5ft Desoldering Wick Roll in Handy Dispenser

by Elenco

Product Description

Desoldering wick

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 0.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B0002LLW5E
• Item model number: SW-3
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336 in Home Improvement (See Top 100 in Home Improvement)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works good alone... Great with Flux, March 23, 2009

By 

MK "MKOSU04" (Farmington Hills, MI) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 5ft Desoldering Wick Roll in Handy Dispenser (Misc.)

I bought this to work on a project that required removing colored LEDs from a circuit board so I can install white LEDs... so I was removing about 150 connections.

It worked OK at first... it would suck up the old solder but took some poking and prodding to get a good contact. Also, you need a hot iron so you can heat both the solder and the wick (perhaps that was the problem the other guy had??? Don't try this with a cheap iron that doesn't get hot... it should be able to very quickly melt the solder)

But then I had a brainstorm... I grabbed some of my flux (the "stuff" you put on before you solder copper pipes together... look in the plumbing section of any hardware) and lightly coated the end of the wick with the flux. This makes it work 30 times better! The flux draws the solder into the wick so fast that its amazing.

Just be careful not to get too much flux on the wick, as it will get all over what you are desoldering as it gets hot.

As you are using it... once the end gets thoroughly coated with old solder just cut off that part and then touch it to the flux and then keep going.

(you might not realize it, but your solder most likely contains a flux core... thats why you don't need it to put down the new solder... but its not there for the old solder so you have to add it to the wick)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars works well, December 25, 2010

By 

J.Twain - See all my reviews

This review is from: 5ft Desoldering Wick Roll in Handy Dispenser (Misc.)

This is tiny desoldering copper wick (thin copper wire), so it is not good for remove a lot of solder, definitely not those through hole components desoldering. I use it mainly for Surface mount devices desoldering and I think this product is for that only too. Works well for that purpose, but it works with all desoldering need, just that you have to apply some flux on the wick so it conduct heat better, thus easier for it to suck solder.

Low rating means nothing but a lot of ignorance people buying wrong product, or doesn't know how to use this product.

PS. This wick is about 1 meter in length, not a lot of wick if I have to say.

PS2. It is over-priced here. I got 10X of these for less that $5 plus free shipping.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is junk - doesn't wick solder and is 2mm, July 8, 2010

By 

Scott D. Whigham (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 5ft Desoldering Wick Roll in Handy Dispenser (Misc.)

This is a 2mm solder wick that does not do a proper job of wicking solder. Important info: this is 2mm wide, not the standard 4mm or 6mm that you are probably used to. 2mm is about the same size that a standard stick of gum is thick (not length or width but thickness). Not big enough to help unless you are in small, confined spaces.

Returned.