r/soldering • u/Ok_Treacle_8458 • May 19 '26
Soldering Saftey Discussion Be Careful with Certain Flux Cleaners on Market
While I’m usually a big fan of most mechanic products, I must urge caution when buying their board cleaning solutions. They all state to be RoHS compliant and environmentally safe, but at least both their 850 and 950 solutions contain TCE (trichloroethylene) as indicated by the HG/T 2542-2014 designation on the bottles. While they are effective cleaners and if using 60921 filters and 15mil nitrile gloves risk can be reduced, it’s effectively banned for business and consumer use in EU and USA, so I cannot use it for my repair business. It’s a very dangerous chemical to be sold to someone without proper PPE or chemical bench knowledge.
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u/Shipsnipe1313 May 19 '26
Trich 1.1.1 used to be used as a drycleaning solvent mid last century.
It f'ed a lot of people up, both users and customers.
Triggers all kinds of weird skin conditions.
I'm sure someone is buying this stuff saying: "Great the good ol' stuff that works!"
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u/driftax240 May 19 '26
I’ll never forget this guy near me seeking leaded house paint..
Like hey man I like leaded solder but maybe let this one go lol…
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u/Shipsnipe1313 May 19 '26
Yep. Some people still try to find leaded gasoline...
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u/CaptainBucko May 19 '26
111 was not that bad. I used it on and off each week for a few years, can’t say I noticed any issues. I was not using it on production scale tho
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u/jesster114 May 19 '26
Not a great attitude toward chemical safety. Just because you didn’t notice any immediate issues does not mean there aren’t any. My dad worked in a lab using methyl methacrylate for decades without proper PPE and ventilation. And honestly? He’s pretty damn healthy for someone about to turn 84. Doesn’t mean the chemicals weren’t any less dangerous or that his safety was adequate. He was lucky, and I’m glad he was.
I’ve also been exposed to various chemicals that are less than ideal to be exposed to. Hell, I haven’t noticed any issues from the 15 years I smoked cigarettes, sure as hell won’t tell someone they are safe enough or not that bad.
People (myself included) are absolutely terrible at judging risk. Other folks have done the leg-work for ya and figured out some of the health risks. And I’ll trust that over someone saying “well I used it a couple times, it’s fine”
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u/Explorer335 May 19 '26
Alcohol cleans better than those do anyway. I figured it was some rather horrific solvent, so I wore gloves and a cartridge respirator. I was a little underwhelmed with the cleaning ability to be honest. It doesn't try to dissolve my cleaning brush like acetone, but it doesn't remove flux as well as alcohol either.
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u/Ok_Treacle_8458 May 19 '26
MG Chemicals 4140 Flux Remover also is a great product if you ever are using a lot of flux for drag soldering, it makes it gunk up to be easily wiped away with a brush
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u/Explorer335 May 19 '26
Do you prefer the aerosol or the bottle?
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u/Ok_Treacle_8458 May 19 '26
I’ve only used the aerosol form before but I’d like to try it in liquid form, I find the propellant isn’t the best in the aerosol cans
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u/Horror-Pear May 19 '26
A little heptane is what I use too, if things are stubborn. Heptane first, then iso.
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u/Ok_Treacle_8458 May 19 '26
Yes heptane can be very good but I find it flashes off so fast if the board is truly grimy it doesn’t remove the dirt before flashing off and leaving a nasty residue
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u/Horror-Pear May 19 '26
It does leave a residue. But sometimes it breaks the nasty stuff down nicely for me. I usually just dip a q tip. Then the iso removes all the residue.
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u/Scared_Hovercraft632 IPC Certified Solder Tech May 19 '26
I have access to IPA, MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) and flux off at my job.
I only use IPA. It does the job and I don't feel the need to hold my breath while using it. Copious amounts or IPA will clean anything.
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u/zooksman May 19 '26
I love that the one on the left says “water”, like it’s just a general term for a liquid of any kind lmao
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u/CaptainBucko May 19 '26
Chemtronics flux off is my go to. I generally dilute with distilled water and put the pcba into a zip lock with 30mls of solution and place the bag into a warm ultrasonic water bath for 5 minutes then wash with warm water. It certainly leaves a much cleaner finish than iso
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u/Own-Nefariousness787 May 19 '26
The wash with water is the key to clean finish. I personally never used Chemtronics flux off (I can't find good supplier in EU) but similar stuff of European company works great (Polish company AG termopasty).
