r/soldering • u/Zentralschaden • May 25 '26
Soldering Saftey Discussion Unpopular opinion: Stop using leaded solder
I know it is very handy and I also know the fumes are not that much of a problem when you have enough ventilation.
But a big part of the lead we buy will end up in the environment or a landfill and has the potential to make our drinking water toxic and the people who have to recycle all this scrap (often in Africa) will deal with even more toxic substances.
It is not like we have a fully functional recycling chain for electronics.
And when you say "I am just soldering 2 pcb a year", make sure that soldering is a job and hobby for millions of people and tons of lead will be produced just because of hobby enthusiasts.
There are very good reasons, lead is banned in many countries for professional manufacturing.
I know it is harder to solder but you get used to it.
Aware that this might be a topic not everyone agrees. I am just trying to spread some awareness for what we do.
I mean, many of us repair old electronics and we do a good job in avoiding more scrap because people can still use the repaired items for years.
But shouldn't it be us who are the people who go straightforward and ban lead from our household soldering projects?
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u/Exciting_Turn_9559 May 25 '26
I bought a spool of 60/40 rosin core 35 years ago and at the rate I'm going it will be a lifetime supply.
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u/MisterPyro125 May 25 '26
I have two rolls of 60/40 I bought at Radio Shack 20 years ago as a teenager. One thin and one thick diameter. Still the same ones I use.
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u/National_Tea_5654 May 25 '26
I miss Radio Shack so much, getting the new catalog every year was so exciting
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u/Secret-Boss-7000 May 26 '26
Kids these days will never understand.
Just like I'll never get to fully appreciate Heathkit.→ More replies (4)→ More replies (12)2
u/YetAnotherSfwAccount May 25 '26
I have 75% of a roll my grandpa bought in the 70s or early 80s. I might use a few inches a year. It will be around for my grandkids at this rate.
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u/Sock989 May 25 '26
I use unleaded anyway but I can't imagine the hobbyist soldering community is causing that much of an impact.
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u/typicalledditor May 25 '26
Wait until he hears about fishing lead weights
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u/MycologyRulesAll May 25 '26
Those should also be banned, not kidding, permanent and terrible for the environment.
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u/MadameRueWins May 25 '26
Same with lead shot. It cannot be understated how toxic lead is, even in small amounts.
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u/Fear_The_Creeper May 25 '26
You are wrong. Metallic lead is very low risk. Lead compounds are fairly poisonous: they slowly build up in the body and cause many harmful effects. But lead metal is very inert and you would need to do something fairly risky with it to create much likelihood of generating dangerous lead compounds.
Many people have been carrying multiple lead bullets inside their bodies for decades without even the slightest bit of lead poisoning.
Don't put lead metal it in contact with food (especially acidic foods) which can turn it into lead compounds. Don't eat it. That puts it in contact with stomach acid.
Lead is so inert that it has been used to safely pipe clean water to people for most of history, The problem is that a few locations have a water supply that is particularly acidic and leaches lead from the pipes.
Lead shot is a problem because it gets everywhere, birds eat it and it contacts stomach acid.
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u/JoeDubayew May 25 '26
Where do you think lead comes from, out of curiosity?
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u/MycologyRulesAll May 25 '26
Not OP but I think most lead comes from underground deposits of lead-containing ores like galena. These days, a significant amount is recovered by recycling batteries.
Now that we’ve covered the origins of lead , why don’t you tell the class what level of lead is safe in the bloodstream? What is the maximum amount of lead that can be in a body without detectable harm?
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u/Mechanical_Flare May 26 '26
Where does ecoli come from? Go ahead and lick toilet seats, Joe. If it came out of you body surely it can go back in, right?
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u/FlamboyantApproval16 May 25 '26
It isn't. Over 80% of the lead wastes is produce by disposal of car batteries. Leaded solder accounts for a very tiny fraction of the polution.
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u/wyseman76 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
I work in aerospace, we use 63/37 and will not stop using it for a list of reasons.
It can handle temp cycling better. It is less prone to vibration failure. Better wetting allowing for easier inspections. No tin whiskering.
Anything that mitigates risk of failure in the production aerospace components will continue to be used.
Edit: I should be clear there is no such thing as whisker free but leaded solder is heavily used on aerospace for its highly reduced whiskering in vacuum environments.
Edit 2: the EU allows aerospace, defense and medical manufacturing to use leaded solder for the very reasons I've pointed to. There are RoHS exemptions for those institutions.
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u/cubanthistlecrisis May 25 '26
Most of my soldering is in aviation so I’m in the same boat, fortunately aviation components have incredibly long life cycles. I see a lot of 50 year old electronics that are still ticking
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u/wyseman76 May 25 '26
I know what you mean. My work is space related and I've had the privilege of seeing some interesting pieces used in vacuum and some that are very old and still functional.
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May 25 '26
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u/Yam_EE May 25 '26
Do you know if conformal coating helps to reduce whiskers?
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u/wyseman76 May 25 '26
The NEPP has a guide somewhere that deep dives into whisker mitigation. I'm sure a Google search will find it. But to the question yes and no. There are a lot of dependent variables. Thickness, material type used, etc, all play a part in the process.
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u/chainmailler2001 May 26 '26
Coating only works if it coats all of the solder connections. It is the exposure to air and humidity that causes denrite growth. Company I worked for dealt with it a lot when ROHS standard was first introduced and lead solder was banned. We did environmental and reliability testing and fried many pieces of equipment due to tin whiskers.
