Electrical contact cleaning

[Daniel Prince]

What tools and chemicals do you use to clean electrical contacts?

What do you use for buttons on things such as remote controls? (I have a kitchen timer with buttons that have to be pressed several times.)

What do you use on battery contacts? (I know to use white vinegar to clean up leakage from alkaline battery leakage.)

Thank you in advance for all replies.

-- Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY, REALLY good. I'll have some of that!"

[limeylew]

I have seen people use the eraser on the end of a pencil for this.

Whether it is a 'pencil lead' eraser, or the type of eraser that works on ball point pen ink, I'm not sure.

Lewis.

*****

[93JONK]

Rubbing alcohol and a q-tip. i somehow managed to drop the remote for my tv into a cup of cola, where it sat overnight. in the morning when i realized this had happened, i dried it out and cleaned with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol and it still works to this day!!

[LouB]

Eraser on the end of a pencil (the pink eraser).

Lou

[James Sweet]

Depends. For rubber membrane keypads I use liquid dish soap and warm water. Battery contacts I use vinegar and scrub with a toothbrush or scotchbrite pad. For things like edge connectors, low voltage signal contacts and such I use Deoxit D5, spendy stuff, but a little goes a long way.

[hibb]

I just went to radio shack and bought a spray can of contact cleaner. The stuff we used to use on the old televisions and radios with the tuner you had to turn by hand.

David

[Ralph Mowery]

When spraying chemicals be careful around plastic parts. Some cleaners will melt or mess up the plastic. I once sprayed a switch with some contact cleaner and after about a minuit it was as if I sprayed glue in it. Had to replace the switch.

[Jeff Wisnia]

I use alcohol on condictive rubber contacts in remores and such.

For metal contacts (batteries, switches, edge card connectors, etc.) I use Stabilant 22.

(Which happens to have been developed and still produced by a college classmate of mine from 52 years ago )

Jeff

[Phisherman]

Radio Shack sells an electrical burnisher tool. That is what you need for contacts. Avoid touching the contact with your hands (leaves oily prints) or wear rubber gloves. Remote buttons may wear out over time, then it's time to replace the remote with a new one.

[Phisherman]

A pencil eraser can clean the gold/tin contacts on a PC card.

[The Daring Dufas]

Rubber buttons can be repaired.

There are various "plastic safe" contact cleaners and contact cleaning tools that are available from your local electronics supply house.

TDD

[aemeijers]

I've resurrected many remote controls and membrane-type keypads and keyboards, by taking them apart, ever-so-gently burnishing the black spots with a clean pencil eraser, and washing with dish soap and reassembling. (Getting the hand grease off the case and buttons makes even a nasty remote look almost new.) Back when computer mice had balls, I used to do the same thing on them- the dumpsters at work kept me supplied for years, for multiple machines. The usual caveats about not soaking electronic components apply, but a quick wash'n'rinse, followed by a blow dry, seems to work okay. Hey, when fixing trash, you have nothing to lose, right?

No, not really cost effective, but I hate 'universal' remotes, because they never are. And I'm just a cheap (slightly OCD) SOB- I like the brands on all the parts to match. Now that even 'name' brands outsource production from year to year, even if you buy the same brand remote, it doesn't always work completely.

-- aem sends...