Solder paste shelf life

[oparr@hotmail.com]

Have some leaded, water soluble solder paste (Kester HM531) for the
last 3.5 years. Used it yesterday and it seems to still work like new.
IIRC, shelf life was given as the usual six months. What gives?

 

[Jeffrey D Angus]

oparr@hotmail.com wrote:

Have some leaded, water soluble solder paste (Kester HM531) for the
last 3.5 years. Used it yesterday and it seems to still work like new.
IIRC, shelf life was given as the usual six months. What gives?

The difference between "It probably still works" and it will
"definitely work."

Jeff

--
“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”
Frank Leahy, Head coach, Notre Dame 1941-1954

http://www.stay-connect.com

 

[N_Cook]

<oparr@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e1621cfe-25f3-4a9f-8c1b-8fc9af272b0b@o15g2000vbb.googlegroups.com...

Have some leaded, water soluble solder paste (Kester HM531) for the
last 3.5 years. Used it yesterday and it seems to still work like new.
IIRC, shelf life was given as the usual six months. What gives?

The stuff I use is water soluble Alphametals/Tolworth/England. Dated 1990 on
the pot , I just pastify a bit by mixing with "La-Co"/ Chicago flux and
seems to work fine.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm

 

[oparr@hotmail.com]

The stuff I use is water soluble Alphametals/Tolworth/England. Dated 1990 on
the pot , I just pastify a bit by mixing with "La-Co"/ Chicago flux and
seems to work fine.

I'm wondering whether water soluble has a big edge in terms of shelf
life. The paste I had before this wasn't water soluble and it was
useless after 8 months. It was refrigerated and handled the same way
as the Kester HM531.

On May 31, 12:17 pm, "N_Cook" <dive...@tcp.co.uk> wrote:
>