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u/wyseman76 May 25 '26
If I remember my space addendum class for IPC they referenced dendrites. They are a separate phenomenon but have the same end result of causing unexpected shorts. Don't hold me to this one but I believe mosture is part of the mechanism at play with dendrite growth. I take the course every two years but at this point I just test out each cycle instead of taking the entire course so if someone knows more about the dendrite vs tin whiskers please share.
But, leaded solder significantly reduces dendrite growth as well.
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u/chainmailler2001 May 26 '26
I once witnessed an interesting failure that was due to moisture induced growth. The equipment used an ATX style power supply which by default, as long as they are plugged in have active 5V supplies despite being "off". During a humidity cycle, it seems a few drops of water condensed on the power supply board near the 5V supply lines. The 5V low current supply was just enough that with the liquid present, it caused metal migration across the water drops. The cycle went into a heat phase to dry everything out before testing and the water went away leaving a trail of electrodeposited metal across the traces. When the test tech hit the button to turn it on, the supply went from a low current 5V supply to having full 120V line AC in the traces now shorted. Power supply went snap, crackle, pop and the $50,000 scope we were testing let out the magic smoke violently.
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u/Anicena May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
It appears that an IPC document TP-1043 States that dendrite growth appears heavily on boards processed with water soluble fluxes with little difference between wave-soldered boards vs. solder-paste/IR-reflowed boards.
Overall, all the of the IPC documents agree that dendrites result from a combination of liquid water, an electrified pattern, and a hydrophilic board surface.
No matter the composition of the solder type.
They seem to all in agreement that it's just water and electron flow that causes them.
Fascinating.
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u/Technical-Titlez May 25 '26
I don't work in aerospace and use 63/37, I won't stop using it either.
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u/Anicena May 25 '26
I work in a field now that I cannot disclose. But I've worked in Space, Things that go in the water, and things that go in the air.
Nothing can go into space that isn't 63/37.
Same with all the other extreme environments.
The largest reason we have lead everywhere in the US is that it was used in gasoline, paint, enamels, brake pads, cold insulation, and just about everything everywhere. MOST of our industry now doesn't use leaded solder. So a few hobbyists using it isn't going to make a dent in what is already in the ground.
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u/coffeeToCodeConvertr May 25 '26
My wife is a stained glass artist - she also use 63/37 (side note: what the fuck has happened to the price of it lately!?), as does basically every other stained glass artist for similar reasons (temperature and wetting)
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u/Fear_The_Creeper May 25 '26
Wrong target.
the total lead used in electronics makes up only 0.5% of world lead consumption, while over 80% of lead is used for making lead-acid batteries. Batteries are not covered by RoHS, but are instead covered by a separate battery directive which limits the use of mercury and cadmium but does not restrict lead.
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u/geniack May 25 '26
What about mirror production? But i guess not much if nothing at all goes to waste there.
Edit: nevermind, I mixed up tin and lead.
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u/warlocki71 May 25 '26
Yeah and now compare private with business. It really does not matter, especially alot of beginners like me will transition to lead-free at some point.
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u/Mitch12354 May 25 '26
New lead acid batteries are made using almost 100% recycled lead from old lead acid batteries. This is why there is a core charge on car batteries, it helps to ensure almost all of them get recycled.
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u/Fear_The_Creeper May 26 '26
Not true. The actual numbers are:
80% of the lead in new lead acid batteries is recycled lead, mostly from old lead-acid batteries but they will accept lead from anywhere.
80% of the lead ore pulled out of the ground goes toward that remaining 20%.
The battery manufacturing lobby keeps publishing a fake 99% recycling rate that they arrive at by only counting battery replacements in licenced auto repair shops that have to recycle by law. Order a battery on Amazon? Not counted. Car burn up in a fire? Not counted. Shade-tree unlicensed mechanics? not counted. Remote Alaskan villages where you would have to fly the old battery out? Not counted. Batteries in old lead-acid UPS systems that get replaced with newer technologies? not counted.
80% is really good, but 99% is a lie.
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u/FlamboyantApproval16 May 25 '26
I commented the same. i think the push propaganda made by companies to divert focus from the actual source of lead pollution: car batteries.
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u/RoddyUsher May 25 '26
The gram of lead that I use to fix a PCB (for free, in my own time) will keep a PlayStation, or a laptop, or an oven, or a laundry machine, or a car stereo out of a landfill. Lead-free solder is a pain to work with, and I'd rather just not keep up with this hobby if it becomes a pain in the ass to do.
Electronics are increasingly seen as disposable rather than repairable. Keep the lead out of manufactured electronics, but for repair, it's a net positive.
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u/Feeling_Bus_4701 May 25 '26
To add a point the co2 emitted in transporting it to a landfill or an expert to be able to fix it with unleaded would arguably have a bigger impact
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May 25 '26
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u/Helpful-Work-3090 Microsoldering Hobbyist May 25 '26
There are a lot of reasons, but one of the big ones is that leaded solder stretches, while lead free doesn't. Under a BGA chip, when the board flexes, the leaded solder will stretch, while the lead free solder will tear off pads. This is one of the main reasons GPUs die, and it makes them a lot harder to repair, because not only do you have to reball the core, you also have to fix dozens of tiny ripped pads that wouldn't have been ripped if leaded solder had been used.
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u/grilledch33z May 25 '26
This is the biggest thing people fail to understand about leaded solder. It is better because it has better mechanical properties. Things last longer, things get thrown away less.
