100 W Solder Fume Extractor Review

In this video, I show you what this fume extractor looks like and how it works. I bought this device because I started to do more and more soldering at home and I felt like my old fume extractor fan is not exactly doing its job very well. I think it was a good investment if we think about the possible long-term consequences of inhaling nasty chemicals. During soldering, vapors of the rosin become airborne and they can easily find their way to our lungs. Before getting into the details, I want to clarify that this is not a sponsored content, I bought the product on my own initiative and with my own money.

Details

I decided to tell the story of this device in a hopefully more efficient way by using the captions of the pictures in the gallery below. Please go through the images as I reveal the parts of the fume extractor step by step, and read the captions of the images.

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The whole device

The device easily fits on the top of my workbench. It is about 265x265x335 mm. The flexible pipe is 120 cm when fully extended.

Removed top lid

Under the top lid, there is a dense foam which seals the filter.

Under the lid

After I removed the lid, this is what I saw. The three filter layers are concentrically arranged in the body of the fume extractor.

First filter layer, "PM50 filter"

The first filter layer is supposed to trap the largest particles that enter the fume extractor. It is made of cotton and this has the shortest life cycle.

Inside without the first filter layer

After removing the cotton filter, this is how the inside of the fume extractor looks like.

Second filter layer, "PM0.5"

The second filter layer is a HEPA filter which is supposed to trap even smaller particles. This has a but longer life cycle, depending on the usage, it can be used up to 6 months.

Inside with only the third filter layer

This is how the third filter looks like inside the fume extractor.

Third filter layer, carbon filter

This filter layer is responsible for capturing the volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The carbon inside the filter adsorbs the VOCs. The VOCs are for example generated when the flux evaporates during soldering. The filter has up to 1 year life cycle.

Empty fume extractor

This is the inside of the fume extractor without the filters. The plate at the bottom is removable. The filtered air goes under the plate and then sucked out by a centrifugal fan.

Orifice towards the centrifugal fan

The blades of the centrifugal fan can be seen on this image. The filtered air exits through this hole and then pushed towards the bottom of the fume extractor.

Bottom of the fume extractor

This is what we can see with the bottom plate removed from the fume extractor. The backside of the centrifugal fan, the controlling electronics and some sound absorbing foam. The centrifugal fan blows the air out towards the foam.

Controlling electronics

This circuit is responsible for controlling the fan at 3 different speeds. There's a button on the front panel which switches the fume extractor between 4 states: OFF-LOW-MED-HIGH.