Reed Switches & Reed Relays

There is no visual tell that makes a reed switch valuable — the PGM is a 0.4 µm sputtered film on 1–3 mm² inside sealed glass, so a pile of rhodium reed relays is worth its copper.

Base Ru ~50–80 µg per switchBase Rh ~0.2–0.5 mg per switchCu ~40 g/lb

eBay typical$5–20per lb

Refiner pays$0per lb

Metal in it$0.43per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencelowof the yield figures

How to spot it

Sealed glass tube 8–50 mm long and 1.8–3.6 mm diameter with two ferromagnetic blades overlapping at the centre and axial leads. Reed relays come in DIP-14 or SIP packages marked Coto 9007, Hamlin, Meder SIL or Pickering 100-series. Found in ATE and test instruments, telecom line cards, security sensors and pinball machines.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Base metal	Ru ~50–80 µg per switch	0.4 µm sputtered film; ~13,000 switches per gram of ruthenium
Base metal	Rh ~0.2–0.5 mg per switch, legacy only	Unsourced estimate — no published rhodium thickness exists for reed contacts
Copper	~40 g/lb	Relay coil wire only; bare glass switches have none

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $0.43 per pound of contained metal — Copper 40 g = $0.43. A refiner paying $0 returns about 0% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: Hot air 300 °C

Do not bother. If you must, desolder at 300 °C, crush the glass inside a plastic bag and acid-digest the blades — the Fe-Ni base dissolves in HCl leaving PGM film flakes. The yield does not repay the effort.

Hazards

🩹 Glass and sharps

NEVER blow on, wipe with bare fingers, or brush away cut optical fibre.

🌡 Mercury

NEVER vacuum a mercury spill — it aerosolises it. Use a mercury spill kit or sulphur powder, or call your local hazmat line.

Before you scrap it

Yes, overwhelmingly — 100–1,000×. Pickering, Coto and Meder instrument-grade reed relays are current production at $2–15/pc, and ATE matrix cards are worth more intact still. There is essentially no scenario where scrapping a reed relay is correct.

The common trap

The single most inflated item in e-scrap. The myth comes from the contact material genuinely being Ru or Rh, combined with total innumeracy about a 0.4 µm film on a few square millimetres. 50 lb of reed relays holds ~0.5 g of Ru against a $350 fixed refining fee; the rhodium figure is unsourced inference. Never pay above copper price.

Questions

How much gold is in reed switches & reed relays?

Copper: ~40 g/lb. At current spot that is about $0.43 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify reed switches & reed relays?

There is no visual tell that makes a reed switch valuable — the PGM is a 0.4 µm sputtered film on 1–3 mm² inside sealed glass, so a pile of rhodium reed relays is worth its copper.

How do you remove reed switches & reed relays safely?

Is reed switches & reed relays worth more working than as scrap?

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