hello friends
as i see everybody there is fighting with solder fumes like me
i add there some of the most important informations about air filtration and about "why you shouldnt use/pay for any kind of filters"
so lets start
few year ago i was sure about i can use some kind of carbon filters + prefilters to remove soldering fumes
what i understand at beginning about commerciall air filtration units uses hepa filters + carbon and they make big air static pressure because they are so small
these units like weller zero smog they use few kg of coconut carbon + hepa h13 + prefilter + radial turbine makes by the ebmpapst company with big air pressure up to 3000pa type G1G144 blowers
the reason of this pressure was:
1. hepa h13 add big pressure
2. carbon packed to small tape give even more
at last i was trying to find solution to avoid this problem and what i understand about
1. i can reduce air pressure can use the can-lite carbon filters packed in tube which add significant air pressure to the air outlet
2. use F9 class filters instead of hepa h13 filters
finally ive ended at 6,4kg of coconut carbon + F9 class minpleat pre-filter
and what i can say some of conclusions:
1. the hepa h13 filters in weller zero smog is the least important filter (hepa companies makes big pressure to filter manufactory)
nobody wants to use hepa as in case about this filters makes bigest air pressure to the air filtration units
2. the F9 prefilter lower class do the 95% of the job instead of hepa coz both hepa and this prefilter absorb the dust the F9 is much cheaper and have much lower air pressure
but the F9 or hepa wasnt the point in solder fume filtration
these filters absorb only the dust (well known dust from some commerciall papers noted as the most dangerous) which is completly bullshit !!!
now where is the point
as you know the carbon filter out many of gas particles but these include mostly odours - this is not enough for solder fumes !!!
moreover carbon can remove dangerous lead gas
the coconut carbon is the carbon especially used for lead and for the particles which usuall carbon type coal cannot remove
the biggest problem with solder fumes is about they contain
1. formaldehyde (absorbed by coconut carbon just 50% of weight)
2. isopropylic alcohol etylen metyl/etyl/kethon amonia (removed by 25% of carbon) or even less
3. the lead poison (guessing about is absorbed in 15% not more)
these all of this chemicalls are included in soldering process
like i said i ended up with 6,4kg of coconut carbon and use maybe 150m3/h of airflow speed for fume out in my unit
at last ! i achieve maybe 90% of formaldehyde and 50% lead extraction
now where is the point ?
the answer is simply ,
hakko company said about the lead from soldering isnt dangerous it doesnt evaporate in lower temperatures (perhaps thats why they said this is because they dont have enough of carbon capacity to remove lead gas from the air) !!!
weller company said about they uses hepa h13 filters coz due soldering process there is danger with lead
what i can say there both weller+hakko theory is completly bullshit
proof:
when i have 3kg of coconut carbon i fell still in the air the lead the metallic taste in the mouth this is lead.. and this one what you fell is gas not dust! , when i added more carbon up to 6,4kg i basically didnt fell nothing but like i said 150m3/h maximum airflow coz we facing there time contact with the carbon
this lead gas cause:
1. some kind of fever + mental disorders + phlegm in the throat and many other problems (thats just lead gas! absorbed by coconut carbon)
the lead have its weight of 0,2um to 0,5um both this is gas + dust whether the hepa filter out just up to 0,3um
now i would ask the weller company about where the hell did i missed lead fumes instead of gas ?! did i ever fell them ?
the most important job doing the carbon + F9 class prefilters hepa h13 is not important is just something which is added to charge you more price and tell you the bullshit about air filtration !
now everybody there understand the common points in air filtration
-saying about the 0,3um dust of particles absorbed by hepa is completly bullshit (F9 class filters catch 25% of 0,3 up to 100% to 10um) and we know from literature the about the 0,3um dust is not the whorst , the whorst is 0,5um dust !!!
at last as about soldering fumes the important in air filtratiion is not to remove dust but the gas !!! absorbed by carbon
now i will tell you about why using these filters is completly nonesense and waiste of money
lets back to the weller zero smog (except hakko)
as we know the carbon remove many of particles easily but it have the problem with particles such as amonia metylen etylen keton isopropylic alcoholl formaldehyde and so on (it absorb only small amount of it) and even if you add more carbon you wont hit the jackpot! i said i ended up with 6,4kg coconut carbon vs 150m3/h air speed = 90% of formaldehyde removal and maybe 50% of lead
these substances are most common use in soldering process fluxes+solder tin etc contain them
the weller zero smog instead of carbon use a afterburner to remove all of the rest high pollutants which i listed there
- amonia metylen etylen keton isopropylic alcoholl formaldehyde
this afterburner is so called Potassium Permanganate Impregnated Alumina - this is a chemical media impregnated with kmn04 , both all commerciall fume extractor units use this media or zeolite A4
they have mixed 50% of coconut carbon with potassium impreagnated alumina kmn04 or 70% of carbon mixed with 30% of zeolite A4 molecular sieve
the particles which cannot be 100% absorbed on carbon are absorbed on these filtration media zeolite or kmn04 such as isopropylic alcoholl formaldehydes etc (this is only the way to get them out)
and even if some of manufactories uses especially impregnated carbons to remove aldehydes these are impregnated with oxidizers (oxidizer = kmn04 or similiar)
disadvantages of this units are as follow:
-zeolite and kmn04 alumina is expensiff by comparing to the carbon
-zeolite = irritant !!!
-kmn04 = toxic/irritant !!!
at last when i mixed coconut carbon with zeolite and both with kmn04 alumina for test i said this is enough !
they offcourse with 5kg of carbon and 25% of zeolite removed formaldehydes but i fell very irritant air ....
these remove some of pollutants but they add much more pollutants as from they structure to the air!
but thats not the biggest nightmare in this story i would tell you more...
i use this filters mostly for hand soldering = smd ic + various fluxes + more
and lets say when i solder 3 hours per day the F9 class prefilter stand alive up to 6 months
but this wasnt the end of this nightmare
the problems started when ive connected bga station in chamber to filter outlet
i started the station just 7 times to solder or desolder large bga ic from board
the result = F9 class prefilter completly damaged !!!
conclusions:
the filters to use for fume extraction are not whorst any penny to use...
as in case of irritant chemicall media such as zeolite and kmn04 impregnated media
and dust filters going to die very quickly...
at last if someone is interessted i can upload there photos of my devices these include can-lite filters replaced with coconut carbon + prefilters
finally i understand about i need some kind of HVAC which is not easy to use in building i have in plan to mount a chamber at the window and use input/output pipes