I've replaced more SMD caps than I can count. I'm a fan of the twist method, but the key is to just twist and never ever pull up. The legs are fragile and they'll snap, the cap will fall off. Clear the remaining lets off the pad and you're good to go. I've never pulled a pad.

I think it's been mentioned here but I'll say it again: Low melt solder is the way to go if you don't want to spend money on expensive specialized single-use tools. It mixes with the lead and makes a _super_ low-melt alloy. A very little heat from hot air and the parts come right off so fast and easy.

I mostly go with the twist method, But I usually twist back and forth not pulling on the cap, I found that this stress the pads less than twisting one way only until it breaks off, I actually removed two such caps today with great success :) And I still do have a hot air station

It really depends on the board. Back in the 90s, I was rebuilding Mitsubishi TV format boards that had a hundred smd electrolytics that had to be replaced. I found these boards would survive the twist method, but I always pushed *down* while I rotated. Saved hours worth of work. Other boards had poor foil bonding and they had to be unsoldred.

the trick that always works is to push down while twisting, it will never break the pads unless its really corroded. I know this method works because ive recapped over 20+ mac boards in last few years.

I have tried using the YIHUA tweezer iron pictured at 6:47. They do not work in a lot of places because the angle is wrong. They are too wide to fit between the other parts of a board in tight spots. The Hakko is a much more useful design.

I'm one of those who has no problem holding two irons. It's my goto solution for any 2 pad SMD. 🙂 We've got SMD tweezers at work, but I never got on with them. I guess they might be more useful if you do a lot of _larger_ SMDs. And with two irons you can have different tips in each, so less changing of bits.

In my experience, don’t just rip them up off the pads, but twist them back and forth to wear out the legs on the cap

Great video as always Colin. I would add that just a bit of flux on the pads before desoldering makes things much much easier and quicker in getting components off PCBs.

I appreciate the nuanced look at this. Personally, I had used the twist and push (no upward force) method on about 20 surface mount boards (mostly Macs from the very early 90’s), and have only lifted a couple of pads. When I was trying to desolder with one iron, I was lifting pads left and right. I did end up getting a hot air station, but right as that happened, I stopped recapping boards due to a lifestyle/situation change and haven’t had a chance to use it very much.

The way Mr. Carlson (from Carlsons Lab) recommends it is to push down and twist it, fatiguing the cap so that the caps solder points are left on the Board...

Having worked within the 2way radio industry I have found that two fine tipped soldering irons placing one at each joint of the cap. Tweezer desoldering irons are good for the chip components but marginal for larger surface mount electrolytics. I use a professional Pace rework station that has soldering, desoldering ( for both through hole and surface mount ) and tweezers. Very expensive but as I was once told by a master gunsmith that even if you use the tool one time and it saved you time and money it is worth it’s weight in gold.

I have exactly the same model of hot-air. Was suspiciously cheap, but it has never let me down. Great tool.

The twist method is not bad if you wiggle them back and forth and fatigue the metal rather than one big twist. Hot air can also be a problem on multi layer boards and you can’t get enough heat in it if theres big ground planes.

Chris Edwards has a really clean method for the snip method. Sharp flush cutters with a single cut, not hacking away at the cap. It comes off clean. He's been repairing boards for decades at this point and has some solid demos of the method on KZfaq.

I'd give the "Two Soldering Irons" method more consideration. It's by far the most popular method I've seen and used in a professional rework shop. As an added bonus, for projects requiring two different types of tips you no longer have to wait for the iron to cool to switch between tips.

I learned a technique that has worked well for me for over 20 years now from a Panasonic field technician: He did a lot of cap replacements on their DVCPRO line of video recorders and was called-in to our station to train us on how to do it properly. Essentially, he used a pair of needle-nose pliers to grab the top of the cap firmly in the jaws. Then, while pressing the cap towards the PCB, he'd twist the pliers until the leads broke off. It didn't matter what size of surface mount cap, or whether the caps had leaked or not - the traces were never harmed doing it this way. I believe the pressure against the PCB helps keep the traces stable while the caps are twisted.

