No offense longbow57ca, but let's agree to disagree with your assessment of their soldering irons. Since we're talking soldering stations, I picked the one that's closest to the Hakko FX888D for comparison, the Model V36GL3 60 Watt Industrial Grade Soldering Station. It's basically twice the price of the Hakko FX888D, so you're right about them being expensive. However, IMO, that's where the "right" ends.
The Hakko has a real temperature display that is actually displaying the actual tip temperature. In addition, you have provisions for calibrating the tip temperature when you change tips or handles. The American Beauty has an un-calibrated analog dial and makes this statement in their user's manual.
The proper setting will be application dependent and
determined through trial and error or by measuring tip
temperature using an external device.
Say what? I'm soldering some delicate SMT components to a PCB and I'm supposed to guess at the tip temperature? How about holding the temperature as you work, I don't see any provision to keep the temperature constant while you work with varying heat loads. With the Hakko, you get an instant feedback of the true tip temperature, and you can see if it varies.
Truthfully, I don't see how these two products are anywhere close to equal, and the superior product would clearly be the Hakko soldering station.
