A lot depends upon personal preference and technique, Russell. It's a bit like airbrushes- what one person loves, someone else may hate. It also depends upon what you want to do with it. Electronics, such as RC boards? Soldering PE parts and similar hobby uses? Soldering white metal figures? So you'll need to know what your temperature requirements are. Finding 70°C or 100°C stations (ie for "cold" soldering white metal, etc) that will also go up to 450°C (silver solders for jewellery, brass loco' bodies, etc) is near impossible and very bloody expensive.
In my experience (former electronics technician) you could trust nearly anything by Hakko and Weller, but they're relatively expensive. They're also over-kill if you want to solder PE parts, a 40W "handyman iron" with a 4mm chisel tip from your local hardware will do the job nicely. If it's for white metal things become complicated and dangerous. It's not just about melting the figure if the temperature is too high, low melt solders are extremely toxic if used wrongly.
Cheers.
Dal.
PS Jim got in first.