Before watching... gonna say that I usually twist them, and they generally snap right off, with no damage to the pads. I replaced THOUSANDS of these when modding recording interfaces at Black Lion Audio. You need to twist one direction, rotate in the other direction, and THEN lift after you hear a slight/light snapping sound.

Everyone always seems to have an opinion on technique videos... but I really appreciate the time & effort that goes into experimenting and documenting for the rest of us! At the end of the day, people should do what works for them, but it's helpful to have a reference like this video! Thanks

Personally I think I'm going to stick with the twist method. I twist them back and forth until the leads break at the base of the cap, then I remove the plastic spacer and desolder the remains of the leads. I have hot air but it's tricky to get the entire underside of the cap melted enough to take it off especially on high thermal mass boards. I'd be worried about heat degrading the PCB or nearby parts. But that's the beauty of hobby projects, the correct technique is whatever works best for you. If that's milling the capacitor off with a CNC machine, then so be it lol

when i swapped the SMDs from the optical unit board of my Gamecube, i added a considerable amount of flux and alternate between both sides with the iron in one hand and a tiny little plyers in the other. It turned out not that beautiful result, some capacitors were a bit out of center when soldering them back this way, but in the end of the day, it was a succesfully job.

I'm old school and I have absolutely no issues with 2 irons and that works in so many other areas as well. I like to keep one with a relatively large tip to heat ground planes or large parts and the other with a small tip for most work. There are also other tricks that work. Like instead of using hot air for a DIP chip all you need to do is to glob a lot of solder bridging the pins into one mass of metal. Do that on both sides and use two irons to melt it all at once and it lifts right off. We become so accustomed to not bridging pads that the concept seems alien but it works great. Solder wick works as well. Wick the solder from the pads and with nothing holding the pins the part will just pop off. You do need to be certain that it's all wicked off though. A little bit too much solder left on a small pad can pull it right off. wick works best with large parts. Using wick is an art as well to get it right. But you can always add more and try again if you can't get it all on the first go.

I've honestly had good results with the twist method on multiple occasions. It requires good judgement and a bit of finesse, though. Don't ever yank or pull on the caps, always press into the board while twisting. Hot air or soldering irons aren't always effective, especially on those caps that leaked badly. The corrosion is usually bad enough that the pads are caked in an oxide that won't melt without considerable effort. Frankly, if a pad does lift, that usually means the electrolyte corroded it so badly it would have to be repaired anyway.

Great video! I really appreciate your willingness to try new things and give an honest perspective. Never change! I have tried all the cap removal methods you covered, and my opinions match yours. I completely agree with your conclusions: it all depends on the situation as there are usually many variables at play: board thickness, existing corrosion, physical access, and proximity to heat sensitive parts. It is great to have all methods in your skills toolkit and choose the best one for the particular job. The only extra tip I would add (which is only sometimes applicable) is adding normal or low melt solder to the legs/pads of the stubborn component you are attempting to remove. It can drastically help increase heat penetration to the pads in cases of dried out or corrosion compromised factory solder. Just be sure to remove all "removal assistance" solder completely before soldering in the replacement component.

You can also lever up one side while adding some solder. Being gentle enough you can pull up that side off off enough to wick away the excess and just hit the other side really quick boom done. I only ever have to do like one of these at a time it's my go to for this.

You can twist the caps back, and fourth until you fatigue the legs enough to break without ripping the pads off. What you did was full send.

This old thru-hole guy appreciates a thoughtful overview of the subject. I've replaced a few small rectangular components (non-electrolytic caps and resistors) and I can't justify a hot-air station for the minimal rework that I do so this gives me some options. I've only got a hundred or so junk boards to practice on so I'm encouraged...

What timing! I have one for my Aoyue solder station arriving today. I'd seen JDW use hot tweezers as well. I'm glad to see you like this method too-I feel I've made a good purchase. Thank you for another great video.

To disolder, you have to solder. Got some gel flux, apply it to desired component pads, apply new fresh solder, apply a bit more flux, apply heat in a circular motion to warm up the PCB surrounding the component (in a pre-heating fassion) and have the tweezers holding the component and this one just comes off.

I'm personally tempted to try the twist method first because it's so quick. I think it's worth mentioning that it should take VERY little force. If the cap doesn't twist and pop off effortlessly, I stop and switch to hot air or tweezers.

