new PCB cleaner

F-ing awesome! Thanks. (I think I got most of that.) How much power in the cooling coils? JL, what's the temperature down in the cooling vapor. (and can't you get the liquid for less if you use a lot?)

George H.

We've been soldering electronics for over 100 years, PC boards for about 70 years. Even planar silicon ICs are an old technology.

But cars still use pistons and valves and gears, 1800's technology. We still eat chicken soup and drink beer.

F-ing awesome! Thanks. (I think I got most of that.) How much power in the cooling coils? JL, what's the temperature down in the cooling vapor. (and can't you get the liquid for less if you use a lot?)

George H. ===========================================================

Remember, this is basically a still so the vapor temperature should be the boiling point of the solvent. The liquid solvent should be gently simmering, or a bit less. Basically you use heater power to vaporize a certain mass flow rate of solvent, then use cooling power in the cooling coils to condense that same mass flow rate so you maintain a constant reservoir volume of hot vapor. Too low a mass flow rate and you don't exclude all of the air and so don't have maximum vapor density so don't have maximum rinsing condensation flow (yeah, I love terse and runon :-)). The other way to look at it is that you want enough vapor to be able to heat the most massive part you are going to clean all the way to the boiling point, to get maximum cleaning effect. Any more and you are just wasting heater and cooling power, any less and you are wasting time.

----- Regards, Carl Ijames

IPA tends to leave white residue when cleaning rosin flux. We use some fabulously expensive complex stuff, but we don't consume a lot of it.

India Pale Ale?

Isopropyl Alcohol, not to be confused with the kinds of alcohol for consumption!

FYI, a little ammonia water blended in with alcohol (denatured or IPA) works great. Rosin is organic acids, so wash it away with a basic cleaner.

Stronger solvents are good too (e.g., MEK), but fewer components are compatible with them (possible hazards include: washing away labels, damaging electrolytic seals, etc.).

Tim

IPA is also horrifically flammable.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Good writeup. This does finally answer the question of WHY one would use this process vs just explaining something condenses and there's heat and solvent.

Except for typical solvents being super flammable, this sounds like something fun to try.