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Another interesting comparison. What really stood out for me was that the 60/40 lead solder was the only one that consistently flowed right into the pad corners, when you did the pin header soldering test. I have been using lead-free 305 for the last year or so, but as a hobbyist maker, my next roll is going to be back to 63/37 RMA core leaded solder (probably Aim), as you just can’t beat it!
There's SO MUCH lead in those things tho... and if you're careful you notice this stuff spraying everywhere, and as a hobbyist I don't have a the luxury of a seperate set of devices or room for my soldering :\ so I stick to lead free
@@ameliabuns4058 What you see spraying everywhere is the flux, not lead. For the flux fumes I use an extractor fan with carbon filter. I've since gone back to good quality AIM 63/37 RMA, mainly because my last reel of lead-free has now doubled in price, so buying another reel was getting out of my hobbiest budget. The RMA core 63/37 is working quite nicely, although I was also quite happy with the performance of my previuous Felder ISO-Core Clear.
@@DigicoolThings tbh tho let’s face is. Non of us are doctors lol. That’s what makes it so hard. But my friend who’s a nurse scared the hell out of me. And appearantly not all lead even shows up in a blood test But at least if you’re older it’s less of a concern? I’m 25 so I’m not that old and kinda young
@@ameliabuns4058 You do make a very good point. Better to be safe than sorry. In reality, I would have stuck with my non-leaded solder, if it was more affordable. Perhaps even more dangerous is the leaded solder paste I use for SMD work! Maybe I'll re-think on my next re-stock. 🤔
I've used SAC405 for about 25 years. The inflation adjusted silver price has roughly tripled in the past 20 years, and is now about £0.50 per g (although it was as high as 3x that in the early 2010s). At that price, the extra 1% in a 500g reel of SAC405 (vs. SAC305) should cost the manufacturer an extra £2.50. Silver (used as a charge carrier) makes up about 5 to 10% of the cost of PV modules.
The foggy joints you saw with the SAC305 might be caused by contamination from the leaded solder. Recently when I tried switching from leaded 63/37 solder to a lead free (SnCuNi) alloy - I found that I couldn't get a good (shiny) surface finish unless I used a tip and brass cleaning brush which had never been used with leaded solder. Before realizing that all my solder joints looked foggy like yours, after replacing the contaminated soldering parts the joints all had mirror finishes. I think the lead might not alloy well with some of these lead free compositions.
I thought the same thing, as it’s more in keeping with normal folk. And how fast the surface oxidizes might have a bigger impact on our soldering. I will just stock up on multicore 60/40 before CPC stop selling it.
Not in this case, but it is supposed to be the same flux in all of the reels. I did notice the Sc100e made more smoke though, possibly from the higher temperature. Prior to this test I would have agreed, but the most recent lead solders I bought also smell terrible. I suspect the flux formulations changed as none of them behave or smell like the classic old rosin core solder, even if they are supposed to be rosin based.
@@sdgelectronics I have no idea yet - I have to source some first. Prob wont get to it until next week, but I'll let you know what I find and how ti compares price wise.
I like my 60/40 solder. It's a shame they are making it hard for us to get! The SAC405 looks pretty good. The Sc100e doesn't look bad at all. I don't like the idea of having to run it at such a high temp. Though. Some of the older PCB'S don't handle Heat that great! I like the comment I read down below. It would be interesting to see some stress tests done👍
Here in Australia it's not hard at all. You can buy leaded solder no problems. Must be a European (and US?) thing. Then again most leaded solder I do buy is American brands...
If I could have one request it's to try soldering through hole components that isn't golden and/or already oxidised. To see how the solder flows under less ideal conditions. And I'm curious about the choice of the nitrogen station. Wasn't your opinion that nigrogen didn't make any difference?
I must have missed your vid with a 'Nitrogen backed' solder station I will check it out but It would be nice if you did your tests with standard equipment as well, like do the results differ if your PCB has HASLE instead of Gold ? and and does the N2 make any difference ? if not then all its good for is protecting the tip ? It's interesting to see as most of us only have years of visual data to say whether a joint is good or not, and to be honest for an electronics enthusiast like me it's about what you like and nothing more, but this is useful data for our mid scale manufacturers out there...cheers.
The exact metal contents of the Sc100e would be interesting (not even sure what the Sc is supposed to mean). I've been using Sn100NiGe for many years now and it's hand down the best solder I've ever used, the NiGe content is even said to actually protect your tips (and indeed I didn't have to replace a single one yet). I don't get the high temperatures, casual soldering I'm doing at 320°C, for larger heatsinks I'm bumping it up to 350°C and never had a problem with those levels. The formula of flux seems not great since even at just 2.2% the amount of flux seems quite excessive and part of the weird looking solder results before cleaning since the flux is sputtering and bubbling all over the map creating a bad looking surface and dullness which doesn't look very favourable for SolderKing products to be honest.
One thing to keep in mind is that pure tin, or close to it, will develop tin pest under 13C, so if it needs to be outdoors don't use the ones that are close to pure tin as those solder connections will become dust in a few months time; germanium makes it worse since it accelerates the process.
Good video Steve. Would be good to see some vibration stress tests on the different solders through hole and SMD? Either an accelerated life test or some sort of fatigue style test that you can perform at home.
