A customer's question about board wash made me rethink my process

Last Tuesday a guy brought in a PlayStation that had coffee spilled on it. Before I even opened it up he asked if I was going to wash the board with deionized water or just scrub with alcohol. Took me a second because I've been using IPA and a toothbrush for years without thinking much about it. He was a retired aerospace tech and said residual flux from cheaper brands can stay conductive if you don't do a proper rinse. Now I'm second guessing my whole bench workflow, anyone else switch to a dedicated ultrasonic or wash station for game consoles?

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thomas.river19d ago

Funny how the aerospace guy plants a seed of doubt and now everyone's ready to dump hundreds on an ultrasonic tank. Look, I get the theory about flux residue being conductive, but most cheap boards from the last decade use no-clean flux anyway. That stuff is designed to just sit there harmless, and I've fixed plenty of crusty consoles with nothing but 91% IPA and a brush that came free with a soldering kit. The real killer is usually corrosion or a blown cap, not some invisible film that only shows up on a lab scope. Plus, water wash stations need proper drying and can trap moisture under BGA chips if you're not careful, which is way worse than a little flux. If your boards keep failing after a toothbrush scrub, maybe the problem is your technique, not your rinse method.