Review on Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner Black by Athenasby Whitney

Okay let's clear up some confusion about cleaning soldering tips. For the record, I was an instructor in the US Navy and one of the courses I conducted and taught at Trident Training Center was Soldering Techniques. First, this product is well suited for what it was designed for: a spike. I noticed some comments about the sponge. And here comes the confusion regarding the care of the soldering tip. When you attach a new tip to your iron, you will need to wrap solder around it before heating it up for the first time. The solder protects the tip and prevents burnout of oxides and contaminants on the tip. If you are using an iron, first use a product like this product to clean the tip of excess solder. THEN you electrocute the tip. It's on a wet sponge. This separates contaminants from the flow of other contaminants from the tip. Does the peak temperature drop? For a moment yes. But the tip returns to its original temperature almost immediately. They only shock the tip, not the heater. Once you've soldered your work, re-melt some solder on the tip before placing it in the iron holder. Again, the tip should be covered. Yes, it turns brown and black. But that's solder, not a tip. No dirt is left on the tip and it lasts much longer. As for this product, again it is good enough for what it was designed for which is removing excess solder from the tip.