I have made several videos in which I snip caps off amiga motherboards, each time people comment saying how it's a cardinal sin to do such but it's worked really well for me and others, good to see it works well for you too

The hot tweezers is great but doesn’t solve the problem of getting the new cap on like the rework station does either. Great video though! I want one now

Thanks for the video. My inexpensive hot air rework was one that was wire wrong, so deleted the fuse and power cable, and added a combo PC power cord / fuse / power switch to the back. The front power switch was rewired to be another switch for the hot end, now you can lift the handle and nothing will happen till you activate the old power switch. Now it works way better the thing does not heat up till I want it to. Well worth the mod.

I had to replace 600 caps off 300 custom boards (my fault in design); it was super simple just to twist them off without lifting away from the board. There were no casualties, or even a slight inkling of damage to the PCB.

Great video as always. I was thinking of getting a pair of the tweezers myself, but my go-to method for delicate SMDs will always be Chip Quik.

That's a really nice and reasonable roundup of techniques, Colin. Well done.

Came across your videos after watching My Life in Gaming a while back. Really appreciate these videos as it gives me some insight on repairing my stuff in the future!

low temp solder is also great for removing SMD components. As the name implies, it melts at lower temps than regular solder and stays liquid longer.

I work in a machine shop at a company that specializes in capacitors but ones a'lot larger then these of course lol So it's funny seeing these little guys compared to the ones we make that go into heavy equipment and aerospace.

As an EE who prefers being practical, I can state the twist method works , nothing has ever been solved by throwing cash at it , but there's people who think spending money makes them better theres no substitute for technique 👍

Great video. Always happy to see more tips and tricks.

Boy am I glad that my electronics work still revolves around THT parts (and I intend to keep it that way, seeing as I work with own designs) but even then I agree that a hot air gun is a handy and versatile tool; I regularly use it alongside my desoldering iron (if "Ol' Slurpy" can't get the chip loose, a bit of hot air will usually do the trick)😁 And yeah, ripping parts loose can really do a number on your pads (for instance; when desoldering cables, they may feel loose enough and you may think all the solder has melted...But you don't want to pull too hard..... Ask me how I know)😅

I have a soldering tweezer, so I use that when I can, but the cutting method is also pretty good. Just remember to clean up the juices.

Those exact type of capacitors have vertical contacts through plastic so when you twist the capacitor it causes a rotation, that is why it doesn't pull the pad off the board and it works nearly all of the time. Just pulling them upward will pull off a pad, and heating the pad in anyway makes them determined to come off. If they come off when you twist them then you have bigger problems the pad already de-laminated.

Good overview of the techniques! No bias, pretty much all of the options. Thumbs up!

A great hot air station is the original analogue style Quick (857DW). Small looking station with two knobs and two displays. The one you will stumble across is probably the fake or cheap version with a yellowish oval sticker on the front. The good one has a yellowish rectangular sticker on the front. This one has a brushless variable speed fan and a better looking main board. The good one also has a small QR code on the rear. Having the two knobs is priceless. Fast adjustments, something you get a true feel for, no annoying buttons to keep pressing.

You make quite a compelling case for using the right tools for the job, here. It's something I wish to try, so thank you!

Thank you for this tutorial / review.

Tried both hot-air and two soldering irons for removing SMD caps. Two soldering irons is what I've landed on as my preferred method. Much faster than hot air. I'll try the twist method on some gear I don't mind if gets damaged. I know many swear by it - but like you, it seems a bit risky. I've seen Adrian (of the basement) do it by pushing down and twist. Snaps those caps right off. If it saves time, I'm all for it.

Another simple method I don't think you mentioned is to use a soldering iron and Low Melt solder. Low Melt is like magic and once you hit each leg with some it will stay melted for more than enough time to easy lift the cap off even after you have removed the iron. No prep for heat dissipation, no exploding caps from hot air or melting plastic, no torn pads, only downside is low melt is expensive but a little goes a Long way.

