Talk:Silicone grease

Dielectric Grease
Some research is needed on Electrical conduction of dielectric grease versus regular grease(which is also nonconductive)?--Ericg33 (talk) 10:39, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Silicone dielectric compound is abrasive, and should NEVER be used to lubricate rotating contacts. It contains silica. I tried it on a silver-plated rotary switch on a piece of industrial machinery the last place I worked. The switch actually failed much FASTER with the silicone dielectric compound than it did without. Silicone dielectric grease does NOT have lubricating qualities. I wish I had taken a photo of that switch! The silicone dielectric grease was no longer clear (well, translucent), but silver! The silver plating had become thoroughly mixed with the grease, actually making the grease conductive! It looked like silver paste.

Also, contrary to what the main page says, it can indeed be applied to stationary contacts to protect them from corrosion in the presence of moisture. 67.210.53.39 (talk) 08:24, 21 March 2012 (UTC)w0btu

Electrical Contacts

 * It depends in the "stationary contact". It might be acceptable to use to coat the electrical contacts on a boat trailer, but it should not be used to seal low voltage, low current data connectors. The pins on a boat trailer connector are not reliant on a low-resistance circuit in order to light the lights on the boat. But if you put dielectric grease on a data connector, which is passing megabytes of digital data per second at a few volts and a few microamps of current, you're probably going to get data errors. That's why many of those contacts are gold plated. Martylunsford (talk) 15:59, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

A few comments: 1. Regarding use of silicone grease on rotating contact. This is NOT an appropriate use for three reasons. a) As the author of the comment noted, the lubricating qualities of silicone grease may be insufficient. and b) rotating contacts may experience arcing at times. Silicone may convert to silicon carbide in the presence of electrical arcing. Silicon carbide is an insulator and is very hard. Silicone contamination is known to cause failures in electrical relays by this mechanism. c) silicone has very low surface tension and therefore tends to migrate away from where it is needed (and to where it is undesired, too).

2. Regarding use on stationary contacts. The comment that it will probably produce errors on high-data rate, low voltage/current contacts is not necessarily correct. While almost any grease is a bad choice for a connector lubricant compared to the base lubricating fluid without thickener (thickeners, particular particle-based ones as typically used in silicone grease can create problems), most silicone greases will not directly cause connector problems. Typcial contact "normal" force ("normal" meaning "perpendicular") is greater than 50gms, preferably over 200 gms. At those forces a stationary contact will form a fully conductive contact right through the thin grease layer. The purpose of the lubricant is to seal out oxygen and also provide lubrication to prevent what is called "fretting" corrosion, which is cause by abrasion during micro-motion from vibration and thermal changes. Siicone grease will usually accomplish such protection, though it is far down the list of recommended contact lubricants. Commercial lubricants such as those based on PolyPhenylEthers by SantoVac and others, Non-PPE commercial products by Nye Lubricants, Miller-Stephenson, and AX7 by RCElectronics are all vastly superior for preventing fretting corrosion and for staying put where they are applied. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.234.93.251 (talk) 02:28, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Dubious Authoring with Inadequate Research
This article is written in an amateurish manner. Much of what is written here appears to be the authors' opinions. The article has five sections, but only one reference is cited. The "Consumer uses" section mentions the use of silicone for condom lubrication. The title of this article is "Silicone grease." Who in the world is using silicone grease as a sexual lubricant? The article, "Silicone oil" already exists. It would be more appropriate to edit "Silicone oil" to include silicone sexual lubricant information, with references of course. Furthermore, silicone grease (lubricating) and silicone dielectric (insulating) are two similar substances comprised of substantially incompatible components for separate purposes. This article should be edited to contain information that only regards silicone grease. Content about silicone dielectric should appear in a newly created article titled "Silicone dielectric." Lastly, talk pages are for discussing Wikipedia articles. Discussing personal experience, even if it's on subject, isn't helpful. One cannot cite personal experience.--184.202.252.244 (talk) 22:12, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Use with satelliteTV connectors.
Satcure recommend the use of silicone grease on satellite TV cable connections. They have produced a write-up refuting objections here - http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/silicone2.htm

Unable to vouch for their science, but they do have many years of practical experience in the notoriously humid UK environment.Mikehimself (talk) 10:05, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Lubricant Properties
It seemed good to check before making any changes, but should the article contain something like:

"Silicone Grease is not normally used as a lubricant."

Darkman101 (talk) 02:33, 13 July 2021 (UTC)