How to wash your PCBs in your kitchen safely..

Trichloroethylene got difficult to find here.
Isopropyl alcohol can damage Poly carbonate, do not use on CDs / DVDs. and like above, a tooth brush is adequate.
It is volatile, inflammable, bear that in mind.

If you wish, try epoxy or car paint thinner, the latter is Methylene Dichloride, do not use in a closed space. Epoxy thinner is similar.
Ordinary thinner for enamel paint is Mineral Turpentine Oil here, , and these thinners can take off the printing on boards, be very sparing in use.
Benzene and Naptha are also in the using a sledge hammer to kill an ant category. Not to be used indiscriminately. Explosively inflammable, gasoline cars are called benzin-motoren in German.

I sometimes pry off excess flux (rosin core) with a watch maker's screw driver, less iso alcohol is needed. Alcohol dissolves rosin core flux, it has to be removed as a fluid or sticky residue.
 
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The best fluid I used is comonly called MEK (methyl ethyl ketone or Butanone). Not too cheap but you use few milliliters each time (a brush wet in it) and let it evaporate alone. No need for US or future processing. All flux old or new is removed with little effort.
I use MEK extensively at work. Not particularly 'kitchen safe', but good industrially.

I never tried to clean boards as I always assumed the silkscreen or mask would melt off. Is that not the case?
 
dangus, they sell 1007 in China ONLY. I said the seller that it would be interesting worldwide but he was not excited and don't want to sell by aliexpress. However, another similar product from UK is available worldwide Electrolube SWAS.
PS: I just tried IPA 98% to clean my coffeepot, it works too but is crazy slow and I probably should spend 100ml for the entire pot.
 
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As I said already: XCY-1007 affordable PCB cleaning water-based liquid, literally no smell that's critical to me cause I work at home. 10 parts of 50-70C hot water for 1 part of XCY-1007($3 for 500mL), 3-5mins in ultrasound, next wash by water, and dry with a hairdryer. A perfect result virtually for free! However, XCY-1007 is available in China only.
UK similar, and perhaps even better stuff is here https://www.macdermidalpha.com/site...07/SWAS-Electronic-Cleaning-EN-05Apr22-TB.pdf
 
Used to be used for dry cleaning and you could buy a home stain remover using carbon tet called 'dabitoff'. I recall reading a few people passed out in their cars from the fumes. In the late 90s at work we started using orange oil based degreasants to clean boards when the good stuff got COSHH'd. Not sure if that is still popular . Certainly smelt better than the goop it replaced, but this was for just cleaning rework spots.

I wonder if the citrus wash for car washes would work on circuit boards.. Hmm..
 
Again, anyone considering cleaning their PCBs with chlorinated solvents is courting disaster. It's a slow, unpredictable death sentence for electrolytic capacitors on the board, unless you populate the board with caps that are solvent-proof. This is explicitly mentioned by major cap vendors in their literature on care and handling of electrolytics, and the deterioration mechanism is explained in detail.

Here's an example:
https://www.chemi-con.co.jp/en/faq/detail.php?id=29BDJBJ
 
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You can buy horse hair brushes with short and stiff bristles made for cleaning PCBs. I found one for a few bucks at my local parts pusher. Works great. I get some flux remover made by MG Chemicals at the same place.

I only use flux remover for rework. For the few circuits I build by hand and send to customers I use solder with water-soluble flux. That is easily removed with hot tap water (50-60 ºC).

Tom
 
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