"Zak" wrote in message
...
I had always lived in the belief that a 15W soldering iron ran cooler
than a 35W iron but recently I read something which said they both
run at the same temp.

Depends on size. If you plug in two irons, 30 and 40W, both the same size,
the 40W iron is always going to run hotter. The $10 Radio Shack irons
available around local stores have basically only one difference and that's
the element and tip size. As such, the 40W runs a lot hotter, increasing
tip loss and risk of overheating things. On the other hand, it makes
quick(er) work of soldering heavy wire and desoldering most anything.

Those big 100-300W irons (often used for soldering sheetmetal) are well,
big. They don't need to vaporize the solder, just melt it. The rest of the
power is there to keep the thing at that temperature, and speed up heating
when you suck out heat with some work.

Soldering guns typically run a whole lot hotter, but only if you clamp it
down on max with nothing to melt. Best idea with these is to get good at
clicking the switch on and off to regulate temperature.

Tim

--
Deep Fryer: a very philosophical monk.
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms