Should we trust freeze spray or just use a heat gun for finding bad caps?

I had a dead monitor last week and tried freeze spray on about 30 caps one by one... took forever and I still didn't find the bad one. Then I just used a heat gun on the board and watched the screen flicker back to life when I hit one area. Is the freeze spray trick actually faster for anyone else or is it just a waste of money?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles721d ago

Watched the screen flicker back to life when I hit one area" - that's literally thermal imaging with extra steps and a burned finger haha. Freeze spray is for when you want to feel like a detective, heat gun is for when you actually want to fix stuff.

felixlee1d ago

Wait, I gotta push back a little here. Heat guns are great for finding shorts on a board too, but you gotta be careful with them. If you hold it too long on one spot you can literally melt the solder or lift a pad, especially on older boards. Freeze spray is actually better for intermittent faults that only show up when something gets hot. Thermal imaging is the real gold standard but it's also like a thousand bucks for a decent one, so most of us just use what we have in the tool box. Both methods have their place, just depends on what kind of gremlin you're chasing.