I used to be adamantly against ripping the cap off of damaged boards -- after all, the pad is already potentially compromised, why be so brutal? But then I tried it for a while. I can say that, IME, if the pad is damaged enough that it'll lift when you TWIST (not pull!) the cap off the board, the bond to the board was already damaged enough that heat from a normal soldering iron would've lifted it anyway. Either way, you're going to have to do some repair work -- probably with a jumper wire to whatever that pad was connected to. And if the pad was that damaged, you probably need to go at least a few cm away to get back to good copper. I.e., don't worry about it. It can either handle the abuse, or it can't, in which case you need to come up with a more secure joint anyway because _the damage was already done._

Someone has been watching Mr Carlsons Lab? Learned this method from his channel what feels like almost a decade ago. Nice to see its catching on.

Hot tweezers is what they used to call me back in middle school.

Thanks for a great class on this. I am preparing to rework an Tektronix scope and want to do a nice, safe job. I really enjoyed the class a lot and plan to read a lot of the comments also as this is new to me. Thanks again.

Excelente mi querido señor, siempre disfruto sus videos y aprendo más. Thanks

I am learning a lot from your footage. Thank you Colleen. Keep up the good work.

We're definitely kindred spirits, Colin. I concur absolutely. I lived a long time without a hot air station, but now I see I could have done better work more efficiently if I had been using one all those years. Hakko brand Hot Tweezers are also my goto SMD cap removal solution most of the time, with the only caveat that the round cylinder part of each arm is sometimes not high enough if you have tall connectors, relays or similar components surrounding an SMD cap. But that's where the hot air station comes in handy. Thanks for a great video.

I used to remove SMD caps with an iron, slowly and one side at a time. I was recently converted. I was recapping an N64 and it was in bad shape and figured I'd give the twist method a shot since I was short on time. Took me maybe 60 seconds to remove all caps by twisting and pulling off. Then I did another board, and another one. No damage to the pads and I could clear the whole board in the time it took to remove a single cap before. I won't be going back to the old method unless the board is particularly brittle.

Super interesting that everyone has their preference. Adrian Black from Adrian's digital basement _just_ talked about it in his latest video. He mentioned he never had an issue with the twisting method provided you push down at the same time. Never seen the heated pliers before so that's a new one.

I was just watching Adrian Black & he has done the twist method many times without any issue.

Great video! I've always been nervous using hot air for cap removal as I've seen videos of some exploding. I've never dared to just rip/twist them off either, but I'm guilty of using the cutting method, and have had success with it so far. But as you mentioned, the condition of the board and the joints matter. I think the angle the cut is made is important too - I always go parallel to the pads and use very sharp side cutters. A bit of electolyte gets on the tool and PCB doing this, but as you mentioned, no problem if cleaned up right away. I'd love to try to get a pair of Hakko tweezers like those. They seem great for situations where you don't want to break out the hot air station and sheild things with foil and kapton tape just to remove a single passive component. Thanks for sharing 🙂

Twist is the way to go. When I ever see one fail I'll try hot air, but until then, I'm at a 100% success rate.

I've used numerous of these methods, but what I found most consistent was low melt solder, with either a soldering iron or hot air. Agitate the joint to ensure the low melt adequately mixes.

4:44 heat up one side first, pry up with a screwdriver, then heat up the other side

So, you are taking on this battle? :D nice video, by the way! As always.

Thank you for making this video. I have often wondered what the best way to remove surface mount caps was. I've always just done it with the one soldering iron method. I've seen people twist them off in the past and thought to myself "that can't be safe" what if the pads were damaged by the electrolyte and you did that. You clarified all the options. I have tried the twist method. It does seem pretty easy. but the components I work on are far too expensive to risk. Though I would say I tend to agree with a lot of what people are saying in the threads. A;bout what one guy said in particular. And that is going so far as to say "pushing while twisting" rather than rocking or pulling. If there's any damage on the pad at all that would be when it would lift off the board. And we all know how frustrating that can be. I don't like having to run bodges*sp. They look like crap. And it makes me feel like a hack.

Thanks for sharing your findings! Regarding the twist method, I've heard that applying a compressive force, pushing the component into the board while twisting, is less likely to delaminate pads. In my experience, PCB pads are less susceptible to delamination from shearing forces (parallel to the board), than pulling forces, perpendicular to the board.

