I've been going through my third soldering iron this weekend. I already bought two and took one back to the shop. I'm in the middle of a project and the tips keep failing: the lead-free solder won't stick to the tip despite cleaning them with sponge, metal sponge and tip cleaner/tiner. I bought the latest iron yesterday (25W Antex) and it was already useless after a few hours. I don't know if I should return this one again? What am I doing wrong? I can't keep buying soldering irons every day… I use to have one that lasted for years and the tip was usable even after months.
edit: when using the tip cleaner, blobs of solder form on the tip like pearls. In other words, nothing will stick to it.
Best Answer
Solder not wetting the surface of the tip indicates an incompatibility between the solder and the tip material. This can happen when the external plating on the tip wears away or is contaminated.
You don't mention what you are soldering, so how many Watts you need can't be determined.
I have not used Antex irons but after a quick search it seems they are at the lower-end of the quality spectrum. If you are doing a lot of soldering then a better iron with replaceable tips will serve you well.
For surface mount work I use Weller, Metcal and Hako at work and all are good. Weller is the most affordable of these but, again, the tips oxidize/wear out most quickly of the three. All of these have replaceable tips ranging from $10 to $75 per tip. The Metcal is ten years old, the Wellers are eight years and the Hako is two. We keep a small variety of favorite tips and replace them as needed.
Tip tips: