Although in my case I used a specific product this might apply to other sprays that leave an oily residue, so please share your experience. I've recently spray cleaned an FM tuner with Kontakt 60 and noticed it left an oily residue. I've stumbled by accident on a thread on another forum mentioning the oily residue can affect the dielectric characteristics of capacitors on the tuning transformers (a coil with embedded varying capacitors it seems, something like that anyway...🙂), which I did spray abundantly. Did some more digging around and found other opinions saying it doesn't matter and the oily residue actually protects from corrosion, which I think doesn't matter in this case since this is not a potentiometer. The pcb is oily all around and the oily gunk does seem to make contact with my components legs. Still haven't reassembled and turned the unit on, so before I do so does it really alter the resistance and can have bad effects ? I know the stuff is not supposed to be conductive, just the resistance is probably a bit different (and maybe lower), do you guys think it will affect the tuning transformers ?
And since we're at it, what are in your experience other problems/advantages of leaving the oily residue ?
Thanks
And since we're at it, what are in your experience other problems/advantages of leaving the oily residue ?
Thanks
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I wash the PCBoards with IPA or Flux Off then spray the underside with conformal coating, on the underside of the board only.
The oil is an insulator and will protect the copper. Just looks a bit messy.
The oil is an insulator and will protect the copper. Just looks a bit messy.
The worst thing you could do. Kontakt 60 contains some etching formula, it must be washed down after a few minutes of usage. The recommended washing solution is Kontakt WL. I think IPA can be used as well. Normal contacts should be treated after Kontakt 60 - Kontakt WL pre-treatment by Kontakt 61. But as you suspected, it should not go on tuning components.
The best thing you can do is to unsolder all IF transformers and variable capacitors (if there is any), sink them in IPA, rinse them, dry them on air or with a hairdryer, and resolder them. Clean the PCB also with IPA over a large tray, using a flat paintbrush .
What icsasazar says, but don't use a hair dryer. They can send out glowing specs of dust ant that could ignite your IPA or Kontakt WL. Just let it dry naturally.
Thanks all for your replies.
@lcsaszar
That sounds a bit drastic, their catalog and datasheets don't even mention that washing it off from contacts is necessary, only if extra protection is wanted, in which case they recommend to rinse with kontakt WL and then apply Kontakt 61, which ironically seems to contain a protective oil layer. Check
http://www.kontaktspray.hu/en/?Download
@lcsaszar
That sounds a bit drastic, their catalog and datasheets don't even mention that washing it off from contacts is necessary, only if extra protection is wanted, in which case they recommend to rinse with kontakt WL and then apply Kontakt 61, which ironically seems to contain a protective oil layer. Check
http://www.kontaktspray.hu/en/?Download
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