Love no clean liquid flux. Just the no-name stuff, and I clean it with 99 ipa anyway. On an unrelated note, I will always be a Hakko shill. Just the absolute best soldering iron i can imagine- if you can afford it, BUY IT!
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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Heck yeah, half my bench is Hakko equipment, I'd shill for them any day :-D
I have a hakko desoldering pump and a china clone soldering station. I'm quite happy with the clone soldering station, but when it comes to needing thermal mass (like on a ground plane), I have to admit I turn to the hakko pump as my go-to soldering iron despite it not being intended for that. That thing gets HOT FAST and STAYS HOT.
The hakko desolder gun changed my life... I had NO idea what I was missing before. Actual good solder wick is another QoL upgrade I wish I'd made sooner, the MG Chem wick works so much better than the generic copper braid I'd been using that I still can't believe it.
I can tell you what NOT to use. I have Kester 186 No Clean Liquid Rosin Flux (it's amber/light brown colored), and while it works quite effectively for soldering and desoldering, it is a sticky mess that is about as far from what you and I would consider "no clean" to be a joke. Immersion in IPA works best to get it off, but the whole bath quickly turns from a cleaning bath to a "let's coat it in an atomically thin layer of rosin" bath. Now I put 99% IPA in a spray bottle and mist till dripping/blot with clean rag/repeat until clean. It would be far more convenient to get the clear no-clean Kester, but I can't bring myself to ditch the Kester 186.
I had a bottle of that stuff too, worked great but it was so awful to clean up I ended up tossing it... atomically thin coat of rosin is spot on what I always ended up with. Evil brown devil juice.
Ive seen Voultar recommending the MG Chemicals no clean flux. I have to wonder if that stuffs any better? Looks like its mostly alcohol though.
I’ve been meaning to try that clear stuff. Honestly, avoid the rosin no clean at all costs. If you really need the rosin, in my opinion you’d be better off with the old school flux jelly. Easier to clean off. I wish I was kidding.
I prefer liquid flux when I'm using a soldering iron. I bought a few small bottles of Circuitworks CW3220 No Clean Flux a while back off Amazon. It's just someone repackaging a giant, commercial sized bottle into smaller bottles with syringe tips, but the flux works great, and it's non-corrosive so if you don't clean it then it doesn't ruin your boards. Though, I always do clean my flux off.
Amtech NC-559-V2-tf chef’s kiss