I'm going to differ with you and a lot of other people echo-ing. Sure, if you know you'll do a lot of soldering, by all means take the expensive iron. But if y

I'm going to differ with you and a lot of other people echo-ing. Sure, if you know you'll do a lot of soldering, by all means take the expensive iron. But if you only need to fix an appliance here and there? Go with the basic one. I've been using the same cheap iron someone gifted me 10 years ago (probably a 30€ one or so), and ... it works. It takes some time to heat up, so I'll just turn it on and go grab a coffee, and it's not super clean or whatnot ... but I fix appliances, I don't care as long as it's fixed. I'm not trying to get good at soldering either. I'm probably bad, but I don't really care. My appliances get fixed regardless. I really only need a basic level that's used once, perhaps twice a year, and for that, the cheap soldering iron is more than enough.