Weller GmbH & Co. Betriebs-KG

We own a soldering iron that's at least 50 years old and it still works.👍

The kink protection on my Weller soldering station broke after many years. After I had an uncomplicated contact with service support, a complete replacement soldering iron was sent to me free of charge as a gesture of goodwill. Very customer friendly and accommodating.

"Lasts a lifetime" was once a given. The WHA 3000V stopped working after 10 months. The heating element was defective. No warranty or guarantee. We had to order and replace the heating element ourselves. One of our desoldering stations also failed within a year. Again, no warranty. That's not acceptable for these prices.

"Made in Mexico" is the motto. Instead of solid German craftsmanship, you get the PU 81 with a housing reminiscent of early Chinese imitations and absolutely inferior mold construction. I've known Weller for over 30 years, and the quality is definitely not the same. Instead of solid stations, they now offer "innovative" products that are more about image than practical judgment. Overall, this company, like so many others, is eroding its core range of good, useful products under a lot of business administration and no practical experience. This is as symptomatic as the state of German industry in general. They should return to "Made in Germany" production, in that good old device-making quality, with screwed housings so that a plant technician can still repair it themselves. Circuit diagrams should also be included, as befits solid manufacturers who want to be fair to their professional customers.

Today I discovered my grandfather's soldering iron in the basement