After buying 2 “Sn42Bi58” wires (Mechanic, UYUE) which turned out to be fake I tried again. There was no other wire, so I bought a paste.
I run an experiment:
On the tip of my iron I put 2 blobs of solder paste, Mechanic SnPb and Auchans SnBi. I turned the iron on with the lowest temperature setting - 200 C.
Expected result:
Once the tip is heated both pastes are melted. Auchans is melted way quicker.
Actual result:
Once the iron stops heating neither paste is melted.
But if I keep waiting, Auchans melts.
If I wait much longer - Mechanic melts as well.
So really thermal control of my iron is quite bad.
I have no idea what was the melting temperature of Auchans. But it was clearly lower than that of Mechanic.
What else can I do to check if I got the real stuff?
ADDED:
I bought a TM-902C thermocouple.
After I set my iron to 180C I checked temperature - a bit lower than set, 171 C. Depending on the touched part of the tip, 171 was the hottest, ~150 coolest.
The iron has melted the paste with ease.
Suggestion for Agro: I prefer to properly name stuff and of course I believe it can be of a lot of help for related searches. I'd edit the title to include the actual product brand and name: (XINHONGXIN) XHX QY-309Bi.
I bought a TM-902C thermocouple.
After I set my iron to 180C I checked tip temperature - a bit lower than set, 171 C. Depending on the touched part of the tip, 171 was the hottest, ~150 coolest.
The iron has melted the paste with ease.