Soldering Iron Thermometer QUICK 191AD Review

19 Sep 2021

I recently bought a QUICK 191AD soldering iron thermometer, here's a 3-minute review : )

This instrument costs about £100 in the UK (a couple of resellers in the UK stock it). It comes with a pack of ten sensors, there is a spring peg to hold it taut. It's a type-K thermocouple basically.

I cannot say it is the most useful tool in the world, I'm unlikely to use it often just to check soldering iron tip temperature. I may get a bit more use out of the tool simply because it has a connector for a normal external thermocouple probe too. One is supplied with the tool.

Functionality is pretty basic; all it does is display the temperature in degrees C (1 degree C granularity) between -13 and 973 degrees C, there is a Fahrenheit button, plus a useful Max-Hold capability, and the power-off time is configurable. The internals show that the design is quite ancient:

There's lots of spray coating on the board, and I couldn't read off any IC part numbers, unfortunately.

The instrument comes with calibration, and it is accurate (I tested with a thermocouple simulator/calibrator tool) across the entire range. My soldering iron was measured by the instrument to within 5 degrees C of the set temperature.

To summarize, the instrument is quite basic, but since it comes with calibration, is accurate, and can be used with an external thermocouple, I think that goes some way toward making the tool more useful.

Thanks for reading!

Top Comments

baldengineer over 3 years ago +1

Thanks for posting the video. Today I learned I have been using my meter wrong. I had been putting pressure on the sensor. For example, basically resting the iron tip on it. I was, at least, already using…

baldengineer over 3 years ago

Thanks for posting the video. Today I learned I have been using my meter wrong. I had been putting pressure on the sensor. For example, basically resting the iron tip on it.

I was, at least, already using a solder drop to make thermal contact.
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shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to rsjawale24

Hi Rushiraj,

That's a much better price!
Actually, even if it were inaccurate, it is worth it just for the mechanical portion alone, because that could be wired up to (say) a multimeter that has thermocouple input. But probably it will be fine as-is, since precise accuracy isn't needed, and besides sometimes it's useful just for comparison purposes (e.g. comparing one iron or tip with another).
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rsjawale24 over 3 years ago

I recently bought a soldering iron thermometer from an online Indian store on sale just for INR 213 ~ 2.86 USD. Waiting for it to arrive. It looks like a rip off version of Hakko FG-100. Not sure about it's accuracy though. Will test it and post a short blog.
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