Pro tip! You can mod the cheap solder suckers by buying a 2-4cm piece of 5mm ID/8-10mm OD silicone tubing and putting it on the nylon tip. The silicone needs to be very soft and bendy, something like gasoline tubing looks the same but is way too stiff. This way it's like the engineer where it's a lot easier to get a vacuum as opposed to being impossible with the stiff end. Try using the engineer without the silicone tip... You can also cut a V slot for the soldering iron on one side of the silicone tubing. Just flip the tube if u need the flat side. One tube lasts years easily and costs pennies
Hot tip (pardon the pun) for the Proskit gun: keep the suction on for a good few seconds after removing from the joint to greatly reduce the amount of blockages.
The tip of a desoldering iron tip is supposed to be tinned, so that it makes good thermal contact. The hollow tube, on the other hand, is stainless steel so that solder won’t stick. However, flux residues can “snag” solder. The original comment is correct: one should continue suction to ensure solder doesn’t stop halfway through, where the heat may not be enough to keep it molten, especially if there’s flux residues in between. (That’s why some professional desoldering tools, like Pace, automatically run the vacuum a certain time, even if the button was pressed less.)
I've been using the Engineer Solder Sucker for long time , for me it's the most practical desoldering method I've ever used over the years .. quick and effective.. very well made
3:44 the manual for this product states not to remove the rear cap so as not to negatively affect the suction of the device. It says to remove the nozzle for cleaning and to re-lubricate the interior of the cylinder with a grease to keep it resistant to solder sticking.
What grease should be used? The solder sucker in the video is set to arrive at my house in 6 days, ordered it even before I saw this video. What grease should I buy so I can keep the sucker in good shape? And how often should I apply it?
This was a perfect video. It covers the main possibilities. I might try to add a small piece of silicone tubing to the tip of my spring loaded one. I don't why that hadn't occurred to me already. I've also used the iron that has a tip like the 3rd option and then has a spring cocked plunger at the end. There are two versions of those and you want the one that can be easily operated with one hand and the cord comes out the very top end. They work pretty good for small stuff.
Hello, greetings from Slovakia. I have a Proskit, I am very satisfied with this station. I have set the temperature to 370°C, this is a suitable temperature so that the station does not clog. Flux at this station is better not to use because of the filter in the glass cylinder.
Thanks for the info! I’ve been looking at desoldering stations for a while now, but I still have bad memories of owning a Hakko desoldering gun around 30 years ago, and it was the most horrible piece of equipment I’ve ever had. I spent more time unblocking and repairing it than I did using it. Your Prokit sounds like it it doesn’t suffer the same problems.
I used an 80's era Hakko desoldering station for 15 years as a repair tech followed by an Aoyue unit for another 5 years. I suspect that the spring inside the glass cylinder serves no useful purpose; you're probably better off with the old school technique of putting some medium grade steel wool into the glass tube, which not only catches the Solder but ialso filters out some of the rosin flux fumes and keeps them off of the ceramic filter, and it even helps dissipate some heat so you don't have as much hot air going into the vacuum pump.
@@vladimiralena9129 , in the older Hakko, and more recent Aoyue desoldering guns, the ceramic filter is held in the tube by friction (the Aoyue's tube is plastic and has molded tabs to keep the filter in place).I tried using the tapered spring supplied with the Aoyue gun that is supposed to collect the solder but I didn't care for it and went back to using a wad of steel wool in the collection tube, like I had done with the old Hakko.
Give the blue solder sucker a second chance. I bought mine for only 15€ and its worth every cent. Yes, it is heavy but has the advantage that you only need one hand to operate it. It creates a very strong suction and can remove a lot of solder with one click. A big pro is that it has a heated tip which is very handy if the solder joints are close together like ribbon cables or IC sockets. It also comes with a second, smaller tip. To avoid spitting out hot solder over the PCB, you click and hold the sucker over the solder joint, remove it from the PCB and release the button over a glass on the work bench. This way, opening and cleaning the sucker is only necessary after around 20 or 30 solder joints (Unlike the manual suction pump)
Thank you for your informative de-soldering video, which I found very helpful. After having tried to de-solder some component's this morning I was left frustrated as my attempts were unsuccessful. My de-soldering caused nothing be component and board damage with with solder pads lifting from the circuit board. The time I spent carrying out this activity was also totally unacceptable. I have a solder sucker, just like the first on you owned. Absolutely useless and a waste of time! So the Pro Japanese one you demonstrated would be a vast improvement. However, I think the Prokit De-Soldering unit would be the most effective and efficient tool for me! Thanks again for the video👍
Yep, I was in the same situation as well. Always failing to get the damn sucker to work properly. Then I got a desoldering gun, and now, like Captain America, "I can do this all day!" and desolder boards and pins like clockwork.
I used compressed air from a ordinary compressor, works really well, desolders beautifully, but chucks tiny blobs of solder everywhere. Fine if harvesting parts from an old pcb, possible short circuit risk if repairing.
@@ZombieLincoln666 I only own a soldering iron. I have used compressed air because its quick and easy I do not bother with desoldering first but I guess it would be alot less messy
As someone who works in a factory setting and uses a solder sucker daily, I dont want people to sleep on some of the cheaper solder suckers with plastic tips. I've personally used the Engineer solder sucker, and while I love it and would definitely use it for personal projects, the silicone tip just doesn't hold up for repeated or long term use. I found that after about a week of factory use the tip degraded to a point where it didnt make a good seal with the pad and the sucking quality decreased greatly. Meanwhile the cheap plastic tipped solder sucker my company provided made up for that in pure power over seal quality. While the plastic tip is definitely worse for making a good seal, the pure power of the springs in some cheaper solder suckers makes up for it and creates a much more consistent performance. All in all the Engineer solder sucker lasted me two weeks of daily use while a cheaper variant with no name has lasted me years without degradation
Plus one has to consider replacing those tips if need to, in the UK they are impossible to find easily and cheaply delivered, so that's a restriction from me, my cheap and cheerful manual plastic one just works everytime, once you get to know how to use it.
I got one cheaper solder sucker myself. Was 2,50 euros.. Did the job just fine.. So not all cheap things are bad. But i agree that plastic tips are getting worn, and then its expensive to replace. mostly 5 - 10 euros)
Great review, thanks. You helped me decide what type buy. Just got one from Amazon for 40 bucks US which is a soldering iron and piston sucker all in one. If it does not work I will go for the Proskit.
Thanks so much for doing this video! I’m definitely going to order that engineer solder sucker as I’ve gone through many of the cheaper and had the same problems you mention. Am going to use your link. That seems much better! I did order, finally, a sucker solder station, and am happy with mine, except before soldering I have to wet a sponge assembly and clean after. If it ever breaks down I’ll try that one you had. Of course wick is always a must just in case.
Desoldering station is on my bucket list but for now I have no issue using those cheapie pumps with wick (used with flux). The flux makes a HUGE difference when desoldering. In all my years of using those cheapo pumps, I have never struggled to remove solder, also just make sure to use flux with the wick to remove old solder.
sorry I am just starting out with soldering can you explain this to me like you would to a 5 year old, I’ve got the same pump but sometimes have to do it multiple times, or add more solder to get everything out.
The powered solder sucker is my favourite and i never even considered the weight of it ???. The sharp vacuum pulse seems to work better than the continuous running pump type.
I reviewed the pros kit a while ago, and have been using it ever since, it works very well. The only thing I did do was modify it to put a power switch on the front of the unit as the rear switch position was inconvenient and a bit stupid really, I did a video on that showing how to do it.
I also placed the power switch on the front panel. Another modification consists in replacing the fan. I removed the original one, enlarged the mounting hole and mounted the new 12V 80x80 fan from the outside. I reduced its power supply to 6V. Now the station is very quiet. As a final adjustment, the vacuum motor was switched via a FET transistor, which I control with a switch in the handle. This was because this switch is undersized for the working current of the motor. During use, it often happened to me that its contacts remained stuck and the motor still worked.
if u use some flux like amtec 559 with solder braid, it will clean those through hole components clean! But obviously the proskit system would be a lot more ideal for big projects that require desoldering a lot of through hole components.
Seems like we made the same journey : I own all of these too. 😃 The blue one, although it works just fine, has the tendency to spit back the removed solder on trigger release, the cable comes out all the time, and I had to turn an aluminium ring to keep the rubber bellows in place. The green one has been clogging up a lot in my experience. When the solder hardens in the suction tube behind the heating element, it can be quite hard to remove.
@@allesklar7267 The Proskit station. It has its disadvantages, but it works. Make sure to get a steel 1mm pin about 12cm long to clean out the barrel from time to time.
I have the OG version of that green and black station, called the ZD-985. Looks like the same thing with new plastic. It's ok-ish. Would be nice to see a Hakko comparison of those higher end ones. Thanks for the video! This is good for people new into desoldering pumps :)
I agree that the *Engineer solder pump* leaves most of the other manual pumps on the rubbish heap. *Wicking braid:* works much better if choosing a top brand like MG Chemicals and one impregnated with proper rosin flux not the No Clean kind. Oh and if you can remove the component without removing the solder just melting it instead, the braid does well for cleanup. See videos on the trick of desoldering multi-pin components so they drop out. *Auto-pump:* Good note on the bulkiness in use. I was surprised though that you didn't state the one thing it has over the manual solder pump: you only need one hand rather than two (soldering wand & pump) which can help in some fiddly situations. *Desoldering station:* Of course I'd like one and that's a much lower price than the name brands but I've still got to weigh the cost vs fequency of use and not sure I can justify it. BTW with proper choice of wicking braid and good technique, I'm finding it works much more effectively than I used to think.
With patience, you can get a top-quality desoldering station used. It took three years, but I managed to snag a Pace desoldering station (10 years old, but still a current model at the time) for $120, including around $100 worth of new tips and filters. It required a $6 rubber gasket to restore its suction back to like-new condition. (Would have cost around $1100 new.)