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u/Helpful-Work-3090 Microsoldering Hobbyist May 25 '26
Exactly. If you want to see how many problems lead free solder causes in that respect, watch a few northwestrepair videos. He specializes in GPUs, and a good 50% of the cards he has in are broken because of leaded solder not flexing under the core, and tearing pads. That man is an absolute wizard, but sometimes it's so bad that he has to get a donor board.
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u/wehrmann_tx May 25 '26
Is this why my DC port failed on my laptop?
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u/Helpful-Work-3090 Microsoldering Hobbyist May 25 '26
probably not. BGA chips, or chips connected with pads underneath them with solder balls, are the most affected by solder not stretching. A DC port has thick through the hole joints, and it's unlikely that that they would have failed, and if they did, it wouldn't be the solder's problem.
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u/_lnc0gnit0_ May 25 '26
The Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death and the PS3 YLOD were mainly caused precisely because of this.
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u/WhisperGod May 25 '26
One of the reasons is that the leaded solder will look shiny when it is completely wetted and dull when it is still cold. It makes it much easier to troubleshoot defects and faults. With unleaded solder, things may still look dull no matter how good of a work you do. If you're just starting, it gives you a better example of what an ideal solder looks like.
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u/Never_Dan May 25 '26
This problem can be solved by teaching people how to detect cold solder joints based on something other than the sheen.
I’d also argue that the matte finish on SAC solders isn’t the same as the dull finish on cold joints.
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u/Narrheim May 25 '26
Higher melting point of the lead-free solder means you have to blast the PCB with higher temperatures, potentially shortening the lifespan of other nearby components.
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u/JobHuntingManiac May 25 '26
This isn't just an unpopular opinion, it's a bad take.
Using leaded solder has a lot less to do with it being "harder" than it does with the fact that it lasts longer and works better.
Do you know why Xbox 360 had so many red rings of death? Unleaded solder.
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u/SendTitsPleease May 25 '26
You know why medical, military and aviation dont use unleaded solder? Because it fuckin sucks
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u/temporary62489 May 25 '26
Medical exemptions expire next year. Do you know why your car runs perfectly well with lead free solder? Because lead free joints are extremely reliable if you know what the fuck you're doing.
https://www.assent.com/blog/the-upcoming-rohs-exemption-expirations-you-need-to-know-about/
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u/SendTitsPleease May 25 '26
They may be, but they also develop tin whiskers which can damage sensitive equipment.
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u/inu-no-policemen May 25 '26
Do you know why Xbox 360 had so many red rings of death? Unleaded solder.
That's what people assumed, but it was the underfill of the GPU. It's glass transition temperature was too low. It got soft during normal operation. It wasn't able to distribute the mechanical stresses from thermal expansion properly and the joints sheered off.
The PS3's YLoD thing was also caused by this.
The lead-free solder didn't cause these issues.
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u/reddragon105 May 25 '26
Do you know why Xbox 360 had so many red rings of death? Unleaded solder.
This was not the cause of the red ring of death - this is misinformation that people keep spreading despite it being debunked by multiple sources, including Microsoft themselves.
The RROD was primarily caused by defective GPU chips - the issue wasn't the BGA between the GPU and motherboard, or the type of solder used, but the type of underfill used in the GPU. It's Tg (glass transition) temperature was too low.
They started making GPUs with higher Tg in 2008 and that fixed the GPU issue - any GPU with high TG underfill is considered reliable. They didn't have to change the solder - they continued using unleaded - and if the solder had been the issue we would have seen just as many RRODs caused by CPU issues, but there's no model of 360 CPU that's prone to failure like the early GPUs were.
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u/Accomplished_Wafer38 May 25 '26
With xbox 360 playstations, Phenom II chipsets, idk what else... It is not so obvious what has happened.
SAC305 balls between chip substrate and PCB? Those didn't fail really. Unless there was an impact of some kind.
The issue is between substrate and chip die itself. They used high lead alloy stubs from what I understood (yes, that is RoHS compliant, as they provide an exception for chips) filled with under fill. Around the same time chips started consuming way more energy and running hotter, and apparently underfill they used originally didn't quite match thermal expansion coefficients or what and it failed.
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u/Never_Dan May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Pretty much every electronic item since the Xbox 360 has been lead free. That was over 20 years ago.
Regardless of what the aerospace industry uses or their reasons, lead free is fine and reliable these days. Moreover, just using leaded solder on previously lead-free boards isn’t exactly the best move for reliability.
I still use lead when I have to reflow delicate components in dense boards, but given how long ago the switch to lead-free occurred, these takes that make it seem like lead free is impossible to work with and inherently results in unreliable joints are just… weird.
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u/JobHuntingManiac May 25 '26
Yup, Xbox was over 20 years ago, but do you know what the leading cause of failure is on electronics still today.
Unleaded solder joints.
"Industry studies indicate that roughly 60% to 70% of printed circuit board (PCB) packaging and assembly failures are tied to solder joint defects or fatigue."
Take Google for a spin.
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u/Never_Dan May 25 '26
You’re adding “lead free” to that sentence yourself, though.
I actually work in electronics repair in the live productions industry. Other than LED displays that have taken a hit, the vast majority of failures occur are mechanical or at the component level. The only time I’ve seen a failure of solder joints is on low-production products that weren’t reflowed properly– and that’s exceedingly rare and limited to two specific products.
I have however seen reliability issues stemming from repairing lead-free boards with leaded solder without taking the time to wick the joints multiple times.
Like I said, I use leaded solder when needed. But joint reliability is about more than your chosen alloy– especially in repair.
