I have been looking at some things and realized that my solder has an expiration date. Is the solder usable after its expiration date if so how long? I never knew that solder had an expiration date.
GENERAL Solder Expiration
- Thread starter beeney22
- Start date
BL4K3Y
VIP Member
This is the first time I have heard of solder having an expiry date lol.
If you aren't sure if it is any good, try it out on a scrap motherboard to make sure you get good solder connections.
If you aren't sure if it is any good, try it out on a scrap motherboard to make sure you get good solder connections.
Are you sure it doesn't say D.O.M (Date Of Manufacturing) and has the date under or beside it?
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Antalpromille
VIP Member
Solder do have expiration dates. It's still usable after but it may need more work to get the joints as good as with fresh solder. This is also something you get to learn when you work in the business and get to certify yourself in soldering every other year 
It's the flux that expires - so solder bars or solid wire don't have expiry dates but cored solder does. In practice, you used to be able to get away with it even if the solder was really old, because the flux had so much excess activity that it didn't matter - I have a huge roll of 63/37 Sn/Pb solder that was made in 1976 and uses rosin flux, and that will still work even with heavily oxidized component leads, despite being nearly 40 years old.
The current practice in electronics assembly is to use no-clean solder, and that has far lower flux activity - couple this with the widespread use of RoHS solder (which both doesn't wet as well and requires a higher soldering temperature that disperses what flux there is more quickly) and you get to the point where solder expiry is a real issue, although the figures quoted by the solder companies (which are typically 2 or 3 years) are still highly conservative.
The current practice in electronics assembly is to use no-clean solder, and that has far lower flux activity - couple this with the widespread use of RoHS solder (which both doesn't wet as well and requires a higher soldering temperature that disperses what flux there is more quickly) and you get to the point where solder expiry is a real issue, although the figures quoted by the solder companies (which are typically 2 or 3 years) are still highly conservative.
OK wow great info guys this is very interesting. I guess I should watch how I am handling my solder then as to not increase the amount of oxidation it gets. I don't do nearly as much soldering as most of you. I only get the occasional Xbox repair or mod but, it is a hobby and any information about things like this is good information.