I had a coworker that would use a air compressor nozzle to blow off the solder. I was shocked because none of his work had ever failed but I was sure there had to be hot solder blown everywhere
hmm that’s actually pretty clever.. I’m trying to desolder a bunch of through hole switches right now and I happen to have an air compressor right next to my bench.. I might have to give this a try. Are there any more details here? Does he use a heat gun or iron to melt it? Does he use flux?
you can easily upgrade that cheapo solder sucker by putting an old anode cap taken from crt tv to the tip of the manual solder pump, if your only desoldering single layer tht boards few components at a time it still works faster than a desoldering station as you do not need to wait for a couple of minutes to get it to working temp
hi the blue desoldering pump with the black end blew the black end off my pump after a while at some force just missing my head so beware keep the end away from your face ! i used a black handheld type that seems a lot safer . i have a grey version of a desolder station but needs work before they are useable a hand pump or braid work pretty well .
Many thanks for this video, I found it when looking for something to replace the plastic cheap piece of crap solder sucker I have, which I can guarantee you is even worse than the one you said made you hate solder suckers. I ended up ordering the Engineer SS-02 because of this test, and I have high hopes for something that actually sucks PROPERLY. 😉
I enjoy watching your projects and non-bias product reviews. Would be great if you could doan review update compellation of the reviews you've done to see if the products have lasted beyond warranty and to tell people if your opinions have changed on each product. No point making a part 2 for each video unless you have a a lot to say about a specific product. Maybe you could do the same for projects you've done.
I have both the Engineer and the Pros Kit. However, I don't have the same success with my Engineer solder sucker, I usually use my Pros Kit which is very good.
Coming from someone that routinely uses wick to clean up whatever the Engineer pump leaves behind, around a through hole component... Your wick technique leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of just laying over the top, push it in from the side and place your iron on the wick, but adjacent to the joint instead of directly on top of it. Obviously it is a slower technique, but when done correctly you can wick away every last remnant of solder without a pump.
100% agreed. He uses solder wick almost as wrongly as Julian Illet. When soldering, the solder always flows to the hottest place. So, moving the tip of the iron away (along the wick) after the joint is heated will pull the solder and literally "vacuums" it out of the hole.
Hi! I'm guessing you wear gloves or use some kind of protection when handling the solder wick, right? I found that it gets quite hot to the touch and can be uncomfortable for bare hands (at least that was my experience).
Try to desolder a DIP package. You will notice that the pins have to be pushed to the center of the hole. The pins usually rest towards one side of the hole. How to do that? With the silicone tip solder sucker I don't know. With the teflon tip sucker it is possible but difficult (plus this one only works fine when lubricated and modded with a strong spring). With the other 2 tools, with heated tip, it is possible to move the pin and perform suction at the same time. But one is much more expensive than the other.
2:40 That "Japanese" sucker I bought from AliExpress for 2 euro 90 ct. It was EXACTLY the same as this one and came with about 8 inches of new silicone tube (For me it is a bit too short, i like it a bit longer)...The bulky blue one I bought also from AE for just under 20 euros, mine gets hotter than this one, it goe up to 400 deg's Also it heats up a bit faster, in about 1,5 minutes (240V). So for me it is pointless to get an expensive desolder kit like the green one.
top tip is to pre-heat your pcb with a heat gun and good old solder sucker. Problem with the desolder stations is the tip gets oxidised and doesn’t wet/heat the solder and gets blocked up regularly
Try to melt calaphonia , once you get heated tip, then use it for desoldering. I had blue one from video, didnt clogged once. (Although diodes died on that one after one week....)
If the solder sucker is getting clogged, then you are using FAR too little heat. You have to have the solder hot enough to stay liquid all the way from the tip to the cannister
I had a cheap solder sucker that had a cheap iron built in it was only like 40w and it worked alright but not great I really want to get one of those desoldering stations
good review. that 'engineers' has nice hardware. good for carry around. that auto(blue) is indeed clunky. takes a long time to heat.and easily gets 'full' in a few sucks
I have the same prokit station, it works good, but when working on 80s pcbs especially ic's I find them not easy to remove. It looks like they are soldered from both sides, Or maybe I use less heat ? - I found out its more smooth to head the ic from the other side too with a solder iron, and use prokit from the back side. But its unhandy. I dont know if the Hakko are better but the prokit is quite good. For older pcb's i always put fresh solder before try to desolder anything.
the hardest part is desolder on the metal surface, today i use 480 degree but it took me half hour to desolder, since most of the heat is transfered to the metal surface.
I'm a big fan of the Desoldering station myself. THCs just drop out of the PCBs. On a side-note, are you still using the AD208 for your standard microscope and are you still happy with it? I'm looking to replace my painful Mustool. :)
Thank you so much gor including the evil American weights and measures. It allowed for a better viewing experience. This actuslly made me want to buy tge first, second and fourth devices.
there might be one more solution that none mentioned: by heating soldering with more solder, it becomes liquid and it's easy to pull off or at least step by step in case of e.g. transformers. after that, solder wick or sucker does the job. personaly I prefer the wick maybe because I'm into smd more than tht but that is not the point. why I am saying this? it's because plenty times I removed the solder and it didn't come off easily or didn't come off at all, so this is an alternative in case your alternatives don't work. of course, you didn't mention the heat gun that theoreticaly is recomended for smd, but sincerely, in my experience it didn't do the job well.
