Battery powered soldering pencils

In 1975 or so, when all of my electric drills had cords, not battery packs, I purchased a battery powered soldering pencil. In a nut shell, it sucked:

• Took too long to get hot,
• The tip was hard to keep tinned,
• My finger did not like staying on the power button,
• If I used the switch latch to keep the iron on all the time, it got too hot,
• And, battery technology in 1975 was not quite where it is in 32 years later.
  

In Home Depot the other week, a soldering pencil, battery powered, portable, caught my eye. And, it was a Weller brand. Yes, I remembered 1975 right away. But it was only 15 bucks. Only my 1/2 hammer drill has a cord these days. Why had I waited so long to buy one of these, I thought?

At home, I was too busy to do anything but put the iron on the charger so it was the next day before I got to use it. I needed to solder a couple of 16 gauge wires together in a splice somewhere under the layout. Ah, I thought a perfect opportunity to use the new iron. And it is fully charged. I grabbed it and headed under the table. Boy did I get upset. Remember all of those things I said were wrong in 1975? Well, none of them had been fixed! But there was a difference this time, I took this one back and got my 15 bucks, instead of letting the batteries go to ash and ruin the bottom of my tool box like the last one did!

You'd think someone actually made a battery operated soldering pencil that works properly. Maybe I am just spoiled to my Weller soldering station that works perfectly every time.

Go figure!

Joe