Solder Sucker- desoldering pump

I was reluctant to purchase this item due to all the negative reviews. Since all the other solder suckers also have all these bad reviews, I decided to purchase this one and try it out.I am not certain what the bad reviews are about. There seems to be two complaints. I want to address those with my experience.1: Does not suck the solder off the board.I used this several times to repair a LCD monitor. It had no problems sucking the solder off the board. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the solder sucked off the solder point. After reading the bad reviews, I was expecting a lackluster job but it was cleaner than a solder braid.I can only surmise that the people who are having problems are not jamming the tip right up against the lead and the soldering iron tip. Don't worry about burning the teflon, it will be fine as long as you are not holding it against the soldering iron for several minutes.2: Device Jams from solderAgain, I was pleasantly surprised after a few solder joints were sucked clean, when I recharge the unit, it discharged a film of solder. Apparently this unit is self cleaning. Perhaps there was a problem with previous designs. My experience is that the solder is ejected when you recharge the unit.I think one of the problems that can cause this unit to jam is if you do not jam the tip right up against the lead, iron tip, and board. The solder is only partially sucked into the device so some of it gets stuck in the tip, jamming it.If this device is used properly, the solder is sucked clean off the board and then ejected after a few uses.Anyone out there wondering if they should buy this, I would highly recommend it. Test it out a few times before using and see how good the suction is. If it doesn't appear as if the suction is working then the unit, most likely, has a leak somewhere. Open it up and lube the rings and you should be good to go. Use silicon lube.This unit works 100x better than solder braid. Save yourself some aggravation and use this for board repairs.Felix

I have an Aoyue 9378, which is a very amazing soldering station hands down, but with such a powerful soldering station and no way to remove the solder, it feels like an uphill battle.I ordered this after watching a youtube video of a man using his and the efficiency of de-soldering pumps.This pump works flawlessly. If you know how to use it, it will not fail you. The problem most have is perhaps assuming the giant hole at the end of this pen will suck anything into it like a vacuum... but they fail to understand that there is a certain angle to hold it to achieve this result of suction.Holding this with the tip aimed at the solder, won't quite get the result you need. Much like holding a vacuum hose from your houses vacuum, if you hold it at 90degrees(the hose would be lying on the floor parallel to the floor), you won't pick up as much dust as if you hold the end of the hose 20degrees to the floor(the hose almost perpendicular to the floor and the hole almost flush with the foor), forcing the air to be at a higher pressure coming in because there isn't as much open CFM airflow that existed when the hose is not so near the floor. Apply this principle to your new de-soldering pump and keep the pump up close to the solder you just melted, and you will have a very easy time.The first few attempts at this pump were in failure for me, until I slowly decreased the angle of the mouth of the pump until nearly flush with the boards surface, which then gave me the amazing results that I am giving this product 5 stars for.The solder that hardens inside the tip of this unit has not effected the performance at all, and as a very simple method to clean it the solder eventually just falls out in a ultra thin cylindrical sheet as you engage the pump when you use it.No doubt this is to the soldering wick what the bullet is to the arrow.

It's mostly made of aluminum, with a few plastic parts. It disassembles allowing for complete cleaning of the bits of soldier that get sucked into the tube, which is a good thing because with enough little bits of solder the thing eventually stops sucking altogether.The tip is some type of plastic, soldier doesn't stick too easy, but it can. The plunger has a rod that goes all the way down and clears the tip when fully depressed. I did have some solder get stuck in the tip once, but then I just pressed harder and the problem was solved.When you press the trigger the pump lunges toward the tip and when the plunger hits the top it'll pull away a bit(it's done sucking at that point anyway), I suppose if you're working on something really sensitive, or if your PCB is in fact a potato chip this might cause problems, I have had no problems with that aspect of it.It doesn't suck enough. Want more suction? spend more, this is a $5 tool, not a $40 tool