It would be a lot better if a video to show you attempt to remove some ACTUALLY difficult solder. Use an older, cheap, fragile board with gobs of lead free solder, and THAT is where these products earn their rightful place in your kit. Trying to get some super old lead free BS solder out of some pcb’s is an absolute nightmare. You should also have covered low temp solder like chip quik-it can be a lifesaver.
I have a clone of that gun, and it works like garbage. However I try, it won’t remove any solder within the PCB. I just desoldered a Gamecube digital port using the Engineer solder sucker, and that did the job. I have no idea why the solder gun doesn’t work. There is no blockage and it’s clean.
Wouldnt use the green proskit for tiny electronics like older 1997 motherboards.. Its good for basic electronics.. Only that device is not very accurate with temps. Those cheap units sometimes getting hotter then what you read on the display. And then lost a pad or through hole. An expensive device have a better heat regulation.
I love my automatic solder sucker! At just under €20 delivered from China I have no longer a need for a desolder station. Desolder wick is a very handy additional tool. In your video you did not seem to allow the heat to get in that plated trough hole.
The shipping for the pro'skit is nearly as much as the unit itself!!! Pushes it out of my price range unfortunately. I'll have to have a poke around for another seller as it certainly looks the business.
If you mean liquid solder, then search for "Solder Pot". Note that the cheap ones from China have some safety issues so watch TH-cam videos to ensure that you understand how to make them safe to use. It is not a good idea to poke conductive wires into a pool of liquid conductive metal that might be at 220V mains voltage!
WTF, you say looking at different options at diff price points, at the end you talk about which you like and again mention price consideration BUT NEVER MENTION THE $$$$$
I really wish I didn’t have to write this but… Though I have now seen three channels advertising this product today, Shematix was where I first saw it. And I expect I’ll see a few more of these before I’ve finished watching todays new videos. A simple Google search will show many unhappy customers and the comments stating that it is a scam. In all cases it has been presented by TH-camrs that I follow, mostly out of respect for their honesty and quality of content, but this has caused me to do a rethink and in one case to unsubscribe out of disgust, not something I want to do with all my favourite channels (though I might subscribe again, given how prevalent this is, apparently). It is extremely jarring and disappointing to see that these TH-camrs have decided to take this company’s advertising money and to happily push its product onto their followers, without it appears, doing even five seconds of actual research on the product itself. It would be worse to find they still chose to advertise this even after doing this research. In my opinion, it impacts their credibility and considering how many appear to have agreed to advertise this, all on the same day, makes them like a bit like shills. I, for one, will be taking anything advertised on these channels in the future, with a very large grain of salt.
I really wish incompetent & jealous guys would keep their gripes against TH-camrs to themselves. It only airs their pathetic upbringing and inability to learn simple techniques. Your attempt at YouTubing didn't succeed? You didn't get free samples? Go badmouth your superiors who did. Disregarding conveniently the fact that they succeeded because of their hard work & good attitude. If there is a scam going on, we will detect it even more easily than you pathetic barking SoB, so can your social-service and...
Pro tip! You can mod the cheap solder suckers by buying a 2-4cm piece of 5mm ID/8-10mm OD silicone tubing and putting it on the nylon tip. The silicone needs to be very soft and bendy, something like gasoline tubing looks the same but is way too stiff. This way it's like the engineer where it's a lot easier to get a vacuum as opposed to being impossible with the stiff end. Try using the engineer without the silicone tip... You can also cut a V slot for the soldering iron on one side of the silicone tubing. Just flip the tube if u need the flat side. One tube lasts years easily and costs pennies
Hot tip (pardon the pun) for the Proskit gun: keep the suction on for a good few seconds after removing from the joint to greatly reduce the amount of blockages.
I have one of those but the tips are not so good, the solder is not sticking to the tips, its like they are made from the wrong metal.
@@wicklowmountains8618 solder is not supposed to stick to the tip. That's how it is designed
@@wicklowmountains8618It’s a desoldering station, not a soldering station
The tip of a desoldering iron tip is supposed to be tinned, so that it makes good thermal contact. The hollow tube, on the other hand, is stainless steel so that solder won’t stick. However, flux residues can “snag” solder. The original comment is correct: one should continue suction to ensure solder doesn’t stop halfway through, where the heat may not be enough to keep it molten, especially if there’s flux residues in between. (That’s why some professional desoldering tools, like Pace, automatically run the vacuum a certain time, even if the button was pressed less.)
I've been using the Engineer Solder Sucker for long time , for me it's the most practical desoldering method I've ever used over the years .. quick and effective.. very well made
#DONTBENDTHESHAFT!!!!
I bought one that looked the exact same (viralloy) and it was TERRIBLE. Whenever I'd push out solder, the silicone tip would go with it!
@@Scyth3934 I was looking to buy one and saw different makes and I'm sure by now there are snide ones about, so never bothered.
I got the proskit recently after struggling for a while with a cheap manual solder sucker. What a revelation, it’s made desoldering fun!
3:44 the manual for this product states not to remove the rear cap so as not to negatively affect the suction of the device. It says to remove the nozzle for cleaning and to re-lubricate the interior of the cylinder with a grease to keep it resistant to solder sticking.
Yeah I really don't get why he did it lol. It will mangle the O-ring on the threads really soon
😂😂😂 HOW Tf are you expected to remove the solder from inside without removing it?!?!?
@@kilgoretrout4461 you remove the bottom cap then squeeze the plunger to push the solder out.
What grease should be used? The solder sucker in the video is set to arrive at my house in 6 days, ordered it even before I saw this video. What grease should I buy so I can keep the sucker in good shape? And how often should I apply it?
This was a perfect video. It covers the main possibilities. I might try to add a small piece of silicone tubing to the tip of my spring loaded one. I don't why that hadn't occurred to me already. I've also used the iron that has a tip like the 3rd option and then has a spring cocked plunger at the end. There are two versions of those and you want the one that can be easily operated with one hand and the cord comes out the very top end. They work pretty good for small stuff.
Hello, greetings from Slovakia. I have a Proskit, I am very satisfied with this station. I have set the temperature to 370°C, this is a suitable temperature so that the station does not clog. Flux at this station is better not to use because of the filter in the glass cylinder.
Thanks for the info! I’ve been looking at desoldering stations for a while now, but I still have bad memories of owning a Hakko desoldering gun around 30 years ago, and it was the most horrible piece of equipment I’ve ever had. I spent more time unblocking and repairing it than I did using it. Your Prokit sounds like it it doesn’t suffer the same problems.
I used an 80's era Hakko desoldering station for 15 years as a repair tech followed by an Aoyue unit for another 5 years. I suspect that the spring inside the glass cylinder serves no useful purpose; you're probably better off with the old school technique of putting some medium grade steel wool into the glass tube, which not only catches the Solder but ialso filters out some of the rosin flux fumes and keeps them off of the ceramic filter, and it even helps dissipate some heat so you don't have as much hot air going into the vacuum pump.
@@goodun2974 The spring presses the filter in the rear position. It has to be there.
@@vladimiralena9129 , in the older Hakko, and more recent Aoyue desoldering guns, the ceramic filter is held in the tube by friction (the Aoyue's tube is plastic and has molded tabs to keep the filter in place).I tried using the tapered spring supplied with the Aoyue gun that is supposed to collect the solder but I didn't care for it and went back to using a wad of steel wool in the collection tube, like I had done with the old Hakko.
2:36 That as been a godsend to me. No more inertia pecking damage and an easy and cheep to replace tip.
Coffee toast to you. Thanks!
Give the blue solder sucker a second chance. I bought mine for only 15€ and its worth every cent. Yes, it is heavy but has the advantage that you only need one hand to operate it. It creates a very strong suction and can remove a lot of solder with one click. A big pro is that it has a heated tip which is very handy if the solder joints are close together like ribbon cables or IC sockets. It also comes with a second, smaller tip. To avoid spitting out hot solder over the PCB, you click and hold the sucker over the solder joint, remove it from the PCB and release the button over a glass on the work bench. This way, opening and cleaning the sucker is only necessary after around 20 or 30 solder joints (Unlike the manual suction pump)
Thank you for your informative de-soldering video, which I found very helpful. After having tried to de-solder some component's this morning I was left frustrated as my attempts were unsuccessful. My de-soldering caused nothing be component and board damage with with solder pads lifting from the circuit board. The time I spent carrying out this activity was also totally unacceptable. I have a solder sucker, just like the first on you owned. Absolutely useless and a waste of time!
So the Pro Japanese one you demonstrated would be a vast improvement. However, I think the Prokit De-Soldering unit would be the most effective and efficient tool for me! Thanks again for the video👍
Yep, I was in the same situation as well. Always failing to get the damn sucker to work properly. Then I got a desoldering gun, and now, like Captain America, "I can do this all day!" and desolder boards and pins like clockwork.
I used compressed air from a ordinary compressor, works really well, desolders beautifully, but chucks tiny blobs of solder everywhere.
Fine if harvesting parts from an old pcb, possible short circuit risk if repairing.
Do you melt the solder with a heat gun or iron?
Would removing most solder first with a wick or sucker first help?
@@ZombieLincoln666 I only own a soldering iron. I have used compressed air because its quick and easy I do not bother with desoldering first but I guess it would be alot less messy
As someone who works in a factory setting and uses a solder sucker daily, I dont want people to sleep on some of the cheaper solder suckers with plastic tips. I've personally used the Engineer solder sucker, and while I love it and would definitely use it for personal projects, the silicone tip just doesn't hold up for repeated or long term use. I found that after about a week of factory use the tip degraded to a point where it didnt make a good seal with the pad and the sucking quality decreased greatly. Meanwhile the cheap plastic tipped solder sucker my company provided made up for that in pure power over seal quality. While the plastic tip is definitely worse for making a good seal, the pure power of the springs in some cheaper solder suckers makes up for it and creates a much more consistent performance. All in all the Engineer solder sucker lasted me two weeks of daily use while a cheaper variant with no name has lasted me years without degradation
Plus one has to consider replacing those tips if need to, in the UK they are impossible to find easily and cheaply delivered, so that's a restriction from me, my cheap and cheerful manual plastic one just works everytime, once you get to know how to use it.
I got one cheaper solder sucker myself. Was 2,50 euros.. Did the job just fine.. So not all cheap things are bad. But i agree that plastic tips are getting worn, and then its expensive to replace. mostly 5 - 10 euros)
Great review, thanks. You helped me decide what type buy. Just got one from Amazon for 40 bucks US which is a soldering iron and piston sucker all in one. If it does not work I will go for the Proskit.
