Contact enhancers?

[Daniel Prince]

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.
--
When I am in the kitchen, I often kick one of my cat's balls.
After I kick it, he will sometimes play with it for a few
seconds to several minutes. His favorite are the ones that
rattle. He'll play with any ball that makes noise.

 

[Dave Platt]

In article <qqhcc8t7o15abkm3jmgh89ato1mr4vd6m5@4ax.com>,
Daniel Prince <neutrino1@ca.rr.com> wrote:

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.

"Tweek" was a rebranded version of Stabilant 22A (which is Stabilant
22, diluted in isopropyl alcohol). "Tweek" is no longer being
marketed by the rebrander, but Stabilant 22 is still available from
the original manufacturer and their distributors:

http://stabilant.com/

I've used it for quite a few years, and it does seem to work as
advertised... it's eliminated a bunch of contact-related problems and
crashes in computer systems I own and maintain.

It's not a contact clear/deoxidizer, although it probably does have
some cleaning action simply because in its diluted form it's mostly
isopropyl alcohol. If your contacts are dirty, save some money and
clean them with pure isopropyl alcohol first, then apply the Stabilant
sparingly. If they're heavily oxidized or corroded, you'll want to
deal with that via a separate cleaning process first.

Their smallest standard package is 5 ml of concentrate, which is
usually diluted 4:1 or 5:1 in isopropyl alcohol to make a working
solution. This should be enough to last you for a lifetime!

Since I usually apply Stabiliant to small connectors, I prefer the
liquid form (diluted as recommended), applied with a small brush or
Q-tip. Less wasteful that way. I don't really see the sense to
spraying a "contact enhancer" around using an aerosol... most of it is
going to go where it does no good.

I have only limited experience with other "contact enhancers". I've
used Cramolin (the original red/blue concentrate bottles), DeOxIt, and
various homebrew formulas... but these are more contact cleaners /
oxide removers than "contact enhancers". In fact, some of these
products really need to be thoroughly removed from contacts (or
neutralized) after use - leaving a residue of them on the contacts can
eventually degrade the contacts.

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[whit3rd]

On Monday, December 10, 2012 12:42:56 PM UTC-8, Daniel Prince wrote:

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact

enhancer.

Çaig laboratories sells a variety of enhancers, with DeOxit, Preservit as
their main tradenames, which are easily available (try Radio Shack
for instance). Some are cleaners only, try to understand the
usage notes to find which are the enhancers.

 

[Dave Platt]

In article <1285340608376880028.555763zekor-comcast.net@news.eternal-september.org>,
gregz <zekor@comcast.net> wrote:

I got a few bottles, sprays, concoctions. Been a while since I used my
stabilant.

I just used some non residue cleaner on a MAF sensor. Depends how get down
and dirty I need to go. What I most use these days is CRC lube which is an
enhancer. It's cheap and available. I also got tubes of caigs concentrated
items.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/crc-2-26-5-oz-multi-purpose-lubricant-02004.html#.UMaD5qN5mSM

Well... CRC 2-26 is advertised as a multi-purpose lubricant and
moisture-eliminator. I'm not sure I'd consider it a "contact
enhancer", except incidentally.

According to the MSDS, its ingredients are petroleum distillates,
mineral oil, a bit of sulfonic acids (which I suspect provide some
detergent action), some (2-methoxymethylethoxy) propanol (appears to
be a glycol ether, used as a solvent), and propellants.

Not terribly different from WD-40... probably flushes and cleans a bit
better due to the solvents and surfactants.

--
Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

 

[gregz]

Daniel Prince <neutrino1@ca.rr.com> wrote:

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.

I got a few bottles, sprays, concoctions. Been a while since I used my
stabilant.
I just used some non residue cleaner on a MAF sensor. Depends how get down
and dirty I need to go. What I most use these days is CRC lube which is an
enhancer. It's cheap and available. I also got tubes of caigs concentrated
items.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/crc-2-26-5-oz-multi-purpose-lubricant-02004.html#.UMaD5qN5mSM

Greg

 

[gregz]

gregz <zekor@comcast.net> wrote:

Daniel Prince <neutrino1@ca.rr.com> wrote:
I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.

