A few months ago I bought a solder sucker. The usual pump action one was a pain to use, wicking was not much fun either, and a proper de-soldering station is a bit expensive for the rare times I need it.
I then found this hybrid. under $15. Last week I used it for the first time. I removed a DIP16 socket. One pump each pin, no extra solder needed to be added, and it just fell out. I was surprised how well it worked.
So if you have a need to desolder, not too often, then these ones may be right for you.
Thank you for the info. I bought one and I’ve been using it. It works well, but I have a question; how do you empty the solder sucker? I have used the solder sucker to desolder ~20 pins, but nothing comes out whenever I push down on the plunger. I can’t see any way to open up the plunger on this iron.
With my regular solder sucker, the solder comes out every time that I push down on the plunger. Sometimes I need to open it up to to remove the “crud” that builds up.
First, you can unscrew the tip and gain better access to the tube. Mine came with an extra tip and a long wire, presumably for cleaning.
Then the instructions (in Chinese?) have two drawings that suggest:
with the pump released (fully open)
push down on the part where the release button is. Presumably the pressure squeezes the seal between the tube and the heater, but I could not see any movement.
then pull out the whole mechanism.
[later] See image below…
I did this once, it was rather difficult and I am not sure it came out unscathed, the flimsy plastic body is too weak for such handling.
Thank you so much; mine came without any instructions.
I couldn’t push the the body of the pump down with my finger as shown in the diagram, but I was able to release it by using the edge of a table instead of my finger.