From day one I have always just applied fresh solder, heated one leg, lifted it, heated the other leg, and gently wiped it off the board. I've never once had to resort to that violent ripping method. Not even on heavily corroded solder from leaky caps. Also I would like to note... I own the hot tweezers. They go with my rework station. I don't bother using them because it's so much easier and quick (and safer) to just use the soldering iron.

Had to replace 7 caps on a board, non leaky, just gone off spec due to heat - first tried the soldering iron approach, tore a pad off, for the remaining 6 caps, I applied the push down and twist with pliers method, all 6 caps came away, absolutely no issues with the pads. Also, if you're worried about caps exploding due to heat during removal, stab a hole in the top of the can first, it'll stop any pressure building up :)

Honestly, I just cut them as you show at the beginning. It has worked fine for me. I just try to not pull them up too hard.

I have all the soldering tools except for tweezers and a Reflow oven. They are on my shopping list. Currently I use the double soldering iron trick.

Good and honest comparison video Colin. thanks for the video.

Great video , I learned a lot. I prefer to use two soldering irons and am fortunate to have a reasonable quality hot-air station , so I hope it is't overkill but I use all three tools , alternating between them as required.

When I was trained by Sony, they advised us to push down and twist off the caps. One might argue that Sony boards were made well enough for this. But I am also the lucky owner of a hot air station as well as a Metcal tweezer. (Talon, in Metcal speak.) Most of the time I twist them off. But the key is to press DOWN as someone else mentioned and twist. The Tweezers can be problematic getting enough heat to the component if it's very corroded.

As a GPU card repair specialist who constantly deal with PCBs with very high heat capacience - I mainly have to repair damaged\destroyed (dr)mosfets, and those PCB caps are always close to the place where I need to deliver 380C of hot air. So I almost always have to remove caps before changing (dr)mos'es (But if PCB is small\thin I just use aluminum tape, fold it(glue part inside) and block hot air flow by placing it before cap). My way is to always preheat board on 150-250C(it depends on the size, thickness and amounts of copper of the particular PCB. And I do it mostly not for removing caps but for easy (Q\D)FN chip removal) and then I use low-temp solder with soldering iron to mix solders together and remove cap effortlesly. Yea, after that I need to remove all that low-temp solder from pad and cap, but its better than always break caps and replace them. And regarding hot air - you can use it on "low temp" double-sided PCBs. But it's tricky, and I wouldnt risk and hover my face above PCB if I do this. I already had flying caps(that top side) previosly - they can do a lot of damage. One even slightly bent nozzle on my hot aid gun.

A video on repair tips and tricks is an instant click to me.

As always, a high quality, entertaining (in a fellow geek sense), and informative vid.

A tip on purchasing hot air rework stations and soldering irons on the cheaper side is to look at the amazon reviews. If you're lucky you will find one from someone who's actually opened it up and checked if it is electrically safe to use. It's more common than you would think. I've looked at a few tools / small appliances and seen photographed reviews from people saying why or why not the items are electrically safe.

Hey Colin, how's it going. 😉: Soldering iron Kits have special attachments, the one I'm mainly referring to is the 'Nozzle Reducer'. Try making one for your Hot Air unit(s) which will not only reduce & localize it's flow but bent to direct it near 90 degrees thus the hot air being minutely directed where you need it and less where its not. GREAT VIDEOS, THANKS!!!+!

I was going to say this and you brought it up. Using two pencil irons, one in each hand. I've had some pretty good luck doing it that way and I guess for me it's fairly easy to do.

I'm amazed so few use soldering tweezers. One possible problem with your Hakko is that it might struggle to get in tight spots. I've used Weller WMRT with RTW1 tweezer tip for about 15 years. Not cheap, possibly a Rolls Royce solution. I've had to replace the tip once and that was recently. Great for getting in tight spots. Mostly I use it for reworking 0402s and 0603s as well as electrolytics.

A pair of cheap soldering irons and some 3d printed hinge, an old hair iron, rubber bands, chicken wire or whatever you can adapt. I like that idea! I haven't thought that!!

If you use a gigantic tip like that then yes: removing caps with a soldering iron is risky. Use a much smaller tip and flux. A chisel or hoof tip as well - not a conical behemoth.

