One of my co workers gave me a can of the CRC CO Contact Cleaner wonder if anyone has used this to clean potentiometers on the old radios. I always resist cleaning them unless they are really noisy but sometimes you are stuck.

A contact is not a control. Would you use oven cleaner to clean optics? Or carpet cleaner on your hands?

Use the right product.

Seems to be a pretty open subject I have seen a lot of differing opinions on what is safe to use. I see people advocating WD-40 which I tend not to use on anything. Do you have any recommendations, always reading to learn

This stuff?



I have been using this for a while and not had any adverse affects.

If you don't like WD40, then at least go buy an equivalent product. In my shop, it is essential.

Controls: I never use anything except WD-40. It is not 100% successful, but it has never caused damage. About 20% of the time, I have to open up the control first. Then...if WD40 does not work, I can usually see why ..eg damage to the resistance element.

"Contact cleaner" or "electronics cleaner" are horribly ambiguous labels. If you use any of these, follow the instructions or be sure you know what is in them.

I use only 4 basic chemicals on a daily basis
Water
IPA (NOT on controls)
WD40
Singer light machine oil
Less often:
DeOxit D5-----ONLY on switch contacts.

IPA? Is that used to lubricate the repairman before the job?

IPA is useful in a wide variety of situations....

+1... Cheers,
Roger

Same here.

WD-40 is wax (paraffin) in a solvent carrier. That's all. Nothing else.

The solvent serves to clean the control surface of grime and similar insults. When it evaporates (quite rapidly), it leaves behind a very thin layer of wax that serves as a protector.

The wax is extremely thin.
The contact pressure in the control is sufficient to push through it.
It remains on the non-contact surfaces to protect them from corrosion etc.

- Leigh

WOW, thanks for all the replies. Here is the thing. I have a bunch of different Deoxit products all the them bill themselves as a "Contact Cleaner" and the more you read the less clear to me which ones are really safe on pots. I am also confused on the WD-40, is this the stuff that has been around for ever (I have several cans of that stuff) or is it the new products they have come out with. As far as the CRC CO this is stuff we use on the electronics where I work they use it on everything and we have a lot of different types of manufacturing equipment so of the stuff is 50+ years old and some is modern. Never heard of any issues but not a lot of call to clean pots (I am sure).

Hi Bob,

I think the original DeOxit is now the D5 version that Mark mentioned earlier.
That's what I use for rotary switch contacts.

I was not aware of other versions of WD-40.
I buy the blue spray cans from Lowe's etc.

I service a lot of industrial machinery. Very different from radios.
Manufacturing equipment was designed and built to last 100 years.

One significant point is the history of use of a product for a particular purpose.
I've been using WD-40 for well over 50 years without a problem. We have no such historical usage records for modern products because such records don't exist.

- Leigh

I work in IT for a paper company, we have a lot of vintage stuff for sure, some of the stuff was made back in the late 60s and it is still going. Some of the stuff was around when I got into the field back in 1977 and it is still running critical applications. As far as hardware some of the paper machines are pushing 70+ years, modern PLCs and controls but still very old technology. Thanks for your input, I read your posts often.

Dog Fish makes some killer IPAs!

They have a contact cleaner, evaporates very quickly, I like it. This Amazon listing also show many other specialist types at the bottom of the page.
https://www.amazon.com/WD-40-Specialist ... ct+cleaner

I gave the regular WD-40 a try on a scratchy volume control and it seems to have done the trick. Never used WD-40 on anything electronic before. I found the WD-40 Specialist on Ebay for $8 with free shipping, just ordered a can. I knew they branched out with their product line. They now even make products for care of a bicycle..

You can always Google the product name along with 'MSDS'.

That gives you the ingredients and proportions, For example, some clean only, while others clean and lubricate. But a volume pot is a delicate device, ask me how I know.

I looked up the MSDS for WD-40 Specialist Electrical Contact Cleaner. As I interpret it, it is essentially alcohol and hexane in a propellant.

I use Deoxit D5 on pots followed by Preservit, which is now called Deoxit P I think. I have used WD40 in the past. On the volume control on my stereo preamp, WD40 lasts about a year before having to be reapplied. The two Deoxit products together last about 3 to 4 years before having to be redone. Straight contact cleaner is good for a few months.

$8 is a lot of money for spray alcohol. It may work well for the outside of a control but I wouldn't trust it for cleaning the conductive carbon surface.

Controls.....alcohol.....NO
Controls......contact cleaner......NO

Specifically for D5......has anyone ever seen words from the mfg suggesting that it should be used on controls?