Caught a TV repair shop in Denver using canned air on circuit boards last week

They blew dust and debris all over the board but never cleaned the flux residue first, and I had to fix three of their jobs that failed under 6 months, has anyone else seen shops skip basic cleaning steps like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor.mary25d agoProlific Poster

Depends on what you mean by cleaning. Canned air is fine for removing loose dust after soldering, but it won't touch flux residue and that's where most failures start. A lot of shops just do a quick blow off and call it good, then wonder why stuff comes back.

terrymitchell25d ago

Jeez, how many boards have you actually seen fail from flux residue? I mean, I get it's not ideal, but most hobbyist stuff never gets cleaned and runs for years. Seems like one of those things that only matters if you're building aerospace gear or something.