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Fume extractor vs open window, I finally stopped being cheap
I spent 2 years soldering at my bench with just a fan blowing out the window in my shop near Pittsburgh. Thought it was fine, figured the smell was just part of the job. Then I picked up a used Hakko FA-400 for $60 at an estate sale last month, first time I used it I could actually breathe without that metal taste in my mouth. My sinuses stopped acting up after a week too. Maybe the window setup was fine for lead-free, but I was doing a lot of older boards with lead solder and I think I was inhaling way more than I realized. Anyone else ever compare those cheap desktop fume extractors to just cracking a window? I'm curious if the $200 units are worth it or if this $60 one is good enough.
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emma_jones1mo ago
Same thing happened to me last year, I was using a little $30 fan filter thing from Amazon and thought it was doing the job. Then I borrowed a buddy's nicer unit for a weekend and the difference was night and day, my eyes stopped burning by Sunday. The cheap ones basically just blow the fumes around the room, they don't actually pull them away from your face. I soldered a whole batch of old radio boards with that cheap fan and woke up with that nasty coating on my teeth the next morning. Never again, I ended up grabbing a used unit off Facebook Marketplace for like $50 and it's been way better. Did you notice a difference in how your solder joints look too with the real extractor running?
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ivan4621mo ago
Wait, did you actually notice a coating on your teeth though? Because that sounds more like you were breathing in the flux smoke and it was settling in your mouth, but I always thought that was more of a throat and lung thing. Anyway, you're totally right about the cheap fans, they just push the air sideways and your face is still right in the smoke path. The real units have that directional nozzle thing that actually sucks the fumes up and away from your face, which makes a bigger difference than people think. Also, the joints looking better is probably because you can SEE what you're doing without your eyes watering the whole time, not because the solder flows differently. I mean, the cleaner air helps you focus, so your hand is steadier and you're not rushing to finish. But yeah, that Facebook Marketplace find is the way to go, people dump good gear all the time for next to nothing.
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