Thanks so much for doing this video! I’m definitely going to order that engineer solder sucker as I’ve gone through many of the cheaper and had the same problems you mention. Am going to use your link. That seems much better! I did order, finally, a sucker solder station, and am happy with mine, except before soldering I have to wet a sponge assembly and clean after. If it ever breaks down I’ll try that one you had. Of course wick is always a must just in case.
Desoldering station is on my bucket list but for now I have no issue using those cheapie pumps with wick (used with flux). The flux makes a HUGE difference when desoldering. In all my years of using those cheapo pumps, I have never struggled to remove solder, also just make sure to use flux with the wick to remove old solder.
sorry I am just starting out with soldering can you explain this to me like you would to a 5 year old, I’ve got the same pump but sometimes have to do it multiple times, or add more solder to get everything out.
The powered solder sucker is my favourite and i never even considered the weight of it ???. The sharp vacuum pulse seems to work better than the continuous running pump type.
I reviewed the pros kit a while ago, and have been using it ever since, it works very well.
The only thing I did do was modify it to put a power switch on the front of the unit as the rear switch position was inconvenient and a bit stupid really, I did a video on that showing how to do it.
I also placed the power switch on the front panel. Another modification consists in replacing the fan. I removed the original one, enlarged the mounting hole and mounted the new 12V 80x80 fan from the outside. I reduced its power supply to 6V. Now the station is very quiet. As a final adjustment, the vacuum motor was switched via a FET transistor, which I control with a switch in the handle. This was because this switch is undersized for the working current of the motor. During use, it often happened to me that its contacts remained stuck and the motor still worked.
@@vladimiralena9129 yes I also changed the fan and reduced its voltage to make it quieter, mine hasn’t had any problems with sticking on though.
I have a master power switch on my bench that switches all my gear on and off with one switch
if u use some flux like amtec 559 with solder braid, it will clean those through hole components clean! But obviously the proskit system would be a lot more ideal for big projects that require desoldering a lot of through hole components.
Seems like we made the same journey : I own all of these too. 😃 The blue one, although it works just fine, has the tendency to spit back the removed solder on trigger release, the cable comes out all the time, and I had to turn an aluminium ring to keep the rubber bellows in place. The green one has been clogging up a lot in my experience. When the solder hardens in the suction tube behind the heating element, it can be quite hard to remove.
Which would you recommend?
@@allesklar7267 The Proskit station. It has its disadvantages, but it works. Make sure to get a steel 1mm pin about 12cm long to clean out the barrel from time to time.
@@Stefan_Van_pellicom OK thank you!
@@allesklar7267 Edited my typo, it should be a 12cm pin, not 2cm.
@@Stefan_Van_pellicom after how many desolerded pins do you clean it?
I have the OG version of that green and black station, called the ZD-985. Looks like the same thing with new plastic. It's ok-ish. Would be nice to see a Hakko comparison of those higher end ones. Thanks for the video! This is good for people new into desoldering pumps :)
Excellent video, I always use solder wick, but the manual one with the rubber tip should work really well, going to order one. Thanks!
I agree that the *Engineer solder pump* leaves most of the other manual pumps on the rubbish heap. *Wicking braid:* works much better if choosing a top brand like MG Chemicals and one impregnated with proper rosin flux not the No Clean kind. Oh and if you can remove the component without removing the solder just melting it instead, the braid does well for cleanup. See videos on the trick of desoldering multi-pin components so they drop out. *Auto-pump:* Good note on the bulkiness in use. I was surprised though that you didn't state the one thing it has over the manual solder pump: you only need one hand rather than two (soldering wand & pump) which can help in some fiddly situations. *Desoldering station:* Of course I'd like one and that's a much lower price than the name brands but I've still got to weigh the cost vs fequency of use and not sure I can justify it. BTW with proper choice of wicking braid and good technique, I'm finding it works much more effectively than I used to think.
With patience, you can get a top-quality desoldering station used. It took three years, but I managed to snag a Pace desoldering station (10 years old, but still a current model at the time) for $120, including around $100 worth of new tips and filters. It required a $6 rubber gasket to restore its suction back to like-new condition. (Would have cost around $1100 new.)
@@tookitogoI’m not spending 3 years to hunt one down
@@ZombieLincoln666 Well it wasn’t three years of _work._ I just set up a search, and it took 3 years till someone nearby put one up for sale.
Doesn't liquid flux make the copper Wick absorb more effectively?
Unleaded solder it currently the bane of my existence
I had a coworker that would use a air compressor nozzle to blow off the solder. I was shocked because none of his work had ever failed but I was sure there had to be hot solder blown everywhere
Explanation: he is an alien from Planet X.
hmm that’s actually pretty clever.. I’m trying to desolder a bunch of through hole switches right now and I happen to have an air compressor right next to my bench.. I might have to give this a try.