I love the comments sections to any video about lead free solder. You get a massive amount of "airplanes don't allow LF because of tin whiskers, my mostly 2.54mm pitch arduino LED blinking projects demands mil-spec construction so I'll never touch that LF garbage!!", "I bought the cheapest LF solder I could find from China off ebay and it was awful with my cut off nail jammed in a wood burning iron that I use as a soldering iron.. LF is crap" and so on. Love it or hate it we aren't suddenly going to go back to using formulations that consist 40% of a potent neurotoxin. BTW: I don't think you can get it in wire form but for prototyping where you need to swap components out the low temp bismuth solder pastes are useful. The melting point is low enough that it isn't hard to get components back off the board even if they have many pins. The downside is that the melting point is low enough that components on the other side of the board can fall off :D
I really don't believe the 60/40 is that bad for you unless you eat it. I'm pretty sure none of us is eating it! I'm sticking with my 60 40. I don't really like the L.F. crap!👍
@@ronniepirtlejr2606 Great, you aren't eating it. That isn't the point. The problems are with manufacturing massive amounts of solder with a potent neurotoxin in it, using that to manufacture products that then end up in the ground or getting heated up by kids to recycle the components and metals. And that still isn't the point: Industry doesn't use leaded solder anymore, all of the finishes on components are LF. If you want to use modern components you should have learned how to work with LF 10+ years ago.
The problems are at end of life, when products end up in landfill (where acidic conditions cause the lead to leach into the groundwater), or incineration. That having been said, there are still plenty of lead sources we need to tackle e.g. the UK has a 'voluntary' ban on lead shot for hunting. I.e. defacto no ban at all. Leaded petrol (gasoline) is also still used by internal combustion engine planes.
I've giving up discussing with fanatics about the use of leaded solder; let them being stuck in the past with inferior formulas developped decades ago until they try to do some serious work with pre-tinned RoHS components (like BGA) and notice that lead-free and leaded solder doesn't often mix well. 🤷♂ The only legit place for leaded-solder is in the repair of ancient devices...
I haven't tried lead-free solder in a few years. I live in the US and it seems like I can still buy it, albeit more expensive. I repair and sometimes build vacuum tube amplifiers and I just didn't have great results with lead-free. Maybe I'll try it again to see if it's improved for my intents and purposes, since it's been a while.
I only have a small sample size, but I have the same experience. The only major thing is the soldering temperature is a little higher, but thats it. The "risk" of buying cheaper solder comes down to how evenly distributed the flux is. I had trouble with cheap solder that was included, where some parts are ok to solder, but other parts don't even give up smoke, due to the lack of flux. And that problem you have with and without lead.
Well that and the alloy itself being impure. Minuscule amounts of contaminants in the metal (i.e. trace metals that shouldn’t be there) can cause huge differences in performance.
Have not seen much about tin whiskers forming on joints and causing shorts over time with led free. I expect as long as they don't form in the first 12 months and affect the warranty manufactures will not worry too much. I think for the hobbyist whose projects will not need to last a long time and be subjected to heat and vibration cycles will not notice the difference. As my tips cost £25+ each i'll stick with 60/40
@Mr Guru Tin Whiskers is a lead free problem! It did not occur much with leaded solder. When lead was removed from the solder, the tin would form little whisker like spikes and cause shorts at the solder joints. This is why there were extensions granted that allowed the Military/ Aerospace/ Medical sectors to continue to use leaded solder for longer. But now lead free solder is even claimed to be safe for them to use and all extensions have expired. Having worked in the avionics and medical sectors during this time i was well aware of the new issues imposed by the transition to lead free. Only time will tell if the issues have gone away.
Call me crazy but the unleaded stuff looks like it would be impossible to find a cold joint. Especially on something with alot of solder on the legs like a giant choke. You said it at the end as I was typing. You're right that it's all in the brand. When I was new I used cheap solder all the time but now I use quality brands so I won't be worried about buying lead free from a good brand. Thanks for the video. Great information.
@Mr Guru I never thought of that. It's a like a revelation for me haha. I only use leadfree if I'm doing something for a friend with kids. Normal people don't get that there's more benefits to leaded. In my experience anyway. Thanks for that info brother.
I often have a problem with lead free solder when prototyping. If I want to change an IC or resistor with hot air on a lead free soldered footprint it doesn't behave well (spikes bridges etc). No amount of flux will make it flow nice again.. It would be interesting if there is a lead free type solder designed to be better "reflowable", or maybe a special flux ??
It's the same for me. Most lead free alloys I tested work great, no problems, when first soldering a part. But if you want to change something, especially when using an iron and not hot air on a component connected to a ground fill it's really really bad. You basically have to stay on the joint forever to get the solder flowing, even when just a few seconds passed after initially soldering the part because the joint didn't turn out that well and you wanna fix it. Flux helps a bit, yes, but even than it's slow compared to a leaded alloy with no flux and lower tip temperature as well which flows a fraction of a second after the tip touches it. And lead free rapidly eats your tip compared to leaded from my experience. I don't want to say that lead free is completely bad and crap, but for prototyping there should be better alloys that behave more like leaded.
Temperature plus flux should fix that. Whilst the IMC is formed through an irreversible change at molecule level, that is a tiny fraction compared to the rest of the solder on the pad, so no real reason why you couldn't just keep reviving the same piece of solder over and over again.
I use SAC305 from Chipquik the SMDSWLF .031 mostly because of the good noclean and water washable synthetic flux that they use. It is fairly expensive but is just significantly better for me than the others I tested.
These seem to be a lot easier to work with than many I've tried in the past. I think the flux plays the main part in that though, it was also extremely easy to clean off which is a bonus.
I will never use lead-free solder. Glad they still sell it in USA. I should pick up a lifetime supply before that changes. Cardas Quad Eutectic has been a good investment. :)
i've been using sac305 for a while and i don't miss leaded tin. it works equally good,, at least for macro soldering. i'm not yet into micro or smd soldering so i couldn't say much about it. but for now, i love my hirosaki m705 (sac305) for audio equipment stuff. but one thing for sure, the sac305 is much better when you're soldering near heat-sensitive stuff like headphones driver terminals which is very close to thin plastic diaphgram membrane. it cools down so quick i no longer have anxiety when dealing with situation like this anymore. surprisingly, it melts similar like leaded tin. so i just couldn't find the downsides of using sac305 against old school 63-37 tin. it cost alot more, nearly quadruple of common quality leaded tin price but it's worth it.
