Also, any metal-to-metal contact will develop surface contamination from particles in the air (water, aerosols, sulphides.). What causes the issues are when a mix of fine carbon particles from the track and grease from the shaft bearing accumulate on the track and wipers, rendering the contacts non conductive. You really shouldn't lubricate a potentiometer with grease, though there is grease in the shaft bearing.įor the most part, scratchy pots are not a result of dust like most people think. Any track lubricant has to be thin enough to be conductive and prevent hydroplaning, which results in intermittencies as you turn the pot. The vast majority of potentiometers that I'm aware of don't have any lubricant on the carbon track applied at the time of manufacture, as that would interfere with conductivity. Google "circuit board alcohol bath," alcohol is used to completely submerge circuit boards in because it's such a safe and effective cleaner. Isopropyl alcohol is the industry standard, Deoxit is trying to sell you something. Just do a bunch of Googling if you don't believe me, "electrical contact cleaner alcohol" for instance. In more sensitive engineering applications we use 99% isopropyl alcohol, but for household electronics and guitar amps 70% is absolutely fine, and that's what's used for larger electrical contacts. I'm not saying that it's a terrible product that will ruin your amp or anything, but I am saying that alcohol is all you need and all anyone uses in my professional experience. Deoxit is just a waste of money, in my opinion. In all of those industries, alcohol is used to clean electrical contacts and traces. I'm an electrical engineer and former avionics technician for the USAF, have worked in aerospace, have worked in renewables and thin film manufacturing/test, have worked for the Keck Observatory doing control system work, and now teach electrical engineering and physics. Obviously Deoxit has a marketing department and wants to sell you things. The great advantage of using alcohol to clean electronics is that it is EXTREMELY volatile, it will evaporate away completely very quickly, which means that it doesn't matter how conductive it is anyway because it will be completely gone in a few minutes. Alcohol is a polar covalent compound, but it's not very polar and is not very conductive. I clicked the above link called "Caig on alcohol," and it's misleading, in my opinion. I will just repeat that this stuff is not used in any electrical engineering company or electrical manufacturing floor that I'm aware of. Again, follow up with the Faderlube/Gold stuff to increase protection against future oxidation.Deoxit has a market, sure. Apply to the inside of RCA jacks with the little mascara brushes. Apply to outer surfaces with the little applicator swabs they give in the kits, or with non-shedding Q-tips. Then spray Faderlube/Gold (used to be called ProGold), and turn a few more times to spread it around.įor general cleaning and less critical contacts, like wire-wound posts and circuit boards, you can use a regular commercial contact spray to save some $$, but use the red DeOxit and Faderlube/Gold on the important control surfaces.įor surfaces you can actually reach and touch, like RCA jacks, speaker and headphone jack contacts, use the little bottles of DeOxit. Then turn the pot back-and-forth a few dozen times through the full range of motion. Look for a small hole in the case (square or round, probably near an edge or corner) of the pot, stick the little red DeOxit spray straw there, and spray the stuff inside the case. Similarly, they won't let much (if any) DeOxit in that way. :nono: That might work with a few pot designs, but most of them are designed to make it hard for dust and such to get into the casing through that way. It is NOT good enough to spray along the shaft where the knob goes on. Spray through the small holes into the casing of the pot itself. You will want to remove the top and/or faceplate, in order to get access to the bodies/cases of the pots. Be careful using something like Gunk on audio gear: a lot of contact surfaces have lubricants and such which will also "melt away" under that stuff!
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