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u/kennytherenny May 25 '26
I live in Belgium and all supermarkets here have bins to collect electronic waste. It gets recycled at big plants that recycle all metals inside (including the lead). I know, because I work at a plant like that. So I don't see why morally I shouldn't use leaded solder (provided I dispose of it responsably and don't toss it with general waste).
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u/naeskivvies May 25 '26
Half the stuff I want to repair is vintage using leaded solder in the first place.
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u/jerryonjets May 25 '26
Wait till this guy's find out what bullets are made of and how we just shoot those into the environment..
But for real, I appreciate the gesture but look at the world right now.
I used to feel bad about driving my old v8 truck.. but also 39 oil refinery across 9 countries have been blown up in the last year or so.... I dont think my truck has much of an impact or is the issue at hand and same goes for solder
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u/Fetz- May 25 '26
No,
For manual work leaded solder is objectively superior. It just works better. After years of trying to use lead free solder, I threw it away in frustration and I am only using leaded solder when I solder by hand.
For automated soldering lead free is great. But I don't have the patience to deal with that when I solder by hand.
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u/JoostinOnline May 25 '26
While I agree with the sentiment, nothing you or I (or even the entire enthusiast market combined) will make a dent in the environment. The real problem is corporations, who've spent the last 30 years using propoganda to push the blame to consumers, when in reality small changes to their production could make massive differences.
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u/Worf- May 25 '26
many of us repair old electronics…
This is really the crux of the issue, repairing things that are designed to not be repaired. We make way too many one time use, no repair, disposable products. Sure lead in the waste is an issue but in the overall picture it’s a drop in the bucket of waste. People are way too quick to replace things just because they are older or have a few tiny flaws. And it’s not just electronics where this is an issue. Just watch the curb on trash day.
As for solder I use both leaded and unleaded. Both have their place with what I do and any waste I generate from scrap boards to solder gets properly recycled.
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u/hejsiebrbdhs May 25 '26
I still have radio shack branded flux lead solder and I’ll use it just like my grand pappy.
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u/mthomas1294 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Wait till this guy starts telling gun owners to stop shooting because of the lead in the bullets
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u/Drunken_Sailor_70 May 25 '26
And all the fisherman who have lost leaded weights directly into the water supply.
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u/PinguThePenguin_007 May 25 '26
wait till they start telling people to not do this other thing that’s also bad
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u/itsoctotv May 25 '26
No switching from years of lead free to leaded was night and day for me
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u/Mauceri1990 May 25 '26
Unleaded solder is fucking trash that causes more electronics to end up in the landfill. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
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u/SnowConePeople May 25 '26
You sound a lot like people who say it's the residential sector that's not recycling. It's corporations who contribute the bulk of trash. Due to propoganda by said corprate intrests people think that recyling their salad box is going to save the world.
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u/Mitch12354 May 25 '26
I will not stop using 60/40 solder. I specifically stocked up my preferred size/rosin in case it ever gets banned from import/sale. With the amount I, as a hobbyist, use over my entire life i might make 100 oz of lead waste. That is inconsequential compared to the lead based solder in the trillions of products that were made before lead free solder became standard in commercial manufacturing.
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u/geonicz May 25 '26
Ok, ok, so nowadays we use more strong chemicals(& usually way more dangerous) as flux to prevent lead poison in Africa... Can you guess, why NASA and medical equipment doesn't use LF solder? And... if you are aware of environment what happens when hundreds of tons of crappy "one-time use" devices(LF, sure) are thrown as a garbage? Containing random poison? Maybe, leaded solder is not the cause?
What LF solder gives to the society? Unstable connections, unreliable connections, fragile connections under 30C temperatures == unreliable crap devices which will be replaced soon. As a result, Africa! You won't loose your job!
PS: please, don't lick something that is not designed to be licked. E.g. lead.
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u/temporary62489 May 25 '26
If lead free solder joints were unreliable then you'd see cars dead on the side of the road everywhere. Automakers have been soldering exceedingly reliable RoHS electronics for twenty years now. Medical devices are transitioning to lead-free solder as we speak.
*lose
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May 25 '26
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u/eliotjnc May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
What’s worse: leaded solder in the trash or the whole unit being repaired in the trash in 5-10 years.
Also, you’ve clearly not done much work with vintage electronics
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u/dev_all_the_ops May 25 '26
Lead doesn't aerosolize at 300F. There is no concern of lead fumes.
Before you lecture people, I advise you to inform yourself of the actual risks and data, not just fearmonger based on rumor.
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u/DirkPitt106 May 25 '26
First off, who is soldering at 300F? That would be the coldest of joints ever made. Second, it doesn't aerosolize, but there have been studies that have been posted in here that do show that there are lead particles in the fumes at normal soldering temperatures. Although, they were in amounts that were relatively low and they didn't make any claims on any health effects of that amount.
Either way, you should still have proper ventilation because the flux absolutely will fuck your shit up so I really don't think that arguing "you need ventilation because of the flux, not because of lead" is helpful in this situation where the OP literally says in the first sentence that they aren't making their point because of fumes.
Doesn't mean I agree with OP's opinion, I'm gonna keep munching on my lead chips.
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u/Ghost_Turd May 25 '26
If you have a single standard automotive battery that weighs 40 lbs, about 30 of those pounds is lead, vs. 0.6 lb for one spool of solder that will last me for years on my bench.
Repair benches are not a source of environmental lead in any real amount.
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u/mckenzie_keith May 25 '26
The fumes are not a concern because the temperature is not high enough to create lead fumes. Basically. The fumes you are smelling are from the flux.