Thank you for this analysis. I live in the US and protested LF many years ago. Even my contemporaries high up in the IEEE "food chain" complained to no avail. Would you happen to have any anecdotal stories on how lead free reduced contamination of food supplies or something similar? The EE Times (years ago) didn't offer any reasonable explanation on the actual harm they were potentially avoiding.
I doubt that there are any. Back when RoHS was designed and enacted, e-waste contained TONS of lead - but practically all of it was in the lead glass of CRTs! By the time RoHS actually went into effect, nobody was buying CRTs anymore. IMHO, eliminating lead solder was pointless, in particular given that lead bullets introduce huge amounts of lead into the environment, and in many places are not banned yet! With that said, I don’t find lead free to be THAT hard to work with.
First your previous video with all those Lead-Based Solder is Actually very very important and interesting. Thanks for the video but the word on the street is already out ...Lead free solder ...Sucks! Also to notice is that using a 350C temperature on your iron is actually Dangerous for the most common IC's and components we use every day ... 380C definitively is dangerous territory for most electronic components.
I know there are gallium alloys that have really low melting temps (melts in your hand), why doesn't there exist a lead free soldering alloy with a similarly low melting temp?
I'd like to see a more expansive comparison of lead free solders. I'm looking at an online shop here and I'm seeing so many different options: Sn96 Ag4 F-SW32 Sn95,5 Ag 3,8 Cu0,7 Sn95,8 Ag3,5 Cu0,7 Sn100Ni+ | Sn99 3CuNiGe Sn99 Cu1 F-SW32 Sn42 Bi57 Ag1 Sn99,3 Cu0,7, Ni0,5 etc. etc. etc. There seem to be so many different mixes by different brands.
I think the use of a nitrogen soldering iron invalidates all of these results for the average person (unless proven otherwise) because almost no one has a nitrogen soldering iron.
Want to say the " look" on the SAC solders I would have called dry...years of inspecting solder joints would have rejected on appearance In summary solders ( at higher temp) fine but looks like its a dry joint
The issue with lead free solder is tin whiskers. The lead prevents the growth of tin whiskers. All of the the solders you used have significant whisker growth after about 4000 hours. The best lead free solder with lowest whisker growth is Tin Bismuth 80/20 (likely because Bismuth is simular to lead) However since we live in a throw-away electronics age. Consumers are willing to put up with short lifecycle electronics. For instance most people replace a smart phone, computer, TV, etc every 2 to 3 years. The only way to address tin whiskers with lead free solder is to use a comformal plastic coating over all of the soldered joints. But this renders repair nearly impossible.
Sorry dont agree the Tin/Bismuth will be extremely brittle and easily shocked to fail. Conformal coating will make little difference to Whiskers. Tin whiskering was only ever prevalent on Pure Tin finished PCBs so not so much of an issue anymore as most are annealed prior to relieve the stress. Also Cobalt Solders are Patented and should only be used with the relevant License and more importantly Cobalt is on the SVHC list Substance of Very High Concern in any volume accordng to ECHA
@@gregoryyork2669 Unfortunately Tin whiskers is a big problem with all of the lead free solders. There are lots of papers on the topic. I very much doubt that companies mass producing products take the time & expense to properly anneal PCBs. Conformal coatings do not 100% prevent tin whiskers but the reduce the problem and slow the growth of whiskers that begin to grow.
@@guytech7310 I think you maybe getitng confused with Electromigration whiskers. Tin whiskers are only ever found in Pure Tin applications and thankfully there arent many PCB's out there using this process anymore. Annealing is a process of the PCB manufacturing stages while applying the Tin solution via Acid solutions. Conformal Coating wont affect Tin whisker growth as it is a stress growth issue and this growth is radically reduced by additions of elements of say Copper or Silver added to the solder. No one is using Pure Tin for solders as a final finished solder within electronics.
@@gregoryyork2669 Look it up "Tin Whiskers Lead free solder" You finds lots and lots of hits about it. The PB-free solder alloys all have tin whisker problems. Lots of white papers on the topic
Scientist talked allot of rubbish and produced lots of reports in The early days of Lead Free and scared everyone to death. Then Realised once pure tin was annealed Tin whiskers disappeared. Not once in 30 years of producing Flux, solder and Paste have I seen Tin Whiskering due to the Solder alloy. This is why most Professional user are now using EnIg finishes not Pure Tin.
Huh, my MG Chemicals one never flows well, it strings a ton (instead of creating a round blob) and always needs a ton of flux to work OK. it's the #4925. it was expensive as heck, but ti was 454g lol more than i'll use in a lifetime. it also. doens't stick to anything, the iron or the pads (Although lowering my temps helped with that)
380c ... holy crap. Most of the soldering I do is on delicate boards. At these high temperatures the copper traces and pads are more likely to come of. To make it worse the Pb-free solder have poor wetting taking about twice the time compared to Pb-based. Harder to clean and more corrosive flux is also common with Pb-free. IMHO, the single most important factor when using a conventional soldering iron for electronics work, is a _clean_ tinned tip with a mirror finish. And this is made more difficult with bad wetting properties, higher temperature and more corrosive flux. Which in turn makes it .... its bad. A bad combination of properties that self-amplify. Oh... almost forgot; the flux in most Pb-free solder have a very short shelf life. Short as in probably past best before date when you receive it. Unless ordering from mouser, farnell, RS etc. Thank you for testing some different lead free variants. I wont be wasting my time on trying Pb-free any time soon. Now I know. Pb-free is the Red Queen and good old 63/37 is the mad hatter.
I don’t think the speed as such matters (63/37 will solidify equally quickly: they’re eutectic). But SAC305 has significantly more shrinkage than 63/37 or SN100C, and that probably contributes to the icky surface, and probably would have stress as you say.