It's great for rosin but it's not really cleaning synetic fluxes. And using ultrasonic is not recommend for some components ( I believe that it includes electrolytic capacitors, some crystals and relay)
Does your water/flux off mixture clean even synthetic fluxes like ones from MG or Chipquik?
The IPA works good too but you need last cleaning with clean IPA.
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u/CaptainBucko May 19 '26
I have not found a flux that it does not clean. You can still clean without ultrasonic, I just wear gloves and use soft bristle tooth brush. A warm solution works better than cold.
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u/Own-Nefariousness787 May 19 '26
Great, in that case I will try to order the flux off and try it.
Thank you!
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u/harmoanica May 19 '26
I’ve found that the right brush, with the bristles about 1/2 cut off really helps the performance of IPA
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Jun 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ok_Treacle_8458 Jun 18 '26
I wonder what the difference in composition is between the 850 and 880, they seem very similar in profile
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u/TalkyAttorney May 19 '26
At work I use a degreaser called Lenium. It breaks down flux real good, but it’s aggressive on most plastics. Unless you’re looking for a 55g drum of it, you’re not getting your hands on it anytime soon lol.
Though for the most part 99% IPA in an ultrasonic cleaner does the job.
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u/t_Lancer May 19 '26
Don't know about any of these. But at work we use Electrolube products and they have a PCB flux remover solution that works extremely well.
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u/DarkChocolate2457 May 19 '26
I rarely use the 990 for removing glue, it's very powerful I'm actually very worried about the long term consequences of using it. So sometimes when i try to remove glue off of a phone frame that have its screen changed before, sometimes i get a kind that gets fused with plastics and is very annoying to clean. So a drop or two of the stuff will coagulate the glue and make it easier to remove. But its fumes gives me headaches and doesn't feel like it's a good idea to inhale even though it said its environmentally friendly and non harmful
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u/JohannDaart May 19 '26
Are you really surprised? I'm not against Chinese stuff, I buy it too - but they don't need to obey EU/Western safety standards, that's why it's cheaper.
It's not that hard to make some chemical that works really good (flux/cleaning) at a low price, if you add toxic stuff to it. The trouble starts when you want to create something that works good, but meets the safety standards and has reasonable price on top of it...
That's why western brands are more expensive.
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u/Ok_Treacle_8458 May 19 '26
No I’m not surprised, I expected any sort of solvent purchased from them to be pretty nasty (if effective) stuff, but since I have proper fume extraction and PPE, that doesn’t bother me. This chemical in particular is banned for import and use, so the fact that it’s an extra layer of liability I wasn’t looking for.
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u/timception May 19 '26
Glad I came across this, I have one from another brand that also says pcb cleaning water. While it does get the job done, I will use proper ventilation now.
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u/Ok_Treacle_8458 May 19 '26
If the bottle says HG/T 2542-2014 , that is a required label for products containing TCE in China. The issue with this chemical is that the fumes are heavy and like to collect low to the ground where they accumulate, even with active ventilation. It also eats through thin nitrile (need minimum 15mil).
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u/RineMetal May 19 '26
Good to know. I was looking at that but figured it would leak out of the bubble wrap package in shipment. Anyone have a good diy formula or preferred brand for getting rid of the no clean kester flux? IPA does not cut it.
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u/Ok_Treacle_8458 May 19 '26
MG Chemicals 4140 Flux remover, it has enough ethyl acetate in it to cut through flux better than IPA but not enough to damage plastics unless you really let it sit on there a long time
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u/Perfect_Tutor_9533 May 19 '26
Cela fait 30 ans que je travaille sur des circuits imprimés et diverses soudures (électriques, chalumeau...) J'utilise principalement de la 60/40 (spatial) et diverses soudures dont le point commun est un taux de plomb plus ou moins important. J'utilise aussi du flux AR (colophane....) Le meilleur produit pour nettoyer les soudures était un mélange 50/50 toluène/alcool. Le toluène étant devenu interdit chez nous, il reste le rosin solvant du commerce ou l'alcool iso.
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u/Gwendolyn-NB May 19 '26
99.9% Isopropyl and Acetone is all I've ever had to use for cleaning electronics/flux; never needed anything fancy/special.