Yep, Tom is right, I remember now why I switched from the weller to the Hakko, the tips on the weller go bad constantly. You should check out the "how to solder" thread that is stickied at the top of this forum it has a ton of great info about irons. It does mention that the TrakPower is indeed a rebadged Hakko. I'm still on the original tip on mine that I bought in 2004 or 2005, and I abuse it according to that writeup.