Why is the engineer any better than the generic cheapies?
I've got a Soldapullt, which is bit like a reverse air pistol, and a couple of cheapies and I usually use the cheapies because they are smaller. I also had a desoldering iron with a one shot pump, but I found that was useless. I've always found solder pumps a bit hit and miss, sometimes they work like magic and sometimes they don't.
Yeah that's the problem I had. But most of the time they didn't work and you ended up knackering something in the process.
Good video here where one actually works
https://youtu.be/WyiA4Giw5IM?t=295
Actually worth watching for any Tek fans as well.
Another thing is the silicone tip is not hard like other solder suckers.
It can form itself to the work area and so the suction is applied with less leakage around it.
They're not the first to do this; in fact, after seeing a similar solder-sucker with a red silicone nozzle, I've used silicone tubing jammed up on my Chinesium SoldaPullt from time to time to get certain problem desoldering jobs done. Problem is that sooner or later the silicone burns from pressure directly at the soldering iron tip, and
the mass of the silicone actually cools the work unacceptably in some cases. Ultimately, the main factors which determine how well one of these work are:
1) Can you apply enough heat to the joint to melt all solder and keep it fully melted?
2) Is your solder sucker made with sufficient volume/displacement and
3) is the spring heavy/strong enough to move the piston fast enough to create enough velocity of moving air to do the job?1) is dependent on your iron, and technique/generous application of flux.
2/3 are dependent on the design of your solder sucker.
Most of the "one-handed" ones simply don't suck enough... you need a big piston with long stroke and a big heavy spring like the original soldaPullt to get this. This means you need to prime it two-handed or do like I do, and prime it by pressing the plunger up against the bottom of your workbench. Over a trash can, so the crap goes right where it belongs and you don't even have to think aboot it. This keeps your workflow nice and smooth.
The big problem with a big solder-sucker is the inertia... there is sufficient recoil to damage SMDs and rip small traces off the PCB. This requires careful technique and knowing when to skip the sucker and go straight for solder-wick.
mnem