For years, we are always looking around for a good portable and capable soldering iron that can run with DC power for field work. We tried butane powered irons, good old GOOT 12v models, and early generation USB 5.0 volts models. Other than the GOOT 12v units, most other portable irons are quite lousy. Either too slow to heat up, or cannot maintain the temperatures for effective soldering.
Years ago, we did speak to Makita and Bosch 18v tool sales people in Singapore, and asked if they're going to release any portable soldering irons, but none of them did.
Other tool manufacturers like Ingco and Ryobi did have their own 18v portable irons, but those brands are not popular in Singapore, and we didn't have their battery ecosystem.
In between, there are a few Chinese-made soldering irons with basic temperature control that runs on compatible 18v tool battery, but we thought that its a bit bulky and will likely function the same as our 12v DC Goot models. Most likely another 18v step-down to 12v with basic 20w-40w heater elements.
Fast forward to 2024, we think we found our ideal soldering iron.
The Quecoo T85 runs on PD 65W, PD 18w at a slightly slower heating time, possibly QC3.0 modes but our tests kept saying low voltage alert, and most important of all, it can run on DC 12v-24v over a 5521 barrel DC connector! Plus its not much bigger than a typical test-pen in terms of size.
We modded a 5521 DC cable to run it with our Makita (and Bosch!) 18v tool batteries via a battery sled adaptor, and this is now our ideal portable field soldering iron!
We did some research and apparently there's another Quicko brand. We don't know who copied or cloned who....but for the record, this is not a paid or sponsored video. We produced this piece solely to share info and build our content.
#soldering #diy #makita #bosch #fieldengineer #repair #diyrepairs #tools