive than other types. The tips themselves contain the heater and temperature sensor, which is good for response time and accuracy, but really bad when the contacts in the iron get or corroded. I need to clean mine every month or so or the tip just goes cold and the base beeps at me. It's annoying and frustrating. I just bought a Weller WES50 for work, and I'm much happier with it. Even at double the price, I'm buying a Weller when this one dies.
(and re: the brass sponge: personal preference I guess. I have a brass wool sponge right next to the wet one. I find I use the wet one much more, except on really grungy, grody tips.)

Was considering buying the cheaper 50W iron of this type, but it recently went out of stock. Too bad considering I just received my lol shield and my Radio Shack "fire starter" iron just ain't cuttin' it. Is it really worth the extra 40 dollars for this iron, or should I wait for the 50W iron to come back into stock?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

P2-Paul: _The iron doesn't like to seat in the stand well, which is frustrating because it drops in your lap sometimes.

.< Ow. That sounds like a bad day.
P2-Paul: <i>The sponge sucks - buy Digikey part TC205-ND and trim to size, $1.09.</i>
I can't stand sponges - Must be a brass wool pad for me. Order Digikey 0051384099-ND (pad only-need a can) or Stanley Supply 423-404 (Can and pad) - Much better than a sponge! Just stab it with your iron and keep working, no 'wiping' or water required._

Just got one of these for home, put it together this morning to fix up some headphones.
So far I like this iron. It heats up quickly and I did not note any issues with cooling or lack of heat. It is well packaged and assembled cleanly. I'm used to Metcal irons but so far I don't have any issues with this iron.
Being a chinese knockoff I am concerned about long term reliability. If it is still working as well 5 years down the road I'm going to consider it a win. I picked up my order in Boulder and got a quick tour of Sparkfun's facility. I saw multiple of these Aoyue irons and hot air rework stations, all seemed to be actively used.
I like the tip holder and solder reel. Solder feeds over the back and out the bottom front. It feeds cleanly and is easily reeled back in when done. A nice feature and something I wish my Metcal had.

Overall, a good iron, but it's not a Weller. Temperature control and over tip performance is very good. The base is weighty and won't drift around the bench. The stand is too light and does drift around unless you put a solder spool on it (which doesn't work very well to dispense solder though). The iron doesn't like to seat in the stand well, which is frustrating because it drops in your lap sometimes. The sponge sucks - buy Digikey part TC205-ND and trim to size, $1.09.

I just got one of these. The iron heats up and makes a beep, but the temperature light never goes out (it blinks constantly, which is quite annoying). Can anyone comment if this is the normal behaviour? Or maybe I got a bum unit. The manual says the temp. light will go out after the iron has reached the set temp.
Thanks,

this will be my first real soldering iron, i hope it works has well has the comments say it dose, i hope they get it back in stock soon too

This product is brilliant.
I'm 15 years old and have been cursed to the hell of using a Radioshack firestarter for the better part of my life (so far, heh), but I just received this iron in the mail and I would highly recommend it to any other young person who is interested in electronics. It makes soldering fun and productive. It lets you start soldering in under one minute instead of after 15, solder small smd parts with ease, and hack into small control lines on modern electronics solidly. Compared to $10 irons this thing is amazing and well worth the money.

I would echo the other comments - the digital one was out of stock but this ones works extremely well - heats in seconds, with audible feedback, and just works.
I'm not good at soldering, but having a good iron helps a great deal.
But where do I get a replacement LF-2b tip when the original one goes? You have .2 and .1 mm, but sometimes I solder larger things.

Could anyone tell if it accepts 220VAC? The cable seems easy to exchange on the picture, so it should be no problem to plug it in Europe, if it can handle the old continent voltage...

Since I grumbled about another product, I ought to say something nice about a good one. I just finished soldering 16 gauge wires outdoors in the wind, with lead-free solder, and it just went and did it. Got hot fast, and pumped out heat against all that loss.
I'm still getting the hang of a soldering iron that lets me set its temperature; I think I was a little conservative at first, but since I was soldering plain old wires, I just turned it up (450C, should you find yourself in a similar situation). My old (25 years!) iron was a 33W chisel-tip, I had upgraded to a 45W tip, and it was not coping.

Don't hesitate, buy it.
I've used many cheap soldering irons in the past and it was always a hassle. This iron has been a joy to use for the two years I've owned it. I keep it plugged in permanently at my desk so whenever I want to work on something I flip the switch, choose my temperature, and 15 seconds later I am ready to go. No more waiting for those cheap irons to heat up, and the solid base makes feels safer. It also has a place to store my roll of solder.
I wish I would have bought something like this when I started learning electronics, rather than blowing through so many cheap tools.