I provide honest ratings and reviews on tech, toys, and consumer home goods that I've purchased and used. Reviews are based on hands-on testing and personal observations. All opinions and comments are my own.
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Takeaway: Heats up quickly, lots of accessories for a variety soldering projects, easy to use. You'll receive the soldering iron and other accessories in this small tool box. There are two side compartments in the lid, but the door on the left hand side of mine was broken when I received it. There's also a small compartment near the front and a hole for you to lock the tool box up (a lock is not included). Inside in the upper tray you'll find a pair of wire snips, a small screwdriver, a roll of electrical tape, a spool of 0.1mm diameter copper wire and a small box of rosin. Under that section in the main compartment are a set of five additional soldering tips, a roll of de-soldering wick, instruction manual, the soldering iron with a pre-install medium tip, an exacto knife, a de-soldering suction pen, a metal stand, a roll of solder, and two tweezers. The stand requires minimal assembly to attach the iron holder coil to the metal base. There's also a thin sponge that you can use to clean the tip of the iron.
The soldering iron is about the size of a pen and measures 7.5" long. It has a rubberized grip were you hold the iron and is rated for 110V and 60 Watts. At the end of the iron is a dial for adjusting the temperature of the tool tip from 200 to 450 degrees Celsius (for different types of solder). The power cable on the iron is about 4.5 ft long. Changing the tip is pretty straight forward, but you have to be careful not to damage the ceramic core under the tip. Overall, the soldering iron works as well as I expected. Adjusting the temperature is simple and the extra accessories give you a good range for different projects.
Takeaway: Delicious white table wine, easy to follow instructions. Semi-dry profile, light body, fruity nose, and smooth mouth feel. Get everything you need at Amazon (Affiliate Links below): Wine Making Equipment/Kits: https://geni.us/vYsG Home Brew Stirring Spoon: https://geni.us/Fm91P Star San Sanitizer: https://geni.us/ookTbXg Piesporter Wine Kit: https://geni.us/lQPU0b
The kits comes with all the ingredients you'll need to make the wine. They only things you need to provide are the fermentation equipment (e.g., bucket, siphon, airlock, carboy, sanitizer, bottles/corks etc.). This kit contains a bag of white grape juice, bentonite, potasium metabisulphate, potassium sorbate, isinglass, a Lalvin yeast packet (EC-1118), a satchel of dried Elderflowers, a set of instructions and a smaller juice bag for finishing.
The whole process took about 4 weeks and following the directions was super easy. The only problem I had after the first racking was that the elderflower bits jammed my siphon so that the discharge nipple wouldn't close and seal. I had to use tweezers to pull out a dried stem from the nipple. Since I started the fermentation in the winter, I used a few blankets/fleece jackets and temp controlled heating mat to keep the fermentation in the 72-75°F range. The wine cleared up fine after the addition of the isinglass. As I mentioned in the video, I corked my bottles with the Ferrari double-lever corker, but couldn't get them to go in all the way or without tearing (even after a short soak). Perhaps I had a defective unit as my hand corker never gives me this problem (I had misplaced it for this batch). This kit made 29 bottles of wine.
We waited 6 months to crack open the first bottle for dinner. The wine came out excellent, with a semi-dry profile, light body, fruity nose, and smooth mouth feel. It reminds me somewhat of floral Reisling. We serve this wine at our parties and have shared it with friends and family and everyone really enjoys it. I would make this one again. It's been 1 year since bottle and we've got 7 bottles left.