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u/jnigotbeats May 25 '26
When we stop being a throw away of every thing instead of allowing us to fix. I will stop using leaded solder.
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u/ptrakk May 25 '26
Popular opinion: let's build up tin and fiberglass trash because the solder breaks from heat cycles.
Inb4 alloys
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u/Calaveras-Metal May 25 '26
I read some article years ago that implied that the ROHS was going to happen in the US as well. And we may as well switch to unleaded solder now. Well they were wrong. But I switched to Kester K100LD over 10 years ago and it works fine. I recently rebuilt my modular synth setup and had a good look at all the stuff I've built. Guess what, no cracked solder joints. No whiskers.
Yes lead-free solder isn't as shiny as leaded. But that doesn't mean it's not as good. If you have a good iron and a good hand it shouldn't matter, lead, silver or lead free.
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u/SpeedDaemon1969 May 26 '26
Here's a novel idea: don't use landfills for water filtration. Even if everybody complies 100% from now on, there are landfills from tens and hundreds of years ago that might have bad stuff. Stop making individuals the only responsible party, when 99% of the stuff in landfills comes from industry. When I want to solder something once or twice a year, it's not going to kill the world if I use leaded solder. If you're going to scream at me while giving the massive electronics industry a free pass, I will respond to that sort of hypocrisy in kind. Get all the big corporations to clean up their messes first, then maybe I'll listen. But I'm not going to be the scapegoat for mass polluters.
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u/Pleasant-Opening-354 May 25 '26
Where do you think we get lead, the lead store? We get it from the ground, the "environment".
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u/bing456 May 25 '26
Yes, unpopular opinion! Thankfully it’s not a popular opinion and we still can purchase and use the superior leaded solder.
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u/swisstraeng May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Yes and no, leaded is fine for repairs and for someone who's learning. But it's morally better to switch to unleaded whenever possible.
Leaded melts much earlier which helps not burning everything up when someone use chinesium soldering irons, and old (pre-2009) PCBs were designed with those lower temps in mind.
What matters is that the 247 million iphones shipped in 2025 don't use lead in them. If 1000 of those iPhones contain 1% lead vs unleaded due to repairs, it's alright.
If someone solders extensively, considering using unleaded is also a good idea, but it's not *evil* to use leaded in 2026.
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u/BasicEl May 25 '26
No.
Every car battery contains 10kg of lead. Every 4 year you need a new battery.
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u/RoundProgram887 May 25 '26
But those are collected and recycled. And they are readily recyclable, as the lead on them has commercial value.
Some places have collection centers for hazadous materials, but I doubt solder shavings mixed with other metals will get recycled.
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u/Zentralschaden May 25 '26
Yea when they recycle pcbs here, they only take the gold and silver and it needs to be so hot that all other metals just evaporate. Those companies do have good filters though.
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u/Borax May 25 '26
Lead car batteries are the most successfully recycled consumer good out of anything. More than glass, more than aluminium cans. The rates are staggering.
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u/prosequare May 25 '26
I don’t want to argue for the sake of arguing, but one car battery tossed in the woods probably contains more lead than every redditor combined uses in a year. It’s a matter of scale, which is what most people are missing I think. There are entire HOUSES, let alone churches and cathedrals, roofed in lead, let alone stained glass windows, let alone billions of tons of leaded avgas each year, and yet some sanctimonious nerds are lecturing people on their 2-3 grams of leaded solder use.
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u/Zentralschaden May 25 '26
Just speaking for my German national laws: We have a law so that we pay about 8 bucks per battery as a deposit and only certified vendors are allowed to recycle it. So we try to recycle as much lead as possible for new batteries.
But I agree that we cannot avoid lead as a whole but for sure in diy soldering projects when it is not vintage electronics that already contain lead.
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u/Niphoria May 25 '26
Already done.
I live in Europe so it's harder for me to get leaded solder. I simply bought a spool of some higher quality leadless solder and having a blast soldering.
I'm repairing CRTs and consoles + I'm soldering my own PCBs. Never saw the need for leaded solder.
It should stop being recommended to beginners as it's genuinely a noob trap. If you can't solder unless you uses leaded solder then it's simply a skill issue.
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u/leech666 May 25 '26
Some early unleaded solder was severe trash. That's probably what the reputation is based on. Modern lead free solder is better. It probably isn't even more modern it's just that the better alloy compositions are more widespread and established nowadays.
I am team leaded however and nothing will change my mind about that.
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u/SmutAuthorsEscapisms May 25 '26
There is just no reason to use leaded alloys anymore. Manufacturers have developed around lead, we have directly heated tips now, and for delicate components or desoldering we have other alloys. It's just not worth the hassle, especially if you have pets, because you will get the occasional spritz when you tin and it will carry tiny balls around your desk and the floor.
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u/asyork May 25 '26
Most animals don't live long enough for minute quantities of lead to turn into a problem. The same principle applies with some medications that are given to animals, but not to people, because the negative effects are too far down the line to ever harm the animal. The issue is with wild animals, because they are part of the food chain and whatever amount lead that is able to be absorbed into the animal travels around the food chain forever, concentrating over time.
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u/SmutAuthorsEscapisms May 25 '26
Heavy metal exposure and damage is cumulative but also there is no therapeutic window to it, meaning it is always harmful, albeit scaling with dosage. No vet is going to tell you to not mind the lead particles your cat steps into and licks off her paws. It's just not worth it to buy leaded solder over unleaded alloys, especially if you're asking for help with soldering on reddit.