I didn't get around to reviewing the fake Hakko soldering iron, but I suspect this is just an issue with the soldering iron and poor thermal behaviour.
@@sdgelectronics It's a genuine hakko 888, so probably the non directly heated tips and the lack of heat capacity. Always end up pushing it to 700-725f (mostly use lead free 305)
Is it hard to get leaded solder in the UK these days? I am from the US and it's still common, just about any electronics or hardware store that would carry soldering equipment has leaded solder, as do just about all online stores, I think it's even more common than lead-free. Yeah, if you are mass-producing then you are required to use lead-free, but anyone from home doing repairs, building something on their own, or even hand-producing small quantities of something can go get leaded solder anywhere. At least at the time of this comment. Wasn't aware it was flat out banned in most cases in other countries like that.
@@sdgelectronics I just bought some directly from Amazon UK, next day delivery on Prime. Of course it claimed to be "lead free", but given it was designated 63/37, I was pretty sure it was the good old stuff (and it is).
The 60/40 leaded solder alloy will never compete with any lead free alloy as it has a plastic range. The 63/37 tin/lead alloy is a two state alloy in that it is either liquid or solid. That is the key to leaded solder alloys as to their superiority to their lead free alloy competitors. There will be changes as time goes on but it is also a matter of the flux core the solder alloys use. The RMA flux cored leaded solders with the 63/37 tin/lead alloy yield the best appearance as well as are able to handle G forces, mechanical and physical stresses as well as thermal inversions under DOD STD 2000-1 and the new J STD 006 Level 3 which are equivalent standards. These are common in military contract work. The trend is over to lead free. I haven’t the knowledge of lead free alloys and which are approved for the highest demand work like the military contract work, but possibly there are those out there doing this work who can speak with authority on this. I would like to know what are the approved solders as I want to learn to use lead free as well as the tried and true leaded ones we used while I was working in avionics.
Good thing you can still get proper lead solder from China 😊 Those lead free ones is a no go for any repairs as it will burn the pcb and delaminate the traces. Also it is a short lifetime product because of the tin wiskers that WILL short out over a few years, it looks really crusty from the first second it cools down. And the lead free also doesn't wet half as good. As long as you use recommended temperature for lead it is safer than the lead free just from the fumes. Will NEVER go for lead free for repair unless it gets improved a lot!
Leaded solder is pretty easy to get here in the States, considering we don't care about the developing IQ of poor children, as we only started phasing out leaded avgas very recently. Harbor Freight sells a pound for $20.
Of course, solderability is just one side of the coin and I appreciate this is what you were demonstrating in this video. Brittle joints and tin whiskers is another. One has to ask the question: Is the inevitable increase in electronic waste landfill (here, or more commonly in 3rd world countries) complete with all the other toxins as people's gizmos fail earlier a sensible trade-off for removing lead? How much lead contribution does electronic waste make to ground water pollution, given rainwater runs along millions of feet of lead flashing before entering the rivers every time it rains. I can't help thinking this is another EU-inspired cure that's worse than the disease.
You should do a further test and include Kester K100LD. It looks to behave like 60/40. Here is some information: www.amtest.bg/products/Kester/Flux/K100LD_brochure.pdf
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Another interesting comparison. What really stood out for me was that the 60/40 lead solder was the only one that consistently flowed right into the pad corners, when you did the pin header soldering test. I have been using lead-free 305 for the last year or so, but as a hobbyist maker, my next roll is going to be back to 63/37 RMA core leaded solder (probably Aim), as you just can’t beat it!
Yep. Noticed that too.
There's SO MUCH lead in those things tho... and if you're careful you notice this stuff spraying everywhere, and as a hobbyist I don't have a the luxury of a seperate set of devices or room for my soldering :\ so I stick to lead free
@@ameliabuns4058 What you see spraying everywhere is the flux, not lead. For the flux fumes I use an extractor fan with carbon filter. I've since gone back to good quality AIM 63/37 RMA, mainly because my last reel of lead-free has now doubled in price, so buying another reel was getting out of my hobbiest budget. The RMA core 63/37 is working quite nicely, although I was also quite happy with the performance of my previuous Felder ISO-Core Clear.
@@DigicoolThings tbh tho let’s face is. Non of us are doctors lol. That’s what makes it so hard. But my friend who’s a nurse scared the hell out of me. And appearantly not all lead even shows up in a blood test
But at least if you’re older it’s less of a concern? I’m 25 so I’m not that old and kinda young
@@ameliabuns4058 You do make a very good point. Better to be safe than sorry. In reality, I would have stuck with my non-leaded solder, if it was more affordable. Perhaps even more dangerous is the leaded solder paste I use for SMD work! Maybe I'll re-think on my next re-stock. 🤔
Glad you like our lead free solders Steve!
I've used SAC405 for about 25 years. The inflation adjusted silver price has roughly tripled in the past 20 years, and is now about £0.50 per g (although it was as high as 3x that in the early 2010s). At that price, the extra 1% in a 500g reel of SAC405 (vs. SAC305) should cost the manufacturer an extra £2.50. Silver (used as a charge carrier) makes up about 5 to 10% of the cost of PV modules.
The foggy joints you saw with the SAC305 might be caused by contamination from the leaded solder. Recently when I tried switching from leaded 63/37 solder to a lead free (SnCuNi) alloy - I found that I couldn't get a good (shiny) surface finish unless I used a tip and brass cleaning brush which had never been used with leaded solder. Before realizing that all my solder joints looked foggy like yours, after replacing the contaminated soldering parts the joints all had mirror finishes. I think the lead might not alloy well with some of these lead free compositions.
I would be interested to see the tests repeated without the nitrogen.
I thought the same thing, as it’s more in keeping with normal folk. And how fast the surface oxidizes might have a bigger impact on our soldering.
I will just stock up on multicore 60/40 before CPC stop selling it.
