Care in the Operation of Soldering Irons

The most important element in the deterioration of soldering iron bits is long idle times. This is where you leave the iron on, and not in use, for a long time.

Have everything ready when you start soldering, so the iron will be used continuously, and will not sit there building up heat, while you get ready to use it again. An idle iron will keep heating to its maximum capacity, and without anything to transfer the heat to, it will start burning off the tinning, after a short while. So if you will not be using the iron for a while turn it off until you are ready again.

The other elements leading to deterioration in performance come from lack of cleaning and tinning of the tip. When the coating of solder burns off or is coated with carbon you get poor heat transfer from tip to working surface making it appear that the iron is not heating properly.