Rob Flinn
Well-known member
When I pick up my 230v one in France Next week I will open up & maybe we could make some comparisions.
Getting ripped off by Hakko.
- Thread starter Rob Flinn
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Retail pricing for international distribution is not always a linear relationship wrt BOM cost, as each country can have unique overhead and supply chain issues. I am not sure if BREXIT is fully sorted out, but I would not automatically expect it to lower cost. It appears that HAKKO is a Japanese company.
Good luck
JR
Good luck
JR
Rob Flinn
Well-known member
Maybe, but I seem to remember when I bought my last one over 10 years ago it was more expensive for a 230v version then.
from a BOM cost perspective it should cost pretty much the same for 120VAC and 240VAC versions. If anything the 50Hz mains frequency will require slightly more iron in the power transformer (maybe 15% larger) but not a huge difference. The big difference if any will be the selling volume into different markets. If UK is treated like a different (smaller) market than the EU that could be a cost/price factor.
JR
The 120V versions are about the same price as the 230V version. I'd guess the the 100V ebay specials are 'grey market'. Meaning they are not supposed to be sold outside Japan. Makes sense because Japan is the only place on 100VAC I know of. I can imagine overhead is much less if they are domestically manufactured.
That's about as much as telling the customer "Don't buy here, unless you've got money to burn".
And I imagine "Time too waste" too...
I can remember the times we had a dozen different plugs for the UK. And one of the oddities that remains today, is the mandatory fuse in the mains plug.
But that shouldn't be worth a 100 UK£, for sure?
That's why some ship without a plug and let the UK importer worry about that. So I wonder who handles that kind of stuff for objects sold on Amazon, eBay...
sahib
Well-known member
I might be wrong but I do not think a manufacturer would ship without a plug. Fitting a plug to an appliance constitutes re-testing for electrical safety.
I do not think this is the problem anyway. Having lived in this country for 36 years now, UK has traditionally been a very expensive and inflated country. This applies to everything. And things have got utterly out of hand in the past five years. I bought Neutrik TRS jack sockets from a US retailer which was cheaper than the price Neutrik UK quoted me for. That included the shipping. Same goes for various other passive components and semiconductors too. But the last straw broke the camel's back was when I bought a round of drinks for my buddies. I got charged £7 for a pint of beer. I told them that was it. If they want a drink they can come to our house.
I do not think this is the problem anyway. Having lived in this country for 36 years now, UK has traditionally been a very expensive and inflated country. This applies to everything. And things have got utterly out of hand in the past five years. I bought Neutrik TRS jack sockets from a US retailer which was cheaper than the price Neutrik UK quoted me for. That included the shipping. Same goes for various other passive components and semiconductors too. But the last straw broke the camel's back was when I bought a round of drinks for my buddies. I got charged £7 for a pint of beer. I told them that was it. If they want a drink they can come to our house.
Manufacturers can mount IEC mains cord sockets that will accept country specific line cords.
It seems not.
Yes, a task typically handled by importers. I don't know about direct sellers.
JR
Rob Flinn
Well-known member
I have been in the U.K 60 years & the mains plugs have always been the same in my lifetime, with the fuse (not really needed nowadays), unless you go in to some old stately home where the wiring was installed in about 1910.
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It was four decades + ago. My first real job. Our tech department had a closet full of different UK plugs and a row of techs soldering them to consumer telco gear. Depending on where they'd be sent in the UK, the mains plug was different... The telco plug was standard for the entire country, IIRC.
IEC wasn't possible back then, because of a telco rule. Mains cable needed to be fixed, not detachable.
Nearly all shipments to African countries were sent without mains plugs or leads, mainly because we didn't know if a buyer in one country would be exporting them again to another African country. It also was a custom in some locations to connect telco gear without a plug, to make it a little bit harder to steal.
dmp
Well-known member
Anyone compare the FR301 to the older 808?
Worth upgrading if I have a well-used 808?
I'd be hoping for an improvement in suction and not having to clean/unjam the thing so often to get it to work
Worth upgrading if I have a well-used 808?
I'd be hoping for an improvement in suction and not having to clean/unjam the thing so often to get it to work
Rob Flinn
Well-known member
I think the FR301 is an improvement over the 808. For one thing is has an on/off switch which comes in handy. It's easier to clean and easier to get to all the bits and pieces. The suction seems about the same but it takes less maintenance to maintain top performance. If the 808 is working fine it's probably not worth upgrading. If it's time for a new one I wouldn't hesitate to get an FR301.
living sounds
Well-known member
Got an FR301 as well. Still on the first tip. Whenever I had it clog up all the time I cleaned the tip with the small cleaner, cleaned the metal pipe between the tip and the glass chamber with the bigger (screwdriver like) tool, cleaned the glass chamber and rubber seals (had to replace one of those already) and, most importantly, replaced the filter. The filter has only limited capacity to take up dirt, once it's filled air won't pass it well enough to create sufficient suction at the tip.
The FR301 is great, only downsides are that it's heavier than a desoldering station's iron and that you are physically closer to the place where the smoke gets released. I wear an FFP2 mask whenever I use the desoldering gun now.
The FR301 is great, only downsides are that it's heavier than a desoldering station's iron and that you are physically closer to the place where the smoke gets released. I wear an FFP2 mask whenever I use the desoldering gun now.
There is also this shop, that's where i got mine:
https://www.batterfly.com/shop/en/hakko-fr-301?search=Hakko FR301
https://www.batterfly.com/shop/en/hakko-fr-301?search=Hakko FR301
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