SW-3 Desoldering Wire Roll in Handy Dispenser, 1.5m

I bought this to work on a project that required removing colored LEDs from a circuit board so I can install white LEDs... so I was removing about 150 connections.It worked OK at first... it would suck up the old solder but took some poking and prodding to get a good contact. Also, you need a hot iron so you can heat both the solder and the wick (perhaps that was the problem the other guy had??? Don't try this with a cheap iron that doesn't get hot... it should be able to very quickly melt the solder)But then I had a brainstorm... I grabbed some of my flux (the "stuff" you put on before you solder copper pipes together... look in the plumbing section of any hardware) and lightly coated the end of the wick with the flux. This makes it work 30 times better! The flux draws the solder into the wick so fast that its amazing.Just be careful not to get too much flux on the wick, as it will get all over what you are desoldering as it gets hot.As you are using it... once the end gets thoroughly coated with old solder just cut off that part and then touch it to the flux and then keep going.(you might not realize it, but your solder most likely contains a flux core... thats why you don't need it to put down the new solder... but its not there for the old solder so you have to add it to the wick)

Solder wick is an old form of desoldering and relatively expensive so its made for a very specific tasks: touch ups, small pads, small holes, and tight spaces. For most work, I use a hot air workstation, a desoldering pump and at times a refillable compressed air sprayer.That said, it works as described. If it seems to pick up slowly add a thin coat of solder paste before work. Better wicks have more paste on them but any tight braided copper wire can be used as a wick, thus its seemingly scrimped on paste is why I rated it one star less.

Good

Removes solder not thecheapest but quality is good. Came in a huge, like 12x14 bubble envelope. Almost thought it wasempty till I looked down in the corner!

Was my first time soldering and worked great!

One of my students likes to use this in preference to a desoldering pump. He says it does the job quite well, and I believe him; his joins are very tidy and neat, which means he's used it to successfully clean up after his boo-boos.

This stuff is priceless for reusing and desoldering Electronics. It gets HOT so give yourself 6 inches of length when using it or you will get a surprise!:)

Does it's job, nothing great about solder wick. If there is much solder on joint I suggest using a sucker first.

Not much one can say about deloldering wick. was as expected