Thank you for covering different methods, I need to recap a pc engine duo but I wasn't sure what method to use

Push down and twist (while pushing the whole time.) See Mr Carlson's video: "Electrolytic Capacitor Removal NO Desoldering Required"

Metcal has several variants of lower cost stations for home use and JBC tools has also released some lower cost versions - both of them have a variety of "tweezers"(I call them "paddles" lol, bc usually they're the width of the row of pins you're desoldering). Still, use lots of no clean/low solids flux - flux is your friend; keep your rework boards warm and everything works a little better. Also remember that in most cases the melting temperatures of of the original solder and the temperature required to rework it are different - solders contain balls of different material of different sizes suspended in flux, for most paste applications, which is 99% of electronic manufacturing today. Using some small, softer, eutectic particles of solder mixed with larger higher temp alloy balls allow a lower initial melt temperature but once they're melted and mixed the melt temperature and hardness of the overall material is higher (obviously good for things like high temperature applications and reliability over time); that's why it's so hard to rework some boards, particularly if they're lead-free (in general lead-free solders are higher melt temperature so become harder to rework after initial melt). Metcal parts can be found super cheap at online resale portals, since they've been around forever they've also been liquidated from thousands of dismantled/failed tech companies. If you're going to spend 500 USD or more, though, JBC is the way to go. The part that had me switch from Metcal in the end was that Metcal is high performance but uses RF heat generation to do so, and sprays EMI. Most of the time it's not an issue but don't get things like handheld oscopes/spectrum analyzers near them or your test/data will be swamped out. JBC equipment doesn't seem to bother a scope probe waved over it, so it's okay to have around if you're making sensitive measurements in your lab.

I work electronics manufacturing. Tweezers or two regular irons are the way my rework people remove caps. None of our caps have electrolytic leak though. Low temp solder also makes it easier as well.

I sometimes cut SMD caps off the board, especially when in close proximity to lots of plastic. Joe's Computer Museum taught me the important "secret" to success: apply downward pressure to the capacitor with a finger while cutting. You don't want to cut the capacitor off without that downward pressure as that increases the risk of board damage.

When you buy the 858D, just test the ground pin on the pwoer cord with the metal chassis with a multimeter. I bought one off Amazon like 2 years ago and still going strong.

many ways to do things. you do what works best for you. I cut, but one snip, and you need to remove the two teets leftover before debraiding. not sawing through them as you showed. Hot air is ok. but depending on the damage level, the old solder wont melt. again, you do what works for you

Thank you. I learned something.😊

I grab SMD electrolytics with pliers and wiggle them back and forth like a loose tooth, while lightly pressing down into the board. This always fatigues the legs, almost always where they bend 90 degrees to form the foot. Once one leg is free, I change the angle to twist around the vertical part of the other leg. Once the cap comes off, all that's left are the pieces of leg embedded in the solder on the pad, and I always clean the pads up with flux, fresh solder, and wick anyway. I have yet to lift any pads this way, unlike when I was trying to use heat. The trick is to wiggle the cap with a ton of repetitions and very little force.

Been through the same journey as well. Bought them all. Hot air really is the best option. And get a good vacuum desoldering tool like a hakko FR-300

great video thank you!

In my experience pushing down and twisting these electrolytic capacitors is the safest way of removing these. Heating the pads with a soldering iron increases the risk of lifting the pads considerably.

I've just replaced 27 caps on Roland XP-50 using twist motion and had no problems. Legs pull out real easy this way, but then you have to snip them a little and remove the plastic base. Then desolder what's left and clean up with a wick and IPA. No extra equipment necessary than a basic small soldering iron.

After a couple of failed attempts with the soldering iron I started to follow the "just snap it" philosophy on the game gear on which I performed recap, but the situation there is a bit particular, because they are normal capacitors with through leads that were packaged to be mounted SMD

Hot tweezers come in super handy for one other job that's seemingly on nobodies radar for some reason: SMD LEDs, like 5050 or 3528 or whatever

Thanks for this. I've always done the twist method, but I don't know if I have the skills/knowledge to fix a ripped pad, so I might give hot air a try next time. :)

My favorite Friday's video 👍