Do you clean your PCBs after soldering?

[rullywowr]

It's pretty much an aesthetic thing.  I've pulled the lid on some early builds and rosin flux turns brown and looks horrid. Functionality is ok though.

[chromesphere]

I agree with Rully and Alan, its aesthetic.  If you like the look of clean board, by all means, clean it!  I usually spray the bottom of etched boards with pcb laquer which hides the flux and takes about 10 seconds

[catfud]

Sticky flux could pick up tiny offcuts from a dirty workbench and cause shorts, so I'll clean the boards after soldering to cut down on troubleshooting time. It's less work than constantly cleaning the workbench.

[Gledison]

Hmmm! Don't take me wrong!im mot that sort of clean freak! Its just that one time i had a very tiny solder bridge that i couldn't see brcause was hidden under a rosin residue.... And not much of a work to brush it iff with isopropanol alcohol...

[muddyfox]

And not much of a work to brush it iff with isopropanol alcohol...

Not my experience at all. So much so that I won't be touching the soldered board ever again.  I'll probably goop it all to hide the flux residue before I try cleaning it.

[aion]

Rosin flux can act as a long-term protectant for the solder joints, so it's actually a benefit to leave it on. It's not corrosive at all.

I have an old Lab Series L5 amp from the late 70's that I've had to dig into on a couple of occasions, and the rosin has kept the joints shiny for 35 years the same as a solder mask protects the copper traces. If I need to resolder one of the pads, the rosin melts instantly and is as good as the day it came out of the factory.

All this to say, no, I don't ever clean my boards either!

[RobA]

does it hurt anything to leave the flux on there.....like over time?

It can depend on the type of flux. I use a no clean solder and all no clean fluxes. The only time I ever clean the flux off is when I use the flux paste on an SMD part. Even then I just clean the local area using a cotton tip and vodka.

I've taken apart a lot of commercial electronics stuff recently to check out what they are doing. I can't recall a single one of them having a board that looked cleaned. The only things I've seen recently that looked like they had been cleaned off were the components that went into a computer my son built for himself. Even there, I don't know if it really had been cleaned or if the soldering techniques they use are just precise enough to not show a bunch of flux residue.

[Gledison]

Rosin flux can act as a long-term protectant for the solder joints, so it's actually a benefit to leave it on. It's not corrosive at all.

I have an old Lab Series L5 amp from the late 70's that I've had to dig into on a couple of occasions, and the rosin has kept the joints shiny for 35 years the same as a solder mask protects the copper traces. If I need to resolder one of the pads, the rosin melts instantly and is as good as the day it came out of the factory.

All this to say, no, I don't ever clean my boards either!

Hey mate. In its composition rosin contains different kind of mild acids mostly fatty acids. They are not powerful oxidisers but i believe they ate still corrosives

[LaceSensor]

I don't and shit from 3 years back still works....
Some pcb has some residue on them but meh

[angrykoko]

99% of the time I never do.
Only when I'm giving something away as a gift and it's super messy and sticky.

Use no-clean solder ever since I found it existed

[pickdropper]

Whether or not it *must* be cleaned depends on the type of flux used.  Most RMA and No-Clean types are relatively benign.

It isn't used much in hobby building, but water soluble flux needs to be cleaned or it will eventually eat through the board.

So basically, it's something that usually doesn't cause an issue with most of the solders we use.  I think a cleaned board looks a lot nicer, but I don't always do it, either.  I generally far prefer it with SMT boards, though.  Probably because it is much more visible with top-loaded SMT boards than with through-hole where the residue is mostly on the bottom of the board.

[aion]

It isn't used much in hobby building, but water soluble flux needs to be cleaned or it will eventually eat through the board.

Not only corrosive, most water soluble flux is mildly conductive too. Found that one out the hard way when all six of the first pedals I ever built had crazy, undiagnosable issues caused by signal bleeding between solder pads. It was a year before I figured out that the flux was the problem, and since I ditched the flux all my pedals have worked perfectly except for regular, easily-diagnosed mistakes. I was very close to giving up altogether before the epiphany.

Just yesterday I finally had the chance to dig back into Blues Jr that I had modded for a friend a few years ago, back in the flux days. It worked just fine, but I always felt bad about it knowing the flux was inside and thinking that it could start developing weird issues at any time. I cleaned it up, and now my sins are atoned for :)

[slacker775]

I've lately taken to using one of my little plastic thingys (thats the technical term) that came with one of my soldering iron to scrape off the little flux blobs that fly around on the board as I'm soldering components.  Sometimes I'll scrape up bits that collect at a pad, but they usually aren't too bad.   When I'm really feeling frisky, I'll use a bit of Iso and a toothbrush to give the board a good scrubbing.  It seems that if I do it a couple times, most of the stickiness comes up.