@@TheEmbeddedHobbyist Yep, since the higher temperatures needed for lead free make everything oxidize faster.
Whenever I've used LF I found the flux fumes much more unpleasant- did you notice much difference?
Not in this case, but it is supposed to be the same flux in all of the reels. I did notice the Sc100e made more smoke though, possibly from the higher temperature. Prior to this test I would have agreed, but the most recent lead solders I bought also smell terrible. I suspect the flux formulations changed as none of them behave or smell like the classic old rosin core solder, even if they are supposed to be rosin based.
Excellent comparison video Steve. My impressions on Lead Free Solder have now changed, i might just give it a try. Thanks for sharing.
Hmm, I might get some of the SAC405 to use instead of the SN100C I'm using now. Thanks for that breakdown, it was great!
Thanks Seon. What's the cost difference where you are?
@@sdgelectronics I have no idea yet - I have to source some first. Prob wont get to it until next week, but I'll let you know what I find and how ti compares price wise.
Thanks for the reminder to stock up on leaded solder :)
I like my 60/40 solder. It's a shame they are making it hard for us to get!
The SAC405 looks pretty good. The Sc100e doesn't look bad at all. I don't like the idea of having to run it at such a high temp. Though. Some of the older PCB'S don't handle Heat that great!
I like the comment I read down below. It would be interesting to see some stress tests done👍
Easily to get from China 😊
Here in Australia it's not hard at all. You can buy leaded solder no problems. Must be a European (and US?) thing. Then again most leaded solder I do buy is American brands...
If I could have one request it's to try soldering through hole components that isn't golden and/or already oxidised. To see how the solder flows under less ideal conditions.
And I'm curious about the choice of the nitrogen station. Wasn't your opinion that nigrogen didn't make any difference?
I think tests with oxidized components would end up testing the properties of the flux more than of the solder itself.
@@tookitogo yes, of course! That's the point. The metals are the same, it's the flux that makes the solder work
I must have missed your vid with a 'Nitrogen backed' solder station I will check it out but It would be nice if you did your tests with standard equipment as well, like do the results differ if your PCB has HASLE instead of Gold ? and and does the N2 make any difference ? if not then all its good for is protecting the tip ? It's interesting to see as most of us only have years of visual data to say whether a joint is good or not, and to be honest for an electronics enthusiast like me it's about what you like and nothing more, but this is useful data for our mid scale manufacturers out there...cheers.
If i had to buy compare to four solders it will be the SAC405 and the reason is it has got the nicest quick flowing on the pad.
The exact metal contents of the Sc100e would be interesting (not even sure what the Sc is supposed to mean). I've been using Sn100NiGe for many years now and it's hand down the best solder I've ever used, the NiGe content is even said to actually protect your tips (and indeed I didn't have to replace a single one yet). I don't get the high temperatures, casual soldering I'm doing at 320°C, for larger heatsinks I'm bumping it up to 350°C and never had a problem with those levels. The formula of flux seems not great since even at just 2.2% the amount of flux seems quite excessive and part of the weird looking solder results before cleaning since the flux is sputtering and bubbling all over the map creating a bad looking surface and dullness which doesn't look very favourable for SolderKing products to be honest.
I'd like to see some desoldering tests. Preferably with equipment that is more affordable.
One thing to keep in mind is that pure tin, or close to it, will develop tin pest under 13C, so if it needs to be outdoors don't use the ones that are close to pure tin as those solder connections will become dust in a few months time; germanium makes it worse since it accelerates the process.
What about doing the same testing without a nitrogen iron, not many people will have one, and it will be influencing the soldering quality greatly.
Good video Steve. Would be good to see some vibration stress tests on the different solders through hole and SMD? Either an accelerated life test or some sort of fatigue style test that you can perform at home.
you don't need to perform HALT testing at home. there are already published studies on this.
I love the comments sections to any video about lead free solder. You get a massive amount of "airplanes don't allow LF because of tin whiskers, my mostly 2.54mm pitch arduino LED blinking projects demands mil-spec construction so I'll never touch that LF garbage!!", "I bought the cheapest LF solder I could find from China off ebay and it was awful with my cut off nail jammed in a wood burning iron that I use as a soldering iron.. LF is crap" and so on.
Love it or hate it we aren't suddenly going to go back to using formulations that consist 40% of a potent neurotoxin.
BTW: I don't think you can get it in wire form but for prototyping where you need to swap components out the low temp bismuth solder pastes are useful. The melting point is low enough that it isn't hard to get components back off the board even if they have many pins. The downside is that the melting point is low enough that components on the other side of the board can fall off :D
I really don't believe the 60/40 is that bad for you unless you eat it.
I'm pretty sure none of us is eating it!
I'm sticking with my 60 40. I don't really like the L.F. crap!👍
@@ronniepirtlejr2606
Great, you aren't eating it. That isn't the point. The problems are with manufacturing massive amounts of solder with a potent neurotoxin in it, using that to manufacture products that then end up in the ground or getting heated up by kids to recycle the components and metals.
And that still isn't the point: Industry doesn't use leaded solder anymore, all of the finishes on components are LF. If you want to use modern components you should have learned how to work with LF 10+ years ago.
The problems are at end of life, when products end up in landfill (where acidic conditions cause the lead to leach into the groundwater), or incineration. That having been said, there are still plenty of lead sources we need to tackle e.g. the UK has a 'voluntary' ban on lead shot for hunting. I.e. defacto no ban at all. Leaded petrol (gasoline) is also still used by internal combustion engine planes.
I've giving up discussing with fanatics about the use of leaded solder; let them being stuck in the past with inferior formulas developped decades ago until they try to do some serious work with pre-tinned RoHS components (like BGA) and notice that lead-free and leaded solder doesn't often mix well. 🤷♂ The only legit place for leaded-solder is in the repair of ancient devices...