Are there any more details here? Does he use a heat gun or iron to melt it? Does he use flux?
you can easily upgrade that cheapo solder sucker by putting an old anode cap taken from crt tv to the tip of the manual solder pump, if your only desoldering single layer tht boards few components at a time it still works faster than a desoldering station as you do not need to wait for a couple of minutes to get it to working temp
hi the blue desoldering pump with the black end
blew the black end off my pump after a while at some force
just missing my head so beware keep the end away from your face !
i used a black handheld type that seems a lot safer .
i have a grey version of a desolder station but needs work
before they are useable
a hand pump or braid work pretty well .
Many thanks for this video, I found it when looking for something to replace the plastic cheap piece of crap solder sucker I have, which I can guarantee you is even worse than the one you said made you hate solder suckers. I ended up ordering the Engineer SS-02 because of this test, and I have high hopes for something that actually sucks PROPERLY. 😉
I enjoy watching your projects and non-bias product reviews. Would be great if you could doan review update compellation of the reviews you've done to see if the products have lasted beyond warranty and to tell people if your opinions have changed on each product. No point making a part 2 for each video unless you have a a lot to say about a specific product. Maybe you could do the same for projects you've done.
I have both the Engineer and the Pros Kit. However, I don't have the same success with my Engineer solder sucker, I usually use my Pros Kit which is very good.
Coming from someone that routinely uses wick to clean up whatever the Engineer pump leaves behind, around a through hole component... Your wick technique leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of just laying over the top, push it in from the side and place your iron on the wick, but adjacent to the joint instead of directly on top of it. Obviously it is a slower technique, but when done correctly you can wick away every last remnant of solder without a pump.
100% agreed. He uses solder wick almost as wrongly as Julian Illet.
When soldering, the solder always flows to the hottest place. So, moving the tip of the iron away (along the wick) after the joint is heated will pull the solder and literally "vacuums" it out of the hole.
Excellent reviews.
Hi! I'm guessing you wear gloves or use some kind of protection when handling the solder wick, right? I found that it gets quite hot to the touch and can be uncomfortable for bare hands (at least that was my experience).
Perhaps using non-conductive tweezers would work
Try to desolder a DIP package. You will notice that the pins have to be pushed to the center of the hole. The pins usually rest towards one side of the hole. How to do that? With the silicone tip solder sucker I don't know. With the teflon tip sucker it is possible but difficult (plus this one only works fine when lubricated and modded with a strong spring). With the other 2 tools, with heated tip, it is possible to move the pin and perform suction at the same time. But one is much more expensive than the other.
2:40 That "Japanese" sucker I bought from AliExpress for 2 euro 90 ct. It was EXACTLY the same as this one and came with about 8 inches of new silicone tube (For me it is a bit too short, i like it a bit longer)...The bulky blue one I bought also from AE for just under 20 euros, mine gets hotter than this one, it goe up to 400 deg's Also it heats up a bit faster, in about 1,5 minutes (240V).
So for me it is pointless to get an expensive desolder kit like the green one.
top tip is to pre-heat your pcb with a heat gun and good old solder sucker. Problem with the desolder stations is the tip gets oxidised and doesn’t wet/heat the solder and gets blocked up regularly
Try to melt calaphonia , once you get heated tip, then use it for desoldering. I had blue one from video, didnt clogged once. (Although diodes died on that one after one week....)
If the solder sucker is getting clogged, then you are using FAR too little heat. You have to have the solder hot enough to stay liquid all the way from the tip to the cannister
Thanks for the explanations. Great job!
I had a cheap solder sucker that had a cheap iron built in it was only like 40w and it worked alright but not great I really want to get one of those desoldering stations
Very useful video...I made a purchase based on his advice.
Very good.
good review. that 'engineers' has nice hardware. good for carry around. that auto(blue) is indeed clunky. takes a long time to heat.and easily gets 'full' in a few sucks
No mention of using flux with the wick????? 😮 I never have a problem using the wick method along with flux.
Yep, the wick never works properly without extra flux. And not on the joint... smeared onto the wick itself.
I have the same prokit station, it works good, but when working on 80s pcbs especially ic's I find them not easy to remove. It looks like they are soldered from both sides, Or maybe I use less heat ? - I found out its more smooth to head the ic from the other side too with a solder iron, and use prokit from the back side. But its unhandy. I dont know if the Hakko are better but the prokit is quite good. For older pcb's i always put fresh solder before try to desolder anything.
the hardest part is desolder on the metal surface, today i use 480 degree but it took me half hour to desolder, since most of the heat is transfered to the metal surface.
I'm a big fan of the Desoldering station myself. THCs just drop out of the PCBs. On a side-note, are you still using the AD208 for your standard microscope and are you still happy with it? I'm looking to replace my painful Mustool. :)
Very nicely done.
Great video
Can you please comment on the microscope/visual display monitor? I’m thinking of getting something like that.
Cheers
Be delicate with the metal plunger on the EngineerSS-02. Once deformed it is way worse than the solderpult XD
Thanks for the heads up! I just ordered one, and will now make sure to be extra careful.
Got a Electric Vacuum Desoldering Pump. Wish I can done decades ago ...
Fantastic! Thank you!
I'm all in for the Auto soldering Sucker. I can't wait to give that solders some "Sucker Punch"
Japanese "engineer" solder sucker looks good. 👍
Thank you so much gor including the evil American weights and measures. It allowed for a better viewing experience. This actuslly made me want to buy tge first, second and fourth devices.
