# What is the best electrical contact cleaner?



## AlexGT (Feb 14, 2006)

Hi all!

What is the best electrical contact cleaner, I seen Deoxit and progold but want to check with you guys if you know whats best for electrical contacts in circuits and of course flashlights!

Thanks!
AlexGT


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## greenLED (Feb 15, 2006)

Compared to the RatShack contacts cleaner, CAIG's products :rock: 
I cleaned one of my krolls with the RatShack stuff, and didn't fix the flickering (OK, maybe for 1-2 weeks). I then tried DeOxit + ProGold, and it's been smooth sailing since (over a month now).


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## pizzle (Feb 15, 2006)

i use MG Chemicals Electrosolve. used it for taking dielectric grease off a CPU and motherboard, worked perfectly great, left no residue and evaporated fairly quickly. if it doesn't mess up an incredibly delicate piece of computer hardware (that has ~150 million transistors), it most certainly will be fine for flashlights and such.


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## nemul (Feb 15, 2006)

get the DeoxIT & ProGold kit from ratshack it's $14.99.. good stuuf!


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## scott.cr (Feb 15, 2006)

I can vouch for the DeOxit/ProGold kit from RadSnax. I bought it for flashlight use, but one night while watching "24" on TV I noticed my speakers would go really quiet for a second during heavy bass... so the ProGold went on the RCA connectors and vavavavoom! Fixed!


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## legtu (Feb 15, 2006)

I use Cramolin's Contaclean.


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## CLHC (Feb 15, 2006)

Caig's products. Also for 2006 DeOxit ProGold is simply called GOLD.


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## LuxLuthor (Feb 15, 2006)

ProGold Pen from RadioShack


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## TinderBox (UK) (Feb 15, 2006)

I use SERVISOL SUPER 10.

regards.


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## eluminator (Feb 15, 2006)

It depends on the contacts you are working with. High quality contacts like are used for memory sticks are apt to be gold plated with a very thin layer of gold. For these it's only necessary to remove any oil and dust. The same goes for nickle plated contacts in good condition that you might find on batteries and battery chargers.

I use isopropyl alcohol on a lint free microfiber cloth. Compusa sells these cloths for cleaning camera lenses. They also have special ones for cleaning flash memory contacts that come with a little piece of plastic that helps to clean the female contacts that the flash plugs into.

For flashlights it's not so critical, but I find that when I'm testing cells in my cell tester, wiping the contacts with a paper towel doesn't do the job. I usually get 40 or more milliohms contact resistance, and it varies with time. Apparently the paper towel leaves small practically invisible fibers on the contacts. With a microfiber cloth I can get the resistance below 5 milliohms. This is necessary to be able to measure the internal resistance of the cells.


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## kennyj (Feb 15, 2006)

Another vouch for CAIG products. Awesome stuff. Also quite potent; a little goes a very long way.


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## CM (Feb 15, 2006)

Well I've know about this stuff for a long time but was skeptical and since one of my Kroll's have become "unfixable" I just bought the two pack Deoxit at Radio Shack. Worked great. Hopefully it will hold up for a reasonably long time.


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