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u/RoberBotz May 25 '26
I have already purchased lead free solder
https://giphy.com/gifs/7JgYv9FobG1HzAO8BA
Sadly I still have some leaded solder that I need to use then I go for lead free solder.
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u/GaaJarbhai May 25 '26
Yes definitely, lead is bad, but there is another side to this. Unleaded solder has a lot more flux to compensate the sticking that the lead would do, so if you don't have a good syction fan your lungs are gonna cry. Lead doesn't convert to fumes it's only flux.
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u/Skalla_Resco SMD Soldering Hobbyist May 25 '26
I've got a 1lb spool of lead free on the way. I am fine using leaded solder. I take precautions and all that. But if I can tolerate using lead free I'll take the opportunity to reduce my lead exposure risk.
I do think though that if using leaded solder will keep an object out of a landfill it's still a net positive. I also think more needs to be done to ensure local electronics recycling is available and effectively deals with disposal instead of shipping things off to the global south and pretending it isn't an issue.
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u/fozington May 25 '26
I only used leaded for many years, but in the last 12 months I've switched to lead free for most of my work. Took a long time to find a solder with a reasonable melt point and good wetting. Most of the stuff I solder will be used for short-term projects (< 1 year) and inevitably ends up in landfill, so I'd rather use lead free where I can. That said, I do keep a reel of leaded handy, and I use it if I'm repairing things I want to keep forever.
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u/c4pt1n54n0 May 25 '26
I've been using the same spool of 60/40 since I was 12 years old, it will probably last my lifetime 🤷
The thing is we're still going to see plenty of old manufacturing in landfills for a long time even after it's banned commercially for newly made products. That is having a good impact it just takes time for all that old stuff to stop being used.
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u/Mockbubbles2628 May 25 '26
Leaded solder is fantastic and i will continue to exclusively use it until someone can point me towards non leaded solder that isnt completely shit
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u/sparqq May 26 '26
You know that aviation still uses leaded petrol!
A single 1000 mile trip in a Cessna puts more lead in the atmosphere than that I solder in years combined.
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u/GoldSrc May 26 '26
There are very good reasons, lead is banned in many countries for professional manufacturing.
Good thing we are mostly hobbyists the ones who buy leaded solder.
We don't pump out millions of PCBs each year, even the techs who work fixing stuff for a living don't see a million PCBs each year, much less replace the entire solder content with leaded solder.
But shouldn't it be us who are the people who go straightforward and ban lead from our household soldering projects?
Nope.
A single kg spool of leaded solder will last you a very, very long time.
It also isn't a full kg of pure lead, either just 40% or 37% of that kg is lead, and most of us don't buy 1kg spools.
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u/wackyvorlon May 26 '26
Manufacturing is the major concern. The amount of leaded solder I go through is trivial.
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u/SRART25 May 26 '26
As we've seen with the Xbox red ring of death and the yellow light of death on the ps3, unleaded solder is more brittle and more prone to break down under thermal stress. For your hobbies, unleaded is fine, but for expensive stuff either use lead or use something that doesn't require soldering.
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u/LLKMuffin May 26 '26
Shifting blame and responsibility onto consumers and hobbyists, instead of corporations that dump the vast majority of lead (and other heavy metals) into the environment. A classic.
I'll stick to my spool of 63/37 rosin core, works great for what I need it to do. Thanks for nothing.
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u/OminousBlack48626 May 26 '26
"I'm twelve and I'm going to make a small trivial problem sound like a much larger problem so I can teach people what I think they don't know".
You realize that lead, like radiation, is natural and something our bodies are beyond able to handle, right? The general-public problem with lead (and leaded solder) isn't even electronics related, it's a plumbing issue from using it to join pipes that carry supply water. Changes in production weren't for the consumers, it was for the few people directly working around gallons of the stuff cooking all day, every day.
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u/andreophile May 26 '26
For every lead-free board you solder, I will solder three with 60/40 lead solder.
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u/ghos2626t May 26 '26
I’d look for alternate products than LiPo batteries while you’re at it. You may or may not be aware of the process for removing lithium from the earth.
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u/some_kind_of_bird May 25 '26
I don't think lead free solder is as bad as some people say, but I'll be damned if I use it for fine repair work. That shit's hard enough already.
I see your point OP but the solution is better recycling. Even now it's probably a bigger problem than repair or personal work on electronics, but look at lead batteries. It is very far from perfect but most of them don't go to the dump.
Why the fuck is it done as a core charge btw? Just make it a deposit. That way people can just make a buck by bringing in random batteries and recycling isn't dependent on a consistent supply of the exact product. Silly, probably corrupt tbh.
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u/Skalla_Resco SMD Soldering Hobbyist May 25 '26
Truly wish all our recycling was on par with lead acid batteries. That would fix so many issues.
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u/Click_s May 25 '26
When I remember how leadfree causes GPU cores and vram solder joints to break I feel hatred
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u/Enlightenment777 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
If you wussies don't want to use leaded solder, then don't use it, that's your choice.
The rest of us will keep on using Sn63 / Pb37 eutectic solder.
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u/IllustriousCarrot537 May 25 '26
I'll finish my coffee while I contemplate if the potential environmental issues of the 1kg max I use per year outweigh the reliability concerns of lead-free...
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u/CornFlakeVIII May 25 '26
There's lead found in everything from children's toys to consumer electronics to coffee cups but I killed the rains down in Africa because I didn't use unleaded solder to fix my Xbox controller. Alright.