I got a few bottles, sprays, concoctions. Been a while since I used my
stabilant.
I just used some non residue cleaner on a MAF sensor. Depends how get down
and dirty I need to go. What I most use these days is CRC lube which is an
enhancer. It's cheap and available. I also got tubes of caigs concentrated
items.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/crc-2-26-5-oz-multi-purpose-lubricant-02004.html#.UMaD5qN5mSM

Greg

Had to mention, using the red tube extension works well, in that you can
get small amounts, and it foams as it comes flowing easily into components.

Greg

 

[Phil Allison]

"Daniel Prince" <neutrino1@ca.rr.com>

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.

** Such products only work if you believe in them.

Like crystals and pyramids etc.



..... Phil

 

[gregz]

Dave Platt <dplatt@radagast.org> wrote:

In article <1285340608376880028.555763zekor-comcast.net@news.eternal-september.org>,
gregz <zekor@comcast.net> wrote:

I got a few bottles, sprays, concoctions. Been a while since I used my
stabilant.

I just used some non residue cleaner on a MAF sensor. Depends how get down
and dirty I need to go. What I most use these days is CRC lube which is an
enhancer. It's cheap and available. I also got tubes of caigs concentrated
items.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/crc-2-26-5-oz-multi-purpose-lubricant-02004.html#.UMaD5qN5mSM

Well... CRC 2-26 is advertised as a multi-purpose lubricant and
moisture-eliminator. I'm not sure I'd consider it a "contact
enhancer", except incidentally.

According to the MSDS, its ingredients are petroleum distillates,
mineral oil, a bit of sulfonic acids (which I suspect provide some
detergent action), some (2-methoxymethylethoxy) propanol (appears to
be a glycol ether, used as a solvent), and propellants.

Not terribly different from WD-40... probably flushes and cleans a bit
better due to the solvents and surfactants.

I would describe it as a little thicker than wd-40. The front of the can
shows an electrical connection, and says improves electrical properties.
Plastic safe.

Greg

 

[Arfa Daily]

"gregz" <zekor@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1285340608376880028.555763zekor-comcast.net@news.eternal-september.org...

Daniel Prince <neutrino1@ca.rr.com> wrote:
I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.

I got a few bottles, sprays, concoctions. Been a while since I used my
stabilant.
I just used some non residue cleaner on a MAF sensor. Depends how get down
and dirty I need to go. What I most use these days is CRC lube which is an
enhancer. It's cheap and available. I also got tubes of caigs concentrated
items.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/crc-2-26-5-oz-multi-purpose-lubricant-02004.html#.UMaD5qN5mSM

Greg

Interesting that you've cleaned a MAF. Petrol or diesel ? Did you find
cleaning worked ? If so, by 'feel' of performance or by looking at the
numbers ? Reason that I ask is that I had MAF issues on my wife's diesel
Land Rover Disco TD5, soon after it was bought SH from a dealer. The dealer
cleaned the MAF, and declared it ok then by the numbers. However, it wasn't
ok. The low end performance was appalling, making it quite dangerous to pull
out of some junctions. After some to-ing and fro-ing with the dealer, I did
some research on the net, and the initial advice was to just disconnect it
to force the ECU back to the default fuel map. If this made it run right,
the further advice was to replace it, and to do so with either an original
or OEM part. Looking into this further, I found that although deposits on
the actual sensor wire(s) can cause problems, by far the more common problem
is that due to the elevated temperature that the wire is driven to as part
of the way the sensor works, its characteristic curve alters over time, and
its output falls in general. The reason that you apparently shouldn't use
the cheapo ones on the net is that their linearity tends to be poor, and
they can be quite short lived. Apparently, many use a diode as the sensing
element, rather than a wire or a tiny bead thermistor.

With my one disconnected, the engine ran brilliantly, so I bit the bullet
and just bought an OEM one from a Landy dealer's spares department. When I
took the old one out, it had indeed been totally cleaned, and the wires were
spotless, but never-the-less, it still didn't work properly. The new one,
when fitted, did, and continues to do so, so just interested in your
findings for cleaning yours.

