Does regular 60/40 63/37 type of solder have a expire date?

[Hagis2k]

Hi i bought two old rolls of "Ersin Mulitcors 3 Core solder" on a swedish auction site the price was really good but
it makes me wonder i do believe that the flux has dried in it?! Because it feels tacky and does not flow as i want
it to, but if i add a bit of bga rework no clean flux on the joint before i apply the solder then i feel it will flow
properly...

Anyone else that experienced this?

On the label on the roll i can see 1984 lol i wonder if this is the year it was produced?

[Ampera]

My dad has an older roll of solder from I think about the same time, and it's perfectly fine. I think it's also 60/40 with Rosin, but I don't know. It could be a variety of issues causing it, so old solder might not be the one culprit.

[Macbeth]

I think like with tinned food items an expiry date is really a "best before" date vs. "use buy" date.

I've got a trusty roll of 60/40 that I have had for >20 years and works just fine. I'm sure if I compared it with something fresh it would be noticeably different in use, but then I would have to readjust to the new solder characteristics anyway.

[woodchips]

No, but you aren't soldering with a lead free soldering iron are you? When the lead content drops much below the 37% it doesn't work in solder.

[GreyWoolfe]

I still have a little bit of a 1 pound roll of 60/40 I bought in 1997.  It's on the thicker side so I save it for soldering wires together and PL-259 connectors on coax.  Still works just fine.

[tautech]

Just wipe the solder clean if it's dirty and it'll work fine for the next 30+ years.

[RGB255_0_0]

Have some of this stuff which has the consistency of creamed corn and crumbles away and never wets properly so probably the same issue.

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi i bought two old rolls of "Ersin Mulitcors 3 Core solder" on a swedish auction site the price was really good but
it makes me wonder i do believe that the flux has dried in it?! Because it feels tacky and does not flow as i want
it to, but if i add a bit of bga rework no clean flux on the joint before i apply the solder then i feel it will flow
properly...

Anyone else that experienced this?

On the label on the roll i can see 1984 lol i wonder if this is the year it was produced?

It should be 5 core solder.

Take a sharp knife, cut the solder and look at the end with a magnify glass. There should be 5 cores of flux.

Ersin, used different kinds of flux. There should be a number, normally 3 digits, indicating the type of flux.

I have lots of old solder and it all works fine for me.

Regards,

Jay_Diddy_B

[CatalinaWOW]

Solder does go bad, but on much longer time scales than most people here are talking about.  I have quite a bit of flux core solder vintage 1960-1970 that is just fine.  I do have some slightly older flux core that has perished, but it had nicks that penetrated the core.  In normal use the ends of the solder are well sealed and will last for decades.  If you have small broken pieces of flux core solder I would recommend using them quickly, within a small number of years.

Acid core solder, once used in plumbing degrades relatively quickly, even if the ends of the solder are sealed at storage.  Time frame is a few decades.

Solid solder oxidizes slowly in air.  I have some examples inherited from my grandfather that are nearing 100 years old that have a thick crust of oxidation on them.  Still usable with difficulty, but that is largely because solder sizes were much larger in that era, on the order of 2 to 5 mm diameter.  I suspect that in today's sizes the solder would be unusable after five or six decades.

These experiences have involved somewhat benign storage conditions - relatively dry and modest temperature swings.  If your conditions are worse you might end up shortening the life of the solder somewhat.

[whitevamp]

i have a 60/40 role of solder from the 70's and it still solders just fine. ( No Plastic spool here, just a metal spool.)
and i have 10 roles of 3/60/37 from the 80's that i haven't touched yet.

[tautech]

i have a 60/40 role of solder from the 70's and it still solders just fine. ( No Plastic spool here, just a metal spool.)
and i have 10 roles of 3/60/37 from the 80's that i haven't touched yet.

Just check the pricing for that stuff these days. 

Green with envy.

[whitevamp]

i have a 60/40 role of solder from the 70's and it still solders just fine. ( No Plastic spool here, just a metal spool.)
and i have 10 roles of 3/60/37 from the 80's that i haven't touched yet.

Just check the pricing for that stuff these days. 

Green with envy.

lol yea i know. but at least i didn't pay nothing for them, got them all for free a couple yrs back. along with a bunch of parts. 1000+ ltz1000 and other stuff, all new.

[ANTALIFE]

Have some of this stuff which has the consistency of creamed corn and crumbles away and never wets properly so probably the same issue.

That's what you get for buying cheap solder, also what are you trying to melt it with?