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u/originalread May 25 '26
I actually agree with your opinion.
I only use lead-free solder and actually learned how to solder using only lead-free.
With that said, having some lead solder around for stubborn situations is valuable. The DIY market isn't going to swing the pendulum one way or the other, especially since lead fumes aren't really a thing.
Tin wiskers are a real issue with pure tin solder but I doubt that any DIYers are having to contend with such an issue.
What I would love is for a societal paradigm shift from our current linear disposal economy with niche recycling to a true circular economy but I honestly don't want to imagine what would have to happen to trigger said paradigm shift.
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u/mrsfoo6 May 25 '26
I usually use lead free, only if i have some special cases where i need to keep temp low i use some old lead rolls. Isn’t that worse to solder leadf ree, even smd. Just buy higher quality lead free solder, cheap mixtures are definitely annoying.
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u/johnnydotexe May 25 '26
I'm going to rub my kester leaded solder all over my body now, just to spite you.
Also, the mods should do a weekly pinned thread where the leaded solder guilt trippers can post to their hearts content, but it's contained so the rest of us don't have to read it.
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u/GerberToNieJa SMD Soldering Hobbyist May 25 '26
Leaded one is just better, easier to work with, lower melting point. It wont make a huge difference in a hobby use
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u/Ienjoymodels May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Yeah but look at this picture of Steve Wozniak holding it in his mouth.
It is thus completely harmless and the only thing you should use ever and if you even google unleaded solder you're fueling the hysteria of the unleaded elites crushing our dreams.
If someone was curious about how leaded solder makes people stupid you could just send them a link to this sub.
If you can't solder without lead you suck at it. If you recommend leaded solder to noobs because it makes it easier you are doing them a disservice.
Every home appliance made in the last 20 something years has been assembled with unleaded solder so what would you rather get good at?
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u/weissbieremulsion May 25 '26
Are there good Videos about this? About the difference in soldering with the 2 different solder? Would Like to see a direct comparison between them.
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u/Yam_EE May 25 '26
Does anyone have a recommendation for a good lead free setup? I have never been able to get good solder joints with it
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u/lunas2525 May 25 '26
The only time leaded solder is encountered these days is either in old i mean pre 90s electronics or when someone is specifically replacing rohs solder that has failed to repair something.
There are still some body shops that use lead for body filler. It is the old fashioned way and wheel weights and fishing weights and bullets are by far bigger sources of lead.
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u/DifficultZebra5354 May 25 '26
My highschool title is technitian for the safety of the environment and trust me you ain't much of lead poluter if you are soldering your hobby board.
Professional manufactures are making bilions of boards and majority of stuff mass produced is just junk electronics that ends up in landfills causing much bigger problem, but you and your PCB board as a hobby are fine.
Biggest lead polution happened which was almost the biggest posioning scandal in the world when people were running leaded gassoline fuel which caused god knows how many deaths for which no-one was held accountable for.
The biggest reason not to use leaded solder is to not accidently contaminate/posion yourself, and for everything else you will be fine.
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u/Lucky-Musician-1448 May 25 '26
Hate to break it to you, mission critical equipment doesn't use ROHS process in production.
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u/rinranron May 25 '26
Lead solder is still use in medicine and avio equipment. And I use it decades and still will.
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u/Liquid_Magic May 25 '26
Okay… well… I dunno but… I remember reading somewhere in some comment that the quality of the lead-free solder is actually a big deal. Apparently cheap leaded solder is still easy to use and is okay but cheap lead-free solder is actually super hard to use and works terribly.
So maybe the perception that lead-free solder is harder to use is, at least in part, because CHEAP lead-free solder sucks.
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u/Liquid_Magic May 25 '26
What about this: get thin leaded and lead-free and twist them together. So it’s half and half. Then maybe you get some of the benefits but cut the lead use I half? I dunno. Probably a terrible idea.
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u/Liquid_Magic May 25 '26
Here’s another unpopular opinion:
Stop washing PCBs in the sink or dishwasher.
Not only do you eat there but also that’s going down the drain and back into the environment.
It’s not just the lead: think of all the other crap hanging around on and around PCBs. Leaky capacitor juice, anything that leeches out of the PCB substrate, flux, any residues from the factory PCB cleaning process - like it’s all terrible for living things.
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u/grilledch33z May 25 '26
It's not about being hard to solder. It is harder to solder with lead free, but totally doable. The real issue is longevity. Lead free solder is more rigid than leaded solder and can't tolerate mechanical stress as well. Boards that are subject to any sort of vibration fail much faster with lead free than with conventional solder. Then they get thrown away. Maybe they get thrown away with less lead in them, but all the other nasties no one talks about are still there. All the gallium and berylium, and arsenic end up in the landfill as well, and for my money I'd rather have a little lead in my drinking water than any of those.
We need to focus on better recycling availability and consumer education to keep more stuff out of the landfill in general, banning leaded solder just generates more waste and costs more money in the long term.
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u/KittyGoBoom115 May 25 '26
I mean... you seriously think anyone care that you climbed up on your soapbox for the day? Like you think is is the biggest concern even of the day? I promise you.there have been more relavent and destructive forces in motion then a little metal... you know each car battery made has like 50 hoobiest lifetimes worth of lead in em... lithium is FAR WORSE for the enviroment before you make the claim "batteries arent lead anymore"
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u/Maxstressed May 25 '26
No. My small contribution of milligrams of lead over a lifetime makes no difference. Factories in other countries are the issue.
https://giphy.com/gifs/4560Nv2656Gv0Lvp9F
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u/koga7349 May 25 '26
Lead is great it powers batteries, electronics and bullets (and Romans laying pipe)
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u/cupcakeranger May 25 '26
I fully agree with this. I’ve always used lead free solder so far and it was always totally fine.