Arfa

 

[Arfa Daily]

"Phil Allison" <phil_a@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:ainq8aFju21U1@mid.individual.net...

"Daniel Prince" <neutrino1@ca.rr.com

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.


** Such products only work if you believe in them.

Like crystals and pyramids etc.



.... Phil

Agreed in principle Phil, but I guess it depends on what starting point you
are 'enhancing' from. If you've got a nice clean set of contacts that are
working well, then no amount of anything on them is going to improve that.
However, I guess you could say that a contact lubricant applied sparingly,
might preserve that condition for longer than would otherwise be the case,
by preventing early oxidation of the contact surfaces. Of course, if they
are precious metal plated, that argument wouldn't hold water. If, however,
you have a set of contacts that are already performing badly, then I suppose
you could say that a squib of a decent quality proprietary switch cleaner /
lubricant, would 'enhance' the performance of those contacts. All of us in
the electronic service industry use such products on a daily basis for
cleaning switch contacts and pots etc. My one of choice for many years has
been a Servisol product called "Super 10"

eg

http://www.rapidonline.com/mechanical-fastenings-fixings/servisol-super-10-switch-cleaning-lubricant-200ml-87-0770

Arfa

 

[Phil Allison]

"Arfa Daily"

"Phil Allison"
"Daniel Prince"
I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.


** Such products only work if you believe in them.

Like crystals and pyramids etc.



.... Phil


Agreed in principle Phil, but I guess it depends on what starting point
you are 'enhancing' from.

** FFS Arthur - HAVE A LOOK on Ebay or Google under the OP's heading.

The concoctions being offered are all SNAKE OIL !!

Contact cleaner /lubricant products ( like WD40 ) are NOT the issue here.



.... Phil

 

[John-Del]

On Tuesday, December 11, 2012 4:55:29 AM UTC-5, Arfa Daily wrote:

With my one disconnected, the engine ran brilliantly, so I bit the bullet

and just bought an OEM one from a Landy dealer's spares department. When I

took the old one out, it had indeed been totally cleaned, and the wires were

spotless, but never-the-less, it still didn't work properly. The new one,

when fitted, did, and continues to do so, so just interested in your

findings for cleaning yours.

When MAF sensors were fairly new, I bought a very low mileage Ford van (U.S..) at an auction with the check engine light on. It started and idled fine, but as soon as it started to rev past 2K, it would fall on it's face and ping badly. Only codes retrieved indicated both banks lean. I brought it to a guy well known in the area as being know to be good with this new fangled stuff, he played with it an hour, and told me to return it for a day when I could spare it. I never got back to drop it off, but after a couple of months running it this way, I decided to pull the MAF connector off to see if there was any change, and it ran perfectly. It pulled hard to redline up shift, and the ping was gone. I pulled the MAF meter out of it, and saw two wires. One was white and one was black, except the black one was black on the incoming air side only. I cleaned it off with a q-tip and flux remover, stuck it back in, and problem gone. I still have that van as my backup, has over 250K on it with the original MAF, still passes emissions testing, and I clean the MAF every year or so when I think about it. Over the years, it became a well known problem with 90s era Fords.

 

[gregz]

"Arfa Daily" <arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

"gregz" <zekor@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1285340608376880028.555763zekor-comcast.net@news.eternal-september.org...
Daniel Prince <neutrino1@ca.rr.com> wrote:
I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.

I got a few bottles, sprays, concoctions. Been a while since I used my
stabilant.
I just used some non residue cleaner on a MAF sensor. Depends how get down
and dirty I need to go. What I most use these days is CRC lube which is an
enhancer. It's cheap and available. I also got tubes of caigs concentrated
items.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/crc-2-26-5-oz-multi-purpose-lubricant-02004.html#.UMaD5qN5mSM

