WARNING: YiHUA 948 Desoldering Station may contain asbestos filters

[limayankee]

Hello,

Just bought a YiHUA 948 Desoldering Station for 160 AUD from an Australian seller on eBay (http://yihua-soldering.com/10-high-frenquency-soldering-station-with-electric-suction-gun/283279/).

The manual in the box describes the filters inside the desoldering gun as "asbestos filters" - yikes!

It's illegal to sell anything containing asbestos in Australia (and most other developed countries) for well-known reasons.

I'm not sure if the filters actually contain asbestos fibres or if this is just a poor translation of "heat resistant".

Anyone have experience with this product and able to confirm?

Or anyone know how to tell by looking whether they are paper or asbestos? See photos. (I know I could try setting one on fire, but that would involve handling potentially asbestos-containing materials, which I don't want to risk.)

I've received a response from YiHUA but they don't appear to understand the question, and I'm waiting for a response from the eBay seller.

PS this is my first post here so please be nice if I've inadvertently violated any forum etiquette. Thanks!

[amyk]

The Chinese characters for "asbestos" are literally "rock wool", which may be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_wool , but I wouldn't be surprised if it was really asbestos.

Either way, I would not be too worried --- those who suffered harmful effects from asbestos were literally breathing large quantities of the stuff all day. Just don't breathe it and you should be OK.

[BravoV]

I own genuine Hakko desoldering station, that filter material looks exactly like the genuine Hakko's filter.

Not sure about asbestos or not, its just Hakko called it "ceramic filter", just google for "hakko ceramic filter" and look at images of the search results, yours exactly the same.

As amyk points out, imo I think you should not worry too much.

[jh15]

Just don't use it in California, it will cause cancer. Elsewhere is probably ok.

[cdev]

Do you have a good microscope?

I think you would typically use any decent microscope and a standard polarizing filter to identify asbestos.

See

No it is not safe to have around unless its in some non-friable form. (siding for example, which is virtually indestructible)

The filter you showed us looks friable. If its asbestos I would not use it.

[limayankee]

UPDATE:

Seller advises that the filters are made of "fabric" and do not contain any asbestos. Yihua replied to say they don't know what the filters are made of.

I'm returning it anyway because it only provides 50kPa / 375mmHg of suction (it was incorrectly advertised as providing 120kPa / 900mmHg). It struggled a bit when I tried desoldering some 2.54mm headers.

Most other "budget" desoldering stations are specified at 80kPa / 600mmHg.

It's a bit of a shame - the build quality (externally at least) otherwise seems excellent - all metal chassis (earthed), carry handle on top, nice clicky buttons, silicone power leads and air hose - and it heats up very quickly.