Mold on soldering sponges

[John B]

The stand for my Hakko FX-951 only has one spot for either a sponge or a brass wool holder. I've been using it for many years and the sponge remains in the plastic packet, virgin and untouched by water.

[floobydust]

I've never had a mold problem on soldering sponges, after 45 years. You're not to flood them anyway, that is when you want to make a steam engine lol.

I find the absolute best are the "one pass" tip cleaners, a sandwich of 4 vertical sponges on end. Solder does not fling off and it wipes both sides of the tip at once.
I hope the chinese copy it someday lol, made in Detroit American Beauty 480 I got from the garbage somewhere decades ago.
https://americanbeautytools.com/Cleaning-Maintenance/212
I also found same idea Lerloy tip cleaner circa 1961.

Brass wool I find scratches soldering tips and does not clean as good so I dislike them.

[tooki]

You can't be wool user or sponge user, you need both. If you using one over the other that means you have a cheap solder station, or expensive solder station which wanted to charge you for extra stuff, but not a good solder station which comes with both build into iron stand.

What a bunch of crap. 

Many professional-grade stations come with both, but many stopped including sponges years ago. You certainly don't need both.

[u666sa]

That's the cope reaction right there, if you spend bunch of money and your station does not have both sponge and wool.

[golden_labels]

But can you finally explain why? Because so far you act like a troll.

[Psi]

Mold on soldering sponge

Is this sponge you're using an actual sea sponge, or is it made from cellulose/plastic ?

If the former use the latter to avoid mold.   

[Ian.M]

Plastic sponge is unsuitable - it tends to melt onto the bit.   Use cellulose sponge, preferably natural color as you don't want the nasties from thermal degradation of the dye! 

[u666sa]

Whatever is available at local store, same with wool, so long as it is not magnetic. Price has to be just right, because in half a year or less you'd throw them out and replace. Most of the time you just use sponge, and it works perfectly, but then once in a while, sponge don't clean well enough and you still have solder on your tip, then you use wool. Idea behind both is to remove carbon so that solder sticks.
Another good stuff 
Which I'm pretty sure most anyone has these days, and these come in different brands, but the idea is the same, you stick your tip in, it smells like solfur, you try not to breath it in, and after applicaiton tip is like new.



Once in a long long while, when your tip appears to stop taking solder, and that would be the tip you most often use, you dip it into chemical cleaner. I also dip all new tips into chemical cleaner prior to tinning them, but that's just me, that's not necessary with quality tips. Something like 2 dollar T12 tip from ali, definately good idea.

Just to give you an idea, let's say a cheap, .50 cent solder iron, from the dollar store, and it don't take the solder. You clean it and solder still does not stick to the tip. Well you dip that thing into chemical cleaner, and then tin it, and it becomes usable for a while.

[Ian.M]

Yep.  Tip tinner cleaner is great stuff for reconditioning tips with wetting problems.  However it gets its re-wetting power from an extremely aggressive flux - Ammonium Phosphate, which at soldering temperatures decomposes to leave conc. Phosphoric acid on your tip, so you should only use it when the tip's got a problem and thorough wiping on a damp sponge afterwards is essential as brass wool/turnings wont effectively remove the remaining acid.  Phosphoric acid residue on the sponge should be taken care of next time you wet the sponge, as you should be rinsing it out, then squeezing it flat to remove excess water leaving it damp, not wringing wet.

For maximum life from a tin of  TTC, rub the bit over the surface, don't dig it in, taking care to get all the working surfaces.  TTC itself is a mix of solder powder, Ammonium Phosphate and other high temperature cleaning and wetting promoters, possibly a mild abrasive e.g.  diatomaceous earth, compressed into a solid cake.

Cellulose  sponge is cheap - if you get a three pack from a supermarket or hardware store - use the yellow one (least dye) for soldering and the other colors for other workshop tasks.   It is essential to thoroughly wash out the goop that keeps it soft in the packet before using it for soldering as the goop is an unholy mix of organic chemicals and hygroscopic salts that you don't want anywhere near your soldering iron tip!  One 'domestic' cellulose sponge is usually enough to cut up and refill several soldering stations.

[jpanhalt]

Sal ammoniac cleaning/retinning block (Kester) is ammonium chloride.  Same principle. 

[Zero999]

I use both a sponge and wool.

I haven't had any problems with mould on the sponge, even though someone once poured Monster energy drink, which contains glucose on it, as a prank. It did release nasty smoke. I washed the sponge thoroughly afterwards, but there would have still been traces on the sponge and in the holder and there has never been any mould on it, after many years.

[coppice]

What about algae on soldering sponges? I've seen plenty of that growing around the edges of a sponge.

[SteveThackery]

How remarkable we can discuss this arcane matter for so long!

I've never had mould, algae, or any other lifeform grow on my soldering sponge. It's a non-issue.

