We just recently got in a new guy who apparently knows a thing or two about soldering, but hasn’t tried one of our irons before. We told him to grab one of our Quick Charge #7700s along with a few other brands of cordless soldering irons, play with them, and see what he thought. We say we make the best cordless soldering iron, but we’re bias. Continue reading below for his complete review, or scroll down for a quick comparison chart.

For more information about the Iso-Tip cordless soldering iron, click here.

Cordless Soldering Irons Compared

“I’ve never messed with a cordless soldering iron before, but I have heard of other people’s experiences with the junky performance of the cordless soldering iron. They always complained about how quickly they run out of power and how they are very bulky or just plain cheap; but does that hold true to every cordless iron? As Joe suggested, I grabbed a few different brands of cordless soldering irons on the market, including ISO-TIP’s Quick Charge #7700 to see what was good and bad for myself.”

ISO-TIP, Weller BP860MP, Master Appliance Micropro BT-30, Radioshack cordless soldering iron

Let’s start with the blue one. This iron was definitely my least favorite soldering iron out of the three. Looks wise, it was okay. In the hand, it felt awkward due to the size and weird shape of the iron. However, it did have some integrated rubber grips on it which made holding it a lot easier.

Ok, so what else can it do? Well it has interchangeable tips, but only 3. If that’s all you need, then great. ISO-TIP has 20 different solder tips to offer for any job or project out there.

On to the maroon iron. It heats up rather quickly. I grabbed a fresh set of batteries, tossed them in, and heated the solder with a cordless soldering iron record of 15 seconds! But our ISO-TIP 7700 melts solder within 10 seconds.

Lastly, $7.99 RadioShack red cordless soldering iron. It is similar to the others, but it heats and disperses solder much better than the previous two. Now what these AA battery operated soldering irons all have in common is that their tips aren’t good for sensitive electronic work. If you start using these on your fragile electronic components, the electricity can surge through the tip and fry all your work. Fortunately, ISO-TIP’s tips are isolated, meaning that our tips will not only keep your electronics safe, but they will heat up faster and more efficiently (due to their ceramic core) than your standard soldering tip.

So are all cordless soldering irons garbage? No. It really depends on the application you are looking to use it with. I would have to say that if you only have 15 bucks to spend on a one time application, and you don’t really care about damaging delicate electronics, then buy a big box of AA batteries and give something like the RadioShack cordless soldering iron a whirl. If you actually use the iron and want it for years to come, and the flexibility of a wide selection of tips is important, try Iso-Tip. They’re professional grade cordless soldering irons that have been an industry leader for 20 years.

For more information about the best cordless soldering iron on the market, click here.