Easy Way to Desolder and Remove Through Hole Connectors or Components 

Boy, I was like 1 hour trying to desolder a 3 pin switch. Watched your video and did it in less than 3 min. Thanks a lot!

I often use a bare copper wire, that I solder all along the pins I need to desolder. This wire acts as a heat spreader. It is more or less the same technique as yours, except it needs much less solder. Anyway, great video, that will help many people out there. Thanks, Robert.

This is a fantastic video you've made here! It's very concise and to the point and with the magnification it's so much easier to see what's happening and what to do. Thank you very much! I've been going about this all wrong, but now I know better thanks to you!

Solder sucker works great and you don't waste solder. My experience of 40 years in electronics.

Thank you for this video. Desoldering is a bit intimidating to me after a few not so good attempts, but this helped. I also realized that flux helps as well and I was able to successfully remove some wires and clean the holes on a PCB just now without much issue.

My method is to remove the plastic part holding them together and then remove the pins one by one, heating them up and quickly pulling them out with tweezers. Quick and hassle-free, as long as you don't really care about ruining the part you're removing.

Goddamnit I needed this last night when I was trying to remove a DPDT switch from a PCB and probably ruined the PCB as a result. THANK YOU for next time.

Thank you very much for this advice. I'm about to replace a soldered-in battery on an old Yamaha synthesiser so I'm gathering as much information as I can about PCB de-soldering. I have now ordered some braid as you have used here.

This is a good technique and works for small surface mounted parts too (flood with solder and heat with iron until the part is loose). This technique has been known for many years. For multi-layer PCBs this technique will definitely NOT work because the inside layers act like a heatsink and take the heat away from the part. You will use a full roll of solder and still get nowhere. Even with a dedicated powered desoldering tool you can not remove through-hole parts on a multi-layer PCB. Most of the pin holes can be cleared but the VCC and GND holes will remain blocked. The secret is to use some hot air to heat the PCB to about 150 degrees C first, then use the desoldering method of your choice and the part will come free much more easily.

@2:40 thank you for the tip to add more solder if you're having trouble cleaning the hole. this video saves me having to buy a solder sucker - I only have 2 holes to clear to replace a battery & it's clear from this video I can get the job done w the wick that is arriving today!

Excellent!! Just what I needed - I was a bit stuck with one of my first soldering projects and now I am keen to go back and give it another try :)

Unless you have a desoldering station, I think this is the best and fastest way to do it. I use this method because I don't have a desoldering station.

Brilliant! I would have never thought of doing that. Thank you for sharing!

Another "do the opposite of what I usually do including mess it up" instruction. This worked great. It would have never occurred to me although I do add solder trying to trying to get my solder wick to work better. I have a jar of flux now and I just lay the wick on top of the flux paste and press the tip of the iron on the wick to liquefy the flux and the wick soaks it up. Then it works much better. My solder wick always looks terrible and tarnished like I found it in the street somewhere. My system is similar to yours except when I get done the traces are gone and stuck to my solder wick. I just ordered a temp controlled iron to keep the heat down (from china). Hope it works ok.

I never thought of this simple method. Thank you.

Awesome tutorial. Finally desoldered small ARK connectors only accessible from the bottom of the PCB. Thanks :)

Thank you so much brotha, man I would have ruined my lucky break to have come across the component I needed if I hadn't seen this, and it worked so surely and smooth 👍I was just about to start burning it until I used this method

Thank you for the advice. I will try it!! Up until now, I have separated each pin by cutting the plastic part and then individually removing each pin. I don't have much luck in cleaning the solder from the holes with the wick. I use a solder sucker on the bottom side while heating the top side.

Great tip, will try this when desoldering switches today!

Great advice, helped me a lot, thanks.

Amazing video so simple thank you 👍👍

Thanks for the video, Robert! Was wondering if you could make a series on tools and some hardware tips. Would be really helpfull for beginners and hobbyist. Particularly when it's from a professional like you.

Low melt solder to the rescue, that's a lot easier and less likely to damage and burn the pcb. Also works on very large pin counts and multi layer boards with large copper planes. A soldering iron with a large power/heat delivery capability is also handy in such cases (ie 200W in a large chunky copper tip with sensor as close to the tip as possible), to get the lead free solder to melt to get the low melt mixed in.

Thank you for the good techniques.

That worked! Very helpful video!

Great demonstration. Thanks!

simple, yet, extremely useful, I was wondering how to do this without the little vacum pen, now I can fix my xbox controller bumper button! thank you Robert!!

Great tips!!! THANK YOU

Heat the joint, then tap the board against your bench. The solder has far more inertia than anything else, so when your board stops on contact with the bench, the solder continues on and flies off the board. Also... at times, a vacuum solder "sucker" can be very helpful. And... if you don't care about keeping the part you remove, it's often best to cut all its leads above the board. Then you can desolder them one at a time without wasting your expensive solder.

Thank you very much for your informative information sir 🙏

Very nice and simple way. Just had a problem removing a part and this should do it. Thanks.

Excelent, it works great. I manage to desolder double 6 pins little pot meters without damaging the circuit board. You save my day, thanks for sharing. B.t.w I not used the clip.

wow. that is awesome you just helped me so much thank you from NY!

thank you very much for this lesson!

That is super useful. Thank you.

