Hey guys,

What soldering station do you use? I want something GOOD...but still I don't really want to spend thousands of dollars. I am primairly going to do EDC17 stuff and of course sometimes fix bricked ECUs (like de-soldering EDC15 chips and programming them manually due to bad checksum, interrupted programming process etc).

I have very limited experience when it comes to soldering.

Thank you!

Do you suggest that I read books about it first? :-) It's soldering. You learn by doing it...and I need the right tools to do it. I want to buy a good station and forget about it rather than buying 10 different ones with different qualities depending on my skills development

Any good known brands? I definitely need one with hot-air right?

I purchased the hot air station below a couple years ago. It has been working flawless since day one, and I use it 3-4 times a week.
I would purchase spare iron tips, as they do seem to be consumed quickly by cheap solder.

As others said soldering is a skill. Good practice is de-soldering chips off working electronics and then soldering them back on. If they worked after you pass, if not then de-solder and start over.  I had an old PCI network card that I used.

http://www.mcumall.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=4393

i have that one, except its branded as this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-TRONIC-4040-HOT-AIR-REWORK-SOLDERING-IRON-STATION-/180672745995?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a10ef520b