I haven't tried lead-free solder in a few years. I live in the US and it seems like I can still buy it, albeit more expensive. I repair and sometimes build vacuum tube amplifiers and I just didn't have great results with lead-free. Maybe I'll try it again to see if it's improved for my intents and purposes, since it's been a while.
I'm using Cynel 0.5mm 60/40 two decades now.. Great stuff. I'm purchasing it in big rolls.
I'm not a fan of lead free stuff - results not so great..
I have a 'small' stash of Cynel too. TME had a discount on it a year or so ago, it looks like the lead solder stock there is now pretty bleak.
I only have a small sample size, but I have the same experience. The only major thing is the soldering temperature is a little higher, but thats it.
The "risk" of buying cheaper solder comes down to how evenly distributed the flux is. I had trouble with cheap solder that was included, where some parts are ok to solder, but other parts don't even give up smoke, due to the lack of flux.
And that problem you have with and without lead.
Well that and the alloy itself being impure. Minuscule amounts of contaminants in the metal (i.e. trace metals that shouldn’t be there) can cause huge differences in performance.
Have not seen much about tin whiskers forming on joints and causing shorts over time with led free. I expect as long as they don't form in the first 12 months and affect the warranty manufactures will not worry too much.
I think for the hobbyist whose projects will not need to last a long time and be subjected to heat and vibration cycles will not notice the difference.
As my tips cost £25+ each i'll stick with 60/40
@Mr Guru Tin Whiskers is a lead free problem! It did not occur much with leaded solder. When lead was removed from the solder, the tin would form little whisker like spikes and cause shorts at the solder joints. This is why there were extensions granted that allowed the Military/ Aerospace/ Medical sectors to continue to use leaded solder for longer. But now lead free solder is even claimed to be safe for them to use and all extensions have expired.
Having worked in the avionics and medical sectors during this time i was well aware of the new issues imposed by the transition to lead free.
Only time will tell if the issues have gone away.
Call me crazy but the unleaded stuff looks like it would be impossible to find a cold joint. Especially on something with alot of solder on the legs like a giant choke. You said it at the end as I was typing. You're right that it's all in the brand. When I was new I used cheap solder all the time but now I use quality brands so I won't be worried about buying lead free from a good brand. Thanks for the video. Great information.
@Mr Guru I never thought of that. It's a like a revelation for me haha. I only use leadfree if I'm doing something for a friend with kids. Normal people don't get that there's more benefits to leaded. In my experience anyway. Thanks for that info brother.
I often have a problem with lead free solder when prototyping. If I want to change an IC or resistor with hot air on a lead free soldered footprint it doesn't behave well (spikes bridges etc). No amount of flux will make it flow nice again.. It would be interesting if there is a lead free type solder designed to be better "reflowable", or maybe a special flux ??
proper flux is 90% of success in any soldering, especially hot air.
It's the same for me. Most lead free alloys I tested work great, no problems, when first soldering a part. But if you want to change something, especially when using an iron and not hot air on a component connected to a ground fill it's really really bad. You basically have to stay on the joint forever to get the solder flowing, even when just a few seconds passed after initially soldering the part because the joint didn't turn out that well and you wanna fix it. Flux helps a bit, yes, but even than it's slow compared to a leaded alloy with no flux and lower tip temperature as well which flows a fraction of a second after the tip touches it. And lead free rapidly eats your tip compared to leaded from my experience.
I don't want to say that lead free is completely bad and crap, but for prototyping there should be better alloys that behave more like leaded.
@@Youtronics this sounds like your tip has not enough thermal mass to do the job around planes. temperature dips below set point.
Temperature plus flux should fix that. Whilst the IMC is formed through an irreversible change at molecule level, that is a tiny fraction compared to the rest of the solder on the pad, so no real reason why you couldn't just keep reviving the same piece of solder over and over again.
Worth trying a flux paste as this will greatly extend the life of the soldering and make the Lead Free solder more reworkable
I use SAC305 from Chipquik the SMDSWLF .031 mostly because of the good noclean and water washable synthetic flux that they use. It is fairly expensive but is just significantly better for me than the others I tested.
I wonder how my Ju Feng SnCu0.7 lead free (0.7mm) that I use from time to time compares to those on test here. Hmmm!
These seem to be a lot easier to work with than many I've tried in the past. I think the flux plays the main part in that though, it was also extremely easy to clean off which is a bonus.
SAC305 is well known to produce dull surfaces, that’s normal for that alloy.
Wow! that Solder King solder wire is fantastic,is it sold in Australia by any chance?
Maybe it could be interesting to place PCBs into freezer for couple of weeks and see if tin disease occurs.
Good idea.
The Rosin in the wire will go white repelling the moisture in the freezer. No Tin whiskers
It's not about tin whiskers. Pure tin changes it's form at certain temperature. See this en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pest
Good job they arent pure tin then isnt it.
sC100e is pure tin. That's most interesting solder wire for me.
I will never use lead-free solder. Glad they still sell it in USA. I should pick up a lifetime supply before that changes. Cardas Quad Eutectic has been a good investment. :)
Indeed. For prototyping, LF is not warranted and adversely affects the process.
me too lead free is crap i used lots of lead solder working on tube equipment
i've been using sac305 for a while and i don't miss leaded tin. it works equally good,, at least for macro soldering. i'm not yet into micro or smd soldering so i couldn't say much about it. but for now, i love my hirosaki m705 (sac305) for audio equipment stuff.
but one thing for sure, the sac305 is much better when you're soldering near heat-sensitive stuff like headphones driver terminals which is very close to thin plastic diaphgram membrane. it cools down so quick i no longer have anxiety when dealing with situation like this anymore. surprisingly, it melts similar like leaded tin. so i just couldn't find the downsides of using sac305 against old school 63-37 tin. it cost alot more, nearly quadruple of common quality leaded tin price but it's worth it.