Greg


Interesting that you've cleaned a MAF. Petrol or diesel ? Did you find
cleaning worked ? If so, by 'feel' of performance or by looking at the
numbers ? Reason that I ask is that I had MAF issues on my wife's diesel
Land Rover Disco TD5, soon after it was bought SH from a dealer. The
dealer cleaned the MAF, and declared it ok then by the numbers. However,
it wasn't ok. The low end performance was appalling, making it quite
dangerous to pull out of some junctions. After some to-ing and fro-ing
with the dealer, I did some research on the net, and the initial advice
was to just disconnect it to force the ECU back to the default fuel map.
If this made it run right, the further advice was to replace it, and to
do so with either an original or OEM part. Looking into this further, I
found that although deposits on the actual sensor wire(s) can cause
problems, by far the more common problem is that due to the elevated
temperature that the wire is driven to as part of the way the sensor
works, its characteristic curve alters over time, and its output falls in
general. The reason that you apparently shouldn't use the cheapo ones on
the net is that their linearity tends to be poor, and they can be quite
short lived. Apparently, many use a diode as the sensing element, rather
than a wire or a tiny bead thermistor.

With my one disconnected, the engine ran brilliantly, so I bit the bullet
and just bought an OEM one from a Landy dealer's spares department. When
I took the old one out, it had indeed been totally cleaned, and the wires
were spotless, but never-the-less, it still didn't work properly. The new
one, when fitted, did, and continues to do so, so just interested in your
findings for cleaning yours.

Arfa

Nothing noticed, but after changing plugs and wires and cleaning, hope to
increase mpg. I disconnected it on one car and it idled better. Had
problems with manifold.

Greg

 

[Jon Elson]

Daniel Prince wrote:

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.
Some time ago I had a Conrac color video monitor out of a TV station.

it had a LOT of Molex or AMP Mate-n-lock connectors in it, with
tin-plated contacts. There was HORRIBLE green goo growing all
over the contacts, and it made the monitor unreliable. I can only
assume somebody at the station had a pencant to apply some sort
of "contact enhancer" to everything, but it sure made a mess
of this unit. I don't know what brand they used. I've always been
leery of that type of stuff, but at least in one case, whatever
they did sure backfired. (Not that I'm any fan of stock Molex
or Mate-n-lock connectors, either!)

Jon

 

[Jon Elson]

Phil Allison wrote:

"Daniel Prince" <neutrino1@ca.rr.com

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.


** Such products only work if you believe in them.

Like crystals and pyramids etc.
Yeah, I really agree with you on this, Phil!

Jon

 

[Arfa Daily]

"Phil Allison" <phil_a@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:aiohh9FoodlU1@mid.individual.net...

"Arfa Daily"
"Phil Allison"
"Daniel Prince"
I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.


** Such products only work if you believe in them.

Like crystals and pyramids etc.



.... Phil


Agreed in principle Phil, but I guess it depends on what starting point
you are 'enhancing' from.


** FFS Arthur - HAVE A LOOK on Ebay or Google under the OP's heading.

The concoctions being offered are all SNAKE OIL !!

Contact cleaner /lubricant products ( like WD40 ) are NOT the issue here.



... Phil

Ok. Fair enough. I guess I was taking 'contact' & 'enhancer' as two words
that the OP was using to convey the concept of switch cleaner. I hadn't
realised that there was a separate group of products out there called
"contact enhancers". Having now looked, yes, absolutely. Snake oil. Pretty
much like the snake oil audio cables and mains filters that get so much
discussion on the audio groups ...

Arfa

 

[Jon Elson]

Arfa Daily wrote:

Ok. Fair enough. I guess I was taking 'contact' & 'enhancer' as two words
that the OP was using to convey the concept of switch cleaner. I hadn't
realised that there was a separate group of products out there called
"contact enhancers". Having now looked, yes, absolutely. Snake oil. Pretty
much like the snake oil audio cables and mains filters that get so much
discussion on the audio groups ...
Well, the MOST amazing coincidence is that the people who "lap up"

this stuff are the SAME people with the gold-plated welding cables
for their 50 W tube amps! What are the chances???

Jon

 

[Daniel Prince]

"Phil Allison" <phil_a@tpg.com.au> wrote:

"Daniel Prince" <neutrino1@ca.rr.