Before you buy any of high-end solder fume extractor or even low end
ask the manufacturer of it about does it remove lead gas ?! because i have some doubts about that !
for past few year ive experimenting with soldering air filtration i started from can-lite filters
after some time i was understand about activated carbon itself is not enough to remove most of smallest gas particles generated during soldering
these include:
-formaldehyde ethyl acids phenol gas and many others included in soldering flux
-lead (pb) gas
To clean air from these smallest particles this commerciall fume extractors use usually standard activated carbon mixed with impregnated carbons or activated alumina balls - they threat them with potassium permanganate which is in short kmno4 media
the kmno4 convert smallest particles to largest (oxidise them) and finally these largest particles are easy absordable by rest of non impragnated activated carbon which is suitable only for large particles such as odours (in this setup formaldehyde and other are oxidised to odours)
Some of solder fume extractors use catalitic activated carbon or carbon impregnated by potassium iodide or molecular sieves
but the main pit hole in gas stage filtration is about - does these impregnated media could remove lead gas ?! in short i have some doubts about this and i didnt make yet more experiments coz maybe potassium permanganate could oxidise lead
I didnt find reveal informations about lead (pb) gas stage filtration in google so i guessing is hard to remove it from air stream
there exist some speciallised carbons impregnated by for example elemental sulfur to remove mercury from air stream
the mercury is one of heavy metal too but maybe for lead need another media
Usually fume extractors companies doesnt inform you about about what exactly you paying for , they just inform about they units can successfuly remove dust microparticles (hepa + prefilters) which is just part of particles called dust , but totally zero informations about gas media type in use and whats they exactly cleaning from air !
We can compare there another air filters home humidiffiers - they allways inform you about what kind of gas filtration media they use - does i dont have right ?! some of them use just coconut activated carbon which some others use potassium permagnate media and some others use molecular sieves but they allways let you know about for what you exactly paying for !
In short i think any of these solder fume extractors doesnt remove lead gas
and if you are hobbyst for sure you wont soldering with lead free tin then would be uselless to buying them
Certain usefull informations which i collected about these solder fume extractors and believe me it wasnt easy to find them !
Chinese solder fume extractors type Quick 6101A + some of they clones such as WATERUN F6002D use catalitic activated carbon
High end solder fume extractors such as BOFA V200 250 300 and Weller zero smog use potassium permanganate
I also sended emails to few of these solder fume extractors companies about does they filters remove lead gas ? and only 1 answer ive received from JBC company which is partially missleadded
quote
Good morning Lukas,
JBC fume extractor can protect you of the solder fumes, either leaded or lead-free.
However, complete protection in lead soldering is possible only if you follow Safety Data Sheet of solder lead wire producer,
Good ventilation in the office, eye protection, protective clothing….
FAE has 3 filters, according to mentioned standards below:
Medium dust filter M5 (EN 779)
H13 particle filter (EN 1822)
Activated carbon filter
He wrote answer about dust prefilter + hepa filtration stage except gas
Another misleaded information i found on hakko website about lead gas
https://hakkousa.com/lead-free/(20) Will the Hakko HJ3100 extract lead fumes?
There is not, and never has been, a need to extract 'lead fumes' from the air while soldering. The smoke is a by-product of partial combustion of the soldering flux. No more. No less. Lead does not vaporize at soldering temperatures.
This information is 20 year old and is totally bullshit ! and offcourse there you have trully answer about just one from many solder fume extractors type hakko about it doesnt remove lead gas
Any informations there about lead (pb) gas filtration stage removal are welcome , also more informations about these fume extractors which could help us to choose right one , they are expensiff and you never know about whats you exactly paying for until you buy them !
And btw. if you didnt know the symptoms of metallic taste in mouth fevers memory loss problems with concentrations you getting from lead gas only ! (not from lead dust microparticles which can be easy cleaned by hepa filters)
I did many experiments in past with custom made carbon filters ive never uses hepa just MERV 14 class dust filters and when i apply more carbon or slowing down air outlet (excedded time contact with carbon) then i reduce more more % of lead gas which cause these health problems (activated carbon could remove lead gas but just a small %) so here you have answer hepa isnt important for lead removal but gas media
Another informations found in google
A novel discovery is that KMnO 4 can facilitate HMO removing heavy metal. The results showed that residual Pb(II), Ni(II) and Cd(II) in pH ∼8 were 0.01 mg/L, 0.02 mg/L and 0.05 mg/L after depth reaction, respectively. The mechanism of oxidation of Pb(II) in alkaline solution by KMnO 4 with HMO catalyst was studied. The XPS results demonstrated that HMO improved oxidation efficiency of KMnO 4and the products Pb(IV) content increased by 50 percent approximately. The mechanism of Ni(II) removal was similar to Pb(II). Cd(II) could be absorbed but not be oxidized, while KMnO 4 accelerated Cd(II) removal effect of HMO as well. KMnO 4 promotion was still existing in the acidic conditions, which showed KMnO 4 could promote HMO adsorption of heavy metal, and reaction mechanism is required for further study.
Ive kmno4 alumina balls in basement soon i shake them with activated carbon and do test and let you know !