If you can get a hold of any Kester K100LD solder (Sn99e with trace amounts of nickel and bismuth), would you test it out?
When doing the rework you turned the iron temp up, but instantly started using it. Do you not need to wait a few seconds to gain that extra 10C?
Another fantastic video. So does the solder have a flux core?
Interesting how crusty the 305 joints look vs the other lead free options
Thank you for this analysis.
I live in the US and protested LF many years ago. Even my contemporaries high up in the IEEE "food chain" complained to no avail. Would you happen to have any anecdotal stories on how lead free reduced contamination of food supplies or something similar? The EE Times (years ago) didn't offer any reasonable explanation on the actual harm they were potentially avoiding.
I doubt that there are any. Back when RoHS was designed and enacted, e-waste contained TONS of lead - but practically all of it was in the lead glass of CRTs! By the time RoHS actually went into effect, nobody was buying CRTs anymore. IMHO, eliminating lead solder was pointless, in particular given that lead bullets introduce huge amounts of lead into the environment, and in many places are not banned yet!
With that said, I don’t find lead free to be THAT hard to work with.
How would you go about testing joint quality?
Great video. Was shocked at the price of solder. I think for the stuff I work on I will stick to leaded for as long as I can.
Wow! When did solder get so expensive???
First your previous video with all those Lead-Based Solder is Actually very very important and interesting. Thanks for the video but the word on the street is already out ...Lead free solder ...Sucks! Also to notice is that using a 350C temperature on your iron is actually Dangerous for the most common IC's and components we use every day ... 380C definitively is dangerous territory for most electronic components.
you have already heated the board this is why the solder flows a lot better on the last tests, min ~20:50
100e looked great on the pin header
I know there are gallium alloys that have really low melting temps (melts in your hand), why doesn't there exist a lead free soldering alloy with a similarly low melting temp?
It exists as chipquick, it's for careful removal of components.
It's quite expensive to product, so no real market for it. If I remember correctly, the result can be quite brittle too.
It would be a bit embarrassing if holding a phone in your hand caused the chips to fall of the pcb, though, wouldn't it?
Sn100e looks great for the price, might just not be durable / prone to tin whiskers
I'd like to see a more expansive comparison of lead free solders. I'm looking at an online shop here and I'm seeing so many different options:
Sn96 Ag4 F-SW32
Sn95,5 Ag 3,8 Cu0,7
Sn95,8 Ag3,5 Cu0,7
Sn100Ni+ | Sn99 3CuNiGe
Sn99 Cu1 F-SW32
Sn42 Bi57 Ag1
Sn99,3 Cu0,7, Ni0,5
etc. etc. etc.
There seem to be so many different mixes by different brands.
Does your 305 and 405 use the same flux ?
All the same in all four solders.
50 pounds for half a kg? Damn. Thankfully there are still E.European manufacturers producing good solder for much less.
The SC100e looks like the nicest solder surface finish, apart from the leaded
Is Solder King available outside the UK? I reached out to them using the webform on their site some months back but go no response whatsoever.
Yes to international shipping, I'm not sure if any distributors outside of the UK stock it, but e-mail info@solderking.com
@@sdgelectronics Thanks, I will.
I think the use of a nitrogen soldering iron invalidates all of these results for the average person (unless proven otherwise) because almost no one has a nitrogen soldering iron.
I think the nitrogen is mostly to prevent to soldering iron itself from degrading.
Has anyone noticed that SAC405 in the table at 1:40 has 101% sum of material? Must be somewhat heavier than others. ;-)
Want to say the " look" on the SAC solders I would have called dry...years of inspecting solder joints would have rejected on appearance
In summary solders ( at higher temp) fine but looks like its a dry joint
The issue with lead free solder is tin whiskers. The lead prevents the growth of tin whiskers. All of the the solders you used have significant whisker growth after about 4000 hours. The best lead free solder with lowest whisker growth is Tin Bismuth 80/20 (likely because Bismuth is simular to lead)
However since we live in a throw-away electronics age. Consumers are willing to put up with short lifecycle electronics. For instance most people replace a smart phone, computer, TV, etc every 2 to 3 years. The only way to address tin whiskers with lead free solder is to use a comformal plastic coating over all of the soldered joints. But this renders repair nearly impossible.
Sorry dont agree the Tin/Bismuth will be extremely brittle and easily shocked to fail. Conformal coating will make little difference to Whiskers. Tin whiskering was only ever prevalent on Pure Tin finished PCBs so not so much of an issue anymore as most are annealed prior to relieve the stress. Also Cobalt Solders are Patented and should only be used with the relevant License and more importantly Cobalt is on the SVHC list Substance of Very High Concern in any volume accordng to ECHA
@@gregoryyork2669 Unfortunately Tin whiskers is a big problem with all of the lead free solders. There are lots of papers on the topic.
I very much doubt that companies mass producing products take the time & expense to properly anneal PCBs.
Conformal coatings do not 100% prevent tin whiskers but the reduce the problem and slow the growth of whiskers that begin to grow.
@@guytech7310 I think you maybe getitng confused with Electromigration whiskers. Tin whiskers are only ever found in Pure Tin applications and thankfully there arent many PCB's out there using this process anymore. Annealing is a process of the PCB manufacturing stages while applying the Tin solution via Acid solutions. Conformal Coating wont affect Tin whisker growth as it is a stress growth issue and this growth is radically reduced by additions of elements of say Copper or Silver added to the solder. No one is using Pure Tin for solders as a final finished solder within electronics.
@@gregoryyork2669 Look it up "Tin Whiskers Lead free solder" You finds lots and lots of hits about it. The PB-free solder alloys all have tin whisker problems. Lots of white papers on the topic
Scientist talked allot of rubbish and produced lots of reports in The early days of Lead Free and scared everyone to death. Then Realised once pure tin was annealed Tin whiskers disappeared. Not once in 30 years of producing Flux, solder and Paste have I seen Tin Whiskering due to the Solder alloy. This is why most Professional user are now using EnIg finishes not Pure Tin.
