Dear Mr Thomsen,

We apologise that you have experienced these quality issues and that we have not met our own high standards. The MX-5000 does carry a 5 year warranty and if you provide us with contact details and the nature of
the problem by e-mail to Europe-Orders@okinternational.com, we will arrange collection and replacement of the goods.

In general, if a fault is reported "out of the box" or within the first 2 weeks of ownership, we will dispatch a replacement immediately and provide a Return Goods Authorisation Number for the faulty goods to returned against. It may be that the goods need to be returned via your local vendor, but this should not delay the supply of a replacement.

When it works it is excellent. BUT the first PS-5000 I received was DOA. And now the second PS-5000 has stopped too. No power to the LCD - still no info on the website about these problems. Impossible to fix myself due to "warranty void" stickers. It sucks to be without this tool for weeks again and again.

I have 2 Metcal stations, one is about 20 years old and still performing fine, the latest is the MX5010, I also have this hooked up to a Metcal Talon. This latest model is off the scale for performance, I regularly prototype with QFN packages, soldering by hand, the results look same as an IR oven job. An amazing workstation

My company bougth me a metcal 5000,I talked to someone on the phone about what kind of tips should we order for this product,but they keep asking me whaths the series number,all it said there is Metcal 5000, I dony see any series number anywhere,so making this story short, I keep havin problems with this unit burning the tips,one a day, I would like to know if there is an specialist who got the knowledge in this product and can help me.
Thanks.
Maria M

System performs ok WHEN it works, but not better than others I have tried (Pace is the best desoldering on the market today). Tips are super expensive and I had several DOA desolder tips as well as other soldering tips that just stopped working after 2 weeks. You need to improve reliability.

I am a Certified IPC Trainer who teaches hand soldering to the
Space Addendum Standard (IPC-J-STD-001DS).

My Metcal MX 5010 is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-PURpzGna4
Go to 6:57 thru 7:13
Watch the drag soldering in the video. I will put this Metcal up against anything on this planet. Nothing out performs the 5010, NOTHING !

I am a Certified IPC Trainer who teaches hand soldering to the Space Addendum Standard (IPC-J-STD-001DS).

My Metcal MX 5010 is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-PURpzGna4
Go to 6:57 thru 7:13
Watch the drag soldering in the video. I will put this Metcal up against anything on this planet. Nothing out performs the 5010, NOTHING !

Does the unit have internal vacuum pump?
what are the specs of the pump vacuum
(the site is really incomplete-- no contact - very basic details-- MUST improve. A simple picture of the back of the unit could maybe answer my question)

There is no technical support information on this website. It is a very poorly designed website. I think the product is very well designed. I wish I didn't have to navigate through another website just to get customer service help. Please make a link or fix the website to make it more user-friendly, useful, and productive.

Want to buy MX 5051, please send contact details.

Regards

In response to the above comment, thank you for your feedback.
We are in the process of adding the MX-5000 User Manual to the site. In addition, a contact page for Metcal locations worldwide will also be available very soon.

No contact info on web page
No product user manual
I had to contact my distributor to get a telephone number.
Who ever design this web page should not be paid

I bought the 5041 for hobby purposes expecting it to be a bit of a folly. To my surprise the machine has pretty much earned itself back in a couple of weeks due to the number of repairs I could effortlessly do with it. Ordering this machine without having seen it in real life was a leap of faith - now I can report I have no regrets at all :-)

I didn't give full rating because I find the tweezers to have too much play in the joint to be practical for the smaller SMD components. I'm a hobbyist so I have few qualms with modding the tweezers myself, professional users may want to evaluate the tweezers before buying though.

In response to the ESD post above, please refer to the attached link that verify's that all OK International soldering & desoldering products meet all of the relevant EOS/ESD specifications. The doccument also includes results from the ESDA third party testing we participated in this past year as well as guidelines for verifying the data with your own tests.

http://www.metcal.com/images/EOS%20ESD%20Technical%20Note%202009.pdf

I hope this helps

Just this week our manager has decided to remove our soldering stations from many if not all of our work areas. What seems to have happened is that we do not have a procedure in place to test the metcals for ESD safety. Thought you may want to call the business and talk to Pete Tuchel, Shop manager of the Seattle Rockwell avionics service center in Kent WA.

Too bad the rating scale tops out at 5 stars, this system rates higher! This is the system the Big Boys use. Check out workbenches at NASA or any major military or aerospace contractor and this is what you'll find. There are two switches-Power and handpiece select. Nothing else is required as the unit self-regulates the tip temperature to the perfect level to flow solder evenly for a perfect joint every time! Recovery time between joints is instantaneous, and there's never a worry of damage to sensitive printed circuitboards. This soldering iron defines idiot-proof (as long as you keep the tip out of your eye!) Simply the best.