How much power do I need for my soldering iron?
The higher the power, the better the station is able to maintain the temperature of the tip. At a higher soldering temperature and when soldering well conductive and large parts of metal, more power will be needed.
The table below gives an indication of the required power:
|
Application |
Soldering iron |
Minimum recommended power |
|
Soldering of 1- or 2-layer printing / thin cables |
Containing lead |
35W |
|
Soldering of 1- or 2-layer printing / thin cables |
Lead-free |
45W |
|
Soldering of multilayer printing and/or use of lead-free solder |
Containing lead |
60W |
|
Soldering of multilayer printing and/or use of lead-free solder |
Lead-free |
70W |
|
Special applications, such as heavy transformers, very thick cables, thick copper surfaces/ground planes |
All All |
100W |
Use of the power
It is very important to choose the largest possible soldering tip, which is just acceptable for the application. In this way, the heat transfer is optimal and the heat can actually flow into the application. Although it seems tempting to solder everything with a fine tip (you can reach everything well, you have good visibility, and only touch what you want to touch), it provides a limited physical contact, so there is little heat conduction.So only when there is a good contact surface between the tip and the application the high power of a soldering station is useful. This applies to all soldering irons in all price ranges and of all brands. Suppose you want to solder a thick copper cable with a 0.2 mm tip, then the station will never have to supply more than 20 W to keep the tip at the right temperature. However, if you use a 5mm tip with sufficient soldering tin, then the soldering station will have to work much harder to maintain the temperature and the high power (e.g. 60 W) will really come in handy.
