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Instructions | SILICONE GREASE LNBs | Plugs & Sockets | Phone | Bolts | Dish fixings & Aerials | Batteries | Spark-plugs | hubs | Bulbs | iPods | Outdoor garden or patio lights Silicone grease is slippery stuff and doesn't wash off with water. You can use it to waterproof outdoor connections to LNBs, dish motor connections and to make things slide on more easily. How about those tricky radiator hoses on vehicles? Silicone grease will also tolerate very high temperatures so it is used on heat sinks in computers and other equipment. (Sometimes zinc oxide is added but this is not essential.) Moisture and air cause the copper wire connection in an LNB cable to corrode. Sometimes the corrosion isn't even visible but it can cause intermittent loss of signal. Applying silicone grease to the wire will usually cure this. (It's best to do it before the corrosion occurs inside the LNB connector!) If you don't believe how quickly copper oxidises, take a piece of pure copper (an old penny, for example), degrease it and leave it in vinegar for an hour. Take it out, rinse it with water, dry it and leave it exposed to the air. You'll see the surface quickly oxidise and go brown. Now repeat the process but this time coat half of it with silicone grease. Corrosion becomes much worse in the presence of moisture and electric current. There is plenty of moisture indoors from your breath alone, so this problem doesn't occur only outdoors. It can even affect your Hi-Fi connections! Some "professionals" doubt the necessity of using silicone grease. Please Click HERE to read what the American company "Channel Master" had to say about it back in 1999. Hi Martin, Reading your mention of silicone grease took me back to a radio programme I heard on the old BBC Radio London when Johnny Longdon was the engineer there and used to broadcast a technical session once a month. One broadcast dealt with rigging aerials and one of the BBC riggers recommended the plentiful use of silicone grease in all aerial connection boxes and connectors. I have followed the advice ever since, especially during my time as a licensed radio amateur, when I found a complete absence of corrosion in connections given the treatment and taken down after many years exposure to the elements. I find it especially useful these days when applied to F connectors under their boot. Kind regards, Jack Apply it to bare copper wires in coaxial cable joints. Bare copper corrodes. Read more... You can easily test to see whether I'm right about copper. Take an old copper coin or copper wire and leave it in vinegar until it's bright. Rinse it in water and dry it. Apply silicone grease to part of the coin or wire. Leave it on a shelf somewhere - the more damp the better. See what happens after a few weeks! Apply it to plugs and sockets to make them easier to release and to prevent oxidation. Click HERE for more notes about this You probably spent a lot of money on "oxygen-free" copper cable, gold-plated connections and equipment to enhance your listening pleasure. So why expose your connections to oxygen in the air, and moisture (from your lungs) when it's easy and cheap to protect them with grease? Look at those connectors under a microscope and you'll see the imperfections. The connections can be protected with silicone grease. The electrical connection will be improved and remain reliable. Protect your flashlight torch and make it last longer. Coat all threads, O-rings, switch contacts, bulb contacts and battery contacts with silicone grease. This will prevent corrosion and allow the threads to turn smoothly. It's especially important to protect bicycle lights, which may be outside in wet weather - even dynamo-powered lamps. Phone sockets are often mounted on walls prone to dampness. If moisture gets inside the connections will corrode, resulting in crackling noises from the 'phone and reduced broadband speeds. Apply silicone grease to the connectors before pressing the wires in. Apply it to the plug connections, too. The "gold plating" is a microscopically thin "flash", usually no more than half a micrometre thick. It contains many imperfections and, under a microscope, you can see bare metal. In the presence of moisture (from your breath, from cooking - even worse from damp walls) the connections corrode and you'll get a poor connection. Silicone grease will prevent this from happening. Apply it to wall bracket bolts and to all dish bolts and U-bolt threads. This will help to ensure that they tighten easily and can be undone in a few years time. Apply it to dish fixings, aerial fixings and U bolts, then protect them with Denso Tape. Outdoor aerial connections need to have a liberal coating of silicone grease. Cut the coaxial cable inner copper core as short as practicable. Twist the copper braided shield into a "pigtail". Coat both with grease before inserting into the connectors and tightening the bolts. Now apply lots of grease to all bare metal contacts so that any rainwater or condensation will simply run off. Fit the plastic cover and secure it in place with self-amalgamating tape and/or cable ties. Some plastic covers crack and flake away in sunlight so covering them with tape makes good sense for long-term reliability. (Denso tape is even better). Silicone grease is also perfect for preventing corrosion on battery terminals in all situations from cars, tractors, boats and lorries to model aeroplanes. Click HERE for more notes about this. You can also use it as polish to make things shine and to protect them from tarnishing. (I use it on my kitchen work surfaces). Leaking battery cells will cause the spring contacts to corrode. You can help prevent this by coating the contacts with silicone grease. You can use it in any equipment that uses battery cells - from remote controls, model boats, model cars to hearing aids. This high temperature silicone grease is also ideal for lubricating the threads of spark plugs. It helps to conduct heat away from the spark plug and makes it easier to remove at the next service. You can use it on wheel bolts/studs and also on the lip of the hub where it will prevent the wheel from sticking. (Be sure to apply the torque specified by the manufacturer for greased threads. The value specified in the manual is often for dry threads and must be lowered if the friction is reduced.) Corrosion of bulb contacts can cause strange electrical problems when brakes or indicators are operated. Remove each bulb and scrape off all corrosion from the metal cap and terminals. Do this for the bulb-holder, too. Then coat all metal parts (including the contacts) with silicone grease. This does not affect the contact but it keeps out moisture. Older cars can suffer major problems with intermittent electrics. Every week a different problem might occur. The reason is simply that the connections were made without grease. Connectors come in various guises but the most common are the "bullet" type and the "spade" type (also known as "Faston" or "Lucar" connectors). Corrosion occurs where metals are exposed to moisture and air, and the problem is exacerbated by electric current and heat. Vibration will make the problem intermittent. The corrosion builds up and pushes the contacts apart, then vibration may cause the contact metals to break through the corrosion and contact is remade - for a while. It can drive you crazy! The answer is to remove every connector, clean and grease it. Don't overlook fuses, headlight connectors and engine sensors. Silicone grease is ideal because it is very waterproof and unaffected even by engine temperatures. I also used it to prevent crackling audio on my iPod. Read more about this here. Silicone grease is available in a 50 gram tube (like a large toothpaste tube) or in an economy size 10 gram tub. Outdoor garden or patio lights used in decking, or anywhere that could become damp, should be protected. Even if the lamp appears to be sealed, if you can access the connections, they will corrode. A note for those who can't copy words The word is silicone with an 'e'. It is like the greasy stuff used in breast implants and shower sealant. It is an organic compound and has no connection with "silicon", which is a hard, brittle element that is commonly used in the manufacture of Integrated Circuits or "silicon chips". ©2005-2011 SatCure | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||