FWIW, I use both the wool and the sponge, although the sponge gets the tip cleaner and I use it 90% of the time.  The wool is better for burnt on stuff, like if I've left the iron switched on for a long time, but dirty and unused.

[coppice]

How remarkable we can discuss this arcane matter for so long!

I've never had mould, algae, or any other lifeform grow on my soldering sponge. It's a non-issue.

Why do you assume its a non-issue just because it hasn't bothered you? In the UK exposed concrete going black and disgusting with mould is a non-issue. If you live somewhere hot and humid, like Mumbai, it's a major problem. Its either black, or a considerable effort has been made to stop it.

[SteveThackery]

Why do you assume its a non-issue just because it hasn't bothered you? In the UK exposed concrete going black and disgusting with mould is a non-issue. If you live somewhere hot and humid, like Mumbai, it's a major problem. Its either black, or a considerable effort has been made to stop it.

For goodness' sake, buddy, surely it was obvious I was talking about my own experience! 

But so far not one person in this thread has found evidence of mould on their sponge. In my long involvement with the world of electronics I've never once read anything about it. So actually, yes, I believe it really is a non-issue.

[ebastler]

For goodness' sake, buddy, surely it was obvious I was talking about my own experience! 

No, that was not obvious at all, because you started your post by questioning whether the topic even warrants an extended discussion:

How remarkable we can discuss this arcane matter for so long!
I've never had mould, algae, or any other lifeform grow on my soldering sponge. It's a non-issue.

I also read that as "Why are we even discussing this? It's not an issue (for anyone, anywhere)."

Face palms are never a good response to some other user's comment in my opinion. I understand them to mean "What you just wrote is embarrassingly stupid" and hence find them insulting. Would you use them as a response in a face-to-face dialog? I think that emoji should only be used to express embarrassment with something you said or did yourself -- or maybe to comment on something a third party said, if you have to.

Having said that, mold on soldering sponges has never been an issue for me either. If anything, I'd complain that those sponges always dry quicker than I'd like and I find myself, soldering iron and component in hand, with a dry sponge -- not that they stay wet for too long and start to rot. I'm in Northern Germany, which is not known for a particularly dry climate...

[Ian.M]

Actually I *have* seen mould on a soldering sponge, hence my comment in reply #1

Maybe if you have a sponge in a container with a lid in a portable soldering kit and don't wash it out and let it dry after use.

It was kept in a tin with a tight-fitting lid in a portable soldering toolkit, with a small squeeze bottle of water also in the kit to wet it before use, and one time I forgot to open up the tin when I got back from the field to let the sponge dry.  Next time I opened the tin, I had a somewhat furry blue-tinted sponge.  It wasn't a big problem - Fortunately I was at a location with a kettle, so I simply poured boiling water over it to kill the mould, washed it out well and carried on using it.  If I'd been at the shop I'd have simply binned and replaced it.  If I'd not had boiling water available, I'd have had to make do with wiping my iron on a wad of paper towel.

[golden_labels]

I’m a bit surprised by the length of the thread myself. I was just wondering, not being a sponge user myself, and a few answers from regulars was enough to answer my concerns. But if people find the topic interesting, why not talk about it? This is the nature of fora. If anything, that gives a larger sample size and a wider perspective.

[David Hess]

I”m a wire wool user and have little experience with wet sponges. Since sponges are kept wet for extended periods of time, even when not used, do they grow mold?

Sometimes they grow a brownish red or maybe white mold.

[themadhippy]

sponges? wire wool?  Pah, bit of spit and the leg of yer jeans is all you need.

[SteveThackery]

No, that was not obvious at all, because you started your post by questioning whether the topic even warrants an extended discussion:

[...]

I also read that as "Why are we even discussing this? It's not an issue (for anyone, anywhere)."

This was a perfect example of plain text not conveying the full meaning. Ah, the joys of the Internet, eh?  My opening comment - with its giveaway exclamation mark - was said purely in fun. I'm sorry it didn't come across that way.

[SteveThackery]

sponges? wire wool?  Pah, bit of spit and the leg of yer jeans is all you need.

Cotton jeans. With crimplene jeans it's a disaster.    (Not that I've got any, obviously....)

[pcprogrammer]

sponges? wire wool?  Pah, bit of spit and the leg of yer jeans is all you need.

A quick brush with your thumb across the tip is also a solution. Sure it smells a bit like Sunday roast, but the tip is clean 

[golden_labels]

Only if you are not fast enough!

[tooki]

That's the cope reaction right there, if you spend bunch of money and your station does not have both sponge and wool.

I have had stations with both. My bench at work has both (since the very old desoldering station has only the sponge, and the new Ersa has only brass wool). I rarely bother to wet the sponge, as the brass wool is just always ready to use.

You’ve been asked repeatedly to justify your claims that both are necessary. Why don’t you actually do that instead of basically insulting people who disagree with you?