I recently bought this desoldering iron and when I set the temperature from 430 degrees Celsius up the metal turns red, is this normal?
Hi! Do you have components diagram of LUXIANZI desoldering machine, please?
It stops working...
Thanks, this is super-helpful
there might be one more solution that none mentioned: by heating soldering with more solder, it becomes liquid and it's easy to pull off or at least step by step in case of e.g. transformers. after that, solder wick or sucker does the job. personaly I prefer the wick maybe because I'm into smd more than tht but that is not the point. why I am saying this? it's because plenty times I removed the solder and it didn't come off easily or didn't come off at all, so this is an alternative in case your alternatives don't work. of course, you didn't mention the heat gun that theoreticaly is recomended for smd, but sincerely, in my experience it didn't do the job well.
Very nice explanation. Thx..
What difrint 331/331H
It would be a lot better if a video to show you attempt to remove some ACTUALLY difficult solder. Use an older, cheap, fragile board with gobs of lead free solder, and THAT is where these products earn their rightful place in your kit. Trying to get some super old lead free BS solder out of some pcb’s is an absolute nightmare. You should also have covered low temp solder like chip quik-it can be a lifesaver.
I have a clone of that gun, and it works like garbage. However I try, it won’t remove any solder within the PCB. I just desoldered a Gamecube digital port using the Engineer solder sucker, and that did the job. I have no idea why the solder gun doesn’t work. There is no blockage and it’s clean.
Is that jack black?
Can confirm, until I got a quality solder sucker (I have a Ersa) I was thinking they are useless.
Nice info, thank you for sharing it :)
Cheers
Thank you!!!!!
Wouldnt use the green proskit for tiny electronics like older 1997 motherboards.. Its good for basic electronics.. Only that device is not very accurate with temps. Those cheap units sometimes getting hotter then what you read on the display. And then lost a pad or through hole. An expensive device have a better heat regulation.
I love my automatic solder sucker! At just under €20 delivered from China I have no longer a need for a desolder station.
Desolder wick is a very handy additional tool. In your video you did not seem to allow the heat to get in that plated trough hole.
Yes, the way that he used the wick was totally wrong. That's why he got such poor results.
The shipping for the pro'skit is nearly as much as the unit itself!!! Pushes it out of my price range unfortunately. I'll have to have a poke around for another seller as it certainly looks the business.
I found them at least 20% cheaper at other Ali stores.
Greetings from Egypt, I am a follower of you.... I want a method for manufacturing liquid tin
If you mean liquid solder, then search for "Solder Pot". Note that the cheap ones from China have some safety issues so watch TH-cam videos to ensure that you understand how to make them safe to use. It is not a good idea to poke conductive wires into a pool of liquid conductive metal that might be at 220V mains voltage!
Mine does not go past 200c, if anybody has any solution to this please let me know.
Another tip: Use Solder wick that has rosin in it.
Isn't it dangerous to flip pads in old circuits with the Japanese pump? It happened to me many times
Nice video, me being lazy…would be handy if your web sit link was clickable….at least on my iPad I could not click it….unlike your other links
Your Engineer SS-02 Solder Sucker Aliexpress link no longer works
last one is great but its expensive
Looks like a nice video, but no sound.
pro kit doesnt work as good as i expected. just a little better than cheap blue one.
We miss Daisy the Cow 😭
Hakko
Come on man, say fish and chips as only a Kiwi can, hehe
just buy a solder removing gun and be done with it.
WTF, you say looking at different options at diff price points, at the end you talk about which you like and again mention price consideration BUT NEVER MENTION THE $$$$$
Don't even bother with any of these but solder wick and a manual pump doing microelectronics. Completely and utterly useless.
JLCPCB DO NOT O $2 DEALS.
I really wish I didn’t have to write this but…
Though I have now seen three channels advertising this product today, Shematix was where I first saw it. And I expect I’ll see a few more of these before I’ve finished watching todays new videos.
A simple Google search will show many unhappy customers and the comments stating that it is a scam.
In all cases it has been presented by TH-camrs that I follow, mostly out of respect for their honesty and quality of content, but this has caused me to do a rethink and in one case to unsubscribe out of disgust, not something I want to do with all my favourite channels (though I might subscribe again, given how prevalent this is, apparently).
It is extremely jarring and disappointing to see that these TH-camrs have decided to take this company’s advertising money and to happily push its product onto their followers, without it appears, doing even five seconds of actual research on the product itself.
It would be worse to find they still chose to advertise this even after doing this research.
In my opinion, it impacts their credibility and considering how many appear to have agreed to advertise this, all on the same day, makes them like a bit like shills.
I, for one, will be taking anything advertised on these channels in the future, with a very large grain of salt.
I really wish incompetent & jealous guys would keep their gripes against TH-camrs to themselves.
It only airs their pathetic upbringing and inability to learn simple techniques.
Your attempt at YouTubing didn't succeed? You didn't get free samples? Go badmouth your superiors who did.
Disregarding conveniently the fact that they succeeded because of their hard work & good attitude.
If there is a scam going on, we will detect it even more easily than you pathetic barking SoB, so can your social-service and...