NOT SURE WHERE YOU ARE FROM BUT LEADED SOLDER 60/40 iS MORE AVAILABLE THAN LEAD FREE IN USA
Huh, my MG Chemicals one never flows well, it strings a ton (instead of creating a round blob) and always needs a ton of flux to work OK. it's the #4925. it was expensive as heck, but ti was 454g lol more than i'll use in a lifetime. it also. doens't stick to anything, the iron or the pads (Although lowering my temps helped with that)
380c ... holy crap. Most of the soldering I do is on delicate boards. At these high temperatures the copper traces and pads are more likely to come of. To make it worse the Pb-free solder have poor wetting taking about twice the time compared to Pb-based. Harder to clean and more corrosive flux is also common with Pb-free.
IMHO, the single most important factor when using a conventional soldering iron for electronics work, is a _clean_ tinned tip with a mirror finish. And this is made more difficult with bad wetting properties, higher temperature and more corrosive flux. Which in turn makes it .... its bad. A bad combination of properties that self-amplify. Oh... almost forgot; the flux in most Pb-free solder have a very short shelf life. Short as in probably past best before date when you receive it. Unless ordering from mouser, farnell, RS etc.
Thank you for testing some different lead free variants. I wont be wasting my time on trying Pb-free any time soon. Now I know. Pb-free is the Red Queen and good old 63/37 is the mad hatter.
I prefer led soldering because of reliability. Lead-free soldering tends to crack joints after a while, unfortunately.
Creative video, thanks :)
The SAC305 seemed quite disappointing. The transition from liquid to solid seemed to happen too quickly which might cause stress fractures later on.
I don’t think the speed as such matters (63/37 will solidify equally quickly: they’re eutectic). But SAC305 has significantly more shrinkage than 63/37 or SN100C, and that probably contributes to the icky surface, and probably would have stress as you say.
lead free sets so fast i'm sure there will be cracks in no time from expantion/contraction or any jiggling
I find that with my cheap hakko I have to set the temperature somewhat higher than than you to get satisfactory results with 305
I didn't get around to reviewing the fake Hakko soldering iron, but I suspect this is just an issue with the soldering iron and poor thermal behaviour.
@@sdgelectronics It's a genuine hakko 888, so probably the non directly heated tips and the lack of heat capacity. Always end up pushing it to 700-725f (mostly use lead free 305)
Best 👌 video ok
Is it hard to get leaded solder in the UK these days? I am from the US and it's still common, just about any electronics or hardware store that would carry soldering equipment has leaded solder, as do just about all online stores, I think it's even more common than lead-free. Yeah, if you are mass-producing then you are required to use lead-free, but anyone from home doing repairs, building something on their own, or even hand-producing small quantities of something can go get leaded solder anywhere. At least at the time of this comment. Wasn't aware it was flat out banned in most cases in other countries like that.
Hobbyists are not able to buy lead solder in Europe any more. You can buy it from eBay or import it though.
@@sdgelectronics I just bought some directly from Amazon UK, next day delivery on Prime. Of course it claimed to be "lead free", but given it was designated 63/37, I was pretty sure it was the good old stuff (and it is).
The 60/40 leaded solder alloy will never compete with any lead free alloy as it has a plastic range. The 63/37 tin/lead alloy is a two state alloy in that it is either liquid or solid. That is the key to leaded solder alloys as to their superiority to their lead free alloy competitors. There will be changes as time goes on but it is also a matter of the flux core the solder alloys use. The RMA flux cored leaded solders with the 63/37 tin/lead alloy yield the best appearance as well as are able to handle G forces, mechanical and physical stresses as well as thermal inversions under DOD STD 2000-1 and the new J STD 006 Level 3 which are equivalent standards. These are common in military contract work. The trend is over to lead free. I haven’t the knowledge of lead free alloys and which are approved for the highest demand work like the military contract work, but possibly there are those out there doing this work who can speak with authority on this. I would like to know what are the approved solders as I want to learn to use lead free as well as the tried and true leaded ones we used while I was working in avionics.
Good thing you can still get proper lead solder from China 😊
Those lead free ones is a no go for any repairs as it will burn the pcb and delaminate the traces.
Also it is a short lifetime product because of the tin wiskers that WILL short out over a few years, it looks really crusty from the first second it cools down.
And the lead free also doesn't wet half as good.
As long as you use recommended temperature for lead it is safer than the lead free just from the fumes.
Will NEVER go for lead free for repair unless it gets improved a lot!
idk. From the video it seems that sac405 is considerably better in all the tests.
Leaded solder is pretty easy to get here in the States, considering we don't care about the developing IQ of poor children, as we only started phasing out leaded avgas very recently. Harbor Freight sells a pound for $20.
F... lead-free.
👍
I don't like lead free!
Bought SC07 ( Sn99.3/Cu0.7 ) from China, and then it melted at 200 degree celcius I set on Hakko 936 🤣
I can't stand lead free. 60/40 or 63/37.
Of course, solderability is just one side of the coin and I appreciate this is what you were demonstrating in this video. Brittle joints and tin whiskers is another. One has to ask the question: Is the inevitable increase in electronic waste landfill (here, or more commonly in 3rd world countries) complete with all the other toxins as people's gizmos fail earlier a sensible trade-off for removing lead? How much lead contribution does electronic waste make to ground water pollution, given rainwater runs along millions of feet of lead flashing before entering the rivers every time it rains. I can't help thinking this is another EU-inspired cure that's worse than the disease.
You should do a further test and include Kester K100LD. It looks to behave like 60/40. Here is some information: www.amtest.bg/products/Kester/Flux/K100LD_brochure.pdf