Awesome video, thanks for sharing

Hello Robert! Thanks for the great tip :) I use the same technique for such things! I would kindly add - sometimes I add some more flux on the tin-plugged hole before putting the copper wick and/or increase a bit the solder iron temperature. Most problematic it's the through-hole pad, which connected to the massive ground plane!

Thank you, it was very useful for me

I foud this tip wery useful long time ago. First time I saw it in your 100 evry day hardware design tips. And also I test it on several kind of components (2 rows 40 pins IDE hard drive header -> easy peasy) Thanks!

Super helpful, thank you!

Used it. It worked. Brilliant sir

Man you make it look so easy. I gave the most difficult time trying to clear the solder from the holes

Your a true craftsman good tips!

Good video. Very clean work here.

this tutorial was great, i really enjoyed it!

Thank you for this video! You helped me fix my baby monitor! 😊

You, sir, are a life saver!

This is great!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

this is way better than the other technique I saw.

Nice tip. Thank you.

Great tip. Thanks!!

Completely opposite of what I have been doing for almost FORTY YEARS! Thank you!

Thank uyou, very useful for me total beginner.

My go to method too! Good video.

Having a game controller and trying to replace the joystick without any soldering wick or soldering gun has proven really hard to me. Hopefully this method will help me out! Thanks for such a wonderful video!

2:30 THANK YOU, ive had solder stuck in the hole and took a while trying to figure out how to get it out

Thanks for the knowledge boost! Dropping a like and comment to help you rank higher in the RU-vid search results.

Legit works like magic Slavs are true heroes

Thanks, it's a great idea

Thank you for showing that to me!

Awesome. Great video. Sometimes the counter intuitive method-add more solder-is the way to go.

thank you for the TIP on desoldering..

Thank you, great tip! Everyday is a school day.

A lot of the soderwick has flux skips ,so make sure your braid is fluxed well. I prefer a hand solder sucker or Hakko desoldering station.

Use flux instead, you'll save solder, save your solder wick, and save time AND mess :) It's worth investing in an Engineer SS-02 solder sucker - it's the only one I've found that actually works as it has a silicone tip that you can stick directly on the solder joint! Use the solder sucker first then grab the rest with solder wick/desoldering braid

Really good trick and tip

And now do it with 20 pins.

Well done bro your video is very helpful for me.I like your method.God bless you from India 🙏

great work, thanks

Nicely done 👍🏻

Great tip ! 👍

Better way, use a piece of copper wire (single core) as a thermal transfer aid. Cut it to size and add it to the connector, add tin an it will ensure the heat spreads around. Best part, you can shape the wire to fit on more complicated pin layouts and still get the heat spread out evenly over all pins.

Brilliant - thanks for this it certainly makes the job very easy and it contradicts everything you're taught in college with solder suckered etc - thanks for posting!!❤

What can I say except you're a legend

this is so helpfull, thank you for tips to repare my broken keyboard

That is a great tip!

good tips thanks

nice cleaning and brush, admire

On smaller boards I put a towel on the edge of my workbench and then quickly but gently tap the board on the table after heating the solder to melting point. Another way I like is to use a dremel type tool with a cutting wheel to cut the legs on the component then can remove the pins one by one with pliers and soldering iron. I only do this on components that are no longer functional.

WOW THIS WORKS LIKE CHARM, THANKS ALOOOT

Very good. As always.

Amazing. Thanks a lot

If you do this on more than rare occasion, get a desoldering gun. It's like a solder shop vac and removing that part, leaving clean holes, would take 10-20 seconds. There are many by different brands, I have both a zd-985 and 474A++ and both work very well (both from generic Chinese companies), we have a Hakko at work and Metcal makes one too. There are many to choose from, it's one of those thing that makes a not fun job almost fun.

I would recommend using a solder sucker pump to remove components. Your method will work on a connector but not so good for components that might be damaged by heat.

Nice tips, I've been struggling with the wick, and one difference I noticed in your video is the presence of flux, whereas my desoldering wick is as dry as can be. Next time I need to clean through holes I'll try adding flux to the wick.

Oof. Wish I had looked up this video before I had attempted to desolder some pins like those in the video. I might have been able to salvage the pins. Great tip! Thank you for the video.

Robert, You can put moldable clay or Play-Doh under your parts when soldering and using your camera. It will help keep them in the camera shot, and stuck to the table.

Great! Thank you!

When I'm not in my bench with the desoldering iron, I also use this method. Sometimes I also do it this way because it's really fast.

Thank you so much!

Thank you very much.

Use desoldering braid that has flux embedded in it. If it does not come with it, add your own flux. Makes a BIG difference.

Holy cow, this is genius! I tend to enjoy gaming on Playstation and typically buy third party PS4 controllers and end up modding the tension spring in the L3 / R3 thumbsticks. Problem is desoldering them from the PCB is tricky and I, from time to time, tend to ruin the components. ...or the PCB, and this can get a tad pricey for me. Your method should be helpful to me!!

I am famous Chinese reseller of quality ICs, I use old washing machine heated by propane torch to remove everything from boards… 💁‍♂️ good business, much trust, very genuine… 😹

I know someone who removed memory chips from a large mass array with a gas torch on the solder side and a screwdriver sliding down the chips on the top. Recovered hundreds in minutes. That was old days now simmilar is done with SMT and no one complains.

Hero. Now I know to add more solder on stubborn holes and try again. Surface tension. 🤯

very useful video

Thanks for helping God bless

Great video

nice and simple