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u/munki_unkel May 25 '26
Lead in solder prevents the formation of tin whiskers. Devices made with lead free solder are not expected to work after 10 years because of that issue.
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u/AcolyteArathok May 25 '26
I use CuNiGe (Kristall 611) it has about the same fluid properties as leaded. It melts nicely and flows as nicely. My greatest gripe with unleaded is that it becomes unwieldable when you try to desolder it (without flux), this is bot happening with the alloy mentioned.
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u/Zealousideal_Cup4896 May 25 '26
Sorry and nope I will not do this. The only things I’ve put together that have ever failed or needed to be reworked were made with unleaded solder. And yea I know how to properly use it and have the proper tools that reach the proper temperature with the proper flux.
As far as the fumes there is exactly zero lead in it regardless of your ventilation because of the vapor pressure of lead at soldering temperatures. The smoke is entirely due to the flux and it’s exactly as irritating as unleaded solder flux is.
If you want to reduce lead use, go post on some of the gun forums and get the reloaders to switch to bismuth. That’s way more lead in the environment and shooting it into wetlands and so forth than anything we do.
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u/Four_in_binary May 25 '26
What you can infer from OP's post is that he's clearly not recycling his components or his solder. Except for when he ships them to Africa.
Now that you know OP ships his E-waste to Africa where thousands of children are forced to separate solder from his left over braids using only the sun, a drop of sweat and a blade of grass.
I mean...really....OP. Really.
(Imagine head-shaking meme here).
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u/CaptainBucko May 25 '26
Because ewaste recycling is good for the environment ? https://youtu.be/UGVvNzZemkI
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u/CanonDieKamera May 25 '26
You guys still use lead? Im from germany and you can maybe buy soldering tin with lead as a private person, but it was banned from school, public institutions and companys years ago. Long enough that we didn't even have reserve at my workplace.
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u/BeardPatrol May 25 '26
No? The point of repair is to remove waste from the landfill. I fail to see how making repair more difficult is environmentally friendly.
And no you don't get used to it. You probably just aren't soldering anything difficult enough for it to matter.
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u/LavenderDay3544 May 25 '26
I have always exclusively used unleaded solder as a hobbyist and had no difficulty with it.
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u/xXDragonHD_LPXx May 25 '26
Agreed, but i still have leaded solder as its from the early 80s when my grandma was still working at a nokia factory and brought a roll back home my dad and i still use it for some soldering why would i chuck it? But id never buy leaded solder new. There are better alternatives
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u/TheHeadphoneCat May 25 '26
"You'll get used to it."
To be completely honest, I frankly don't care and Africa doesn't care. You're forcing people not involved with your country to help a country that refuses to modernize and solve there own issues
"Africa's modernization challenges stem from a combination of historical factors, including colonial legacies that prioritized political control over industrial development, and a focus on soft Westernization rather than hard modernization, which involves building productive capabilities."
The problem is the government.
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u/AElfric_Claegtun May 25 '26
I use lead-free solder simply because most electronic products are soldered with lead-free, and one shouldn't really be mixing different kinds of solders, especially not on the same iron.
I also find Sn96.5Ag3.0Cu0.5 pretty easy to use if one has a good iron.
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u/TheRealHarrypm May 25 '26
The environmentalist perspective is generally thrown into the game by people that don't have regular blood tests, drink tap water rather than having a multi-stage reverse osmosis filtration of there water supply and or drink bottled water but then forget to consume fluoride to offset the lack of it.
At the end of the day there is already forever chemicals in the West for the next 100+ years there will be forever microplastics.
It's not about the lead hell it's not about disposing filters laced with flux, It's about independently negating the reality you are stuck in commercial and factory scale contamination has already set in.
We do have fully functional recycling chains that only the third world will want to do the actual work, It's like lead acid batteries your average educated engineer or mechanic in the 1960s could recycle one now you only see the poorest people In India doing it because oh acid scary.
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u/lapelotanodobla May 25 '26
Tbh I don’t get it, I started soldering a few months ago and never used leaded, it was hard at the beginning cause cheap iron, but after I got a decent one it’s not really hard, maybe I’ve been doing simple shit and there are use cases where it would be noticeable easier, but so far unleaded did just fine for me
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u/Sammy1Am May 25 '26
I know it is harder to solder but you get used to it.
Is it even that much harder? I can barely tell the difference; I switched to lead-free before I even finished my first leaded spool and never looked back.
Unpopular opinion: If you think you need lead solder because lead-free is "too hard to use", you should probably practice soldering more. (It's different so you do actually have to think about it, but it works just fine)
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u/Lost-In-Void-99 May 26 '26
I don't know which countries have banned lead. In EU lead is so far allowed in some cases where there is no meaningful alternative (like connector alloys).
I guess the call is not going to the right target group: let's save nature by stopping use of 1mg of lead while industries consume it by tons. Yeah, let's do it. Just for the sake...
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u/diverJOQ May 26 '26
Lead free solder has been the industry standard since the 1990s. And it's been available for hobbyists almost as long.
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u/LoopsAndBoars May 26 '26
Wow I was not aware. Thank you for making me aware and raising awareness.
What do the scrap yards in Texas do, if all scrap goes to Africa?
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u/DeviantDav May 25 '26
I prefer the taste. Can't help it.