Hakko 936/7 clones: Joho and Madell: What's up with these?

Last time I was at Fry's the real Hakko was only about $25 more, personally I'd just buy the real thing.

I was happily using an ancient Hexacon 1001 ThermOTrac that gave up the ghost - it worked real nice on motherboards. I'm waiting to see if it is worth getting repair at Hexacon but I guess that is going to cost more than its worth.

I guess I'll have to decide if I'm going to find a cheap, used Hexacon

1001 or spend the bucks for a Hakko.

Aoyue (Chinese soldering mfg company) makes Haako clones --

Aoyue clone of the Haako 936-12 .

The Aoyue brand usually being seen on the market. These also appear to be sold under the Sunkko label.

Some places sell the Sunkko with a choice of "Chinese made" or "Hakko" (Japanese made) ceramic heaters (a difference of $19 dollars) !

Circuit Specialists was selling a 936-12 clone (CSI-Station1), but I see that this has been replaced by a different base design "A" (CSI-Station1A)

gb

I forgot to mention that Madell Tech is also selling a Hakko 936 clone station

gb

I bought a couple Atten units that are identical to the Hakko. The have worked fine. The tips interchange precisely. I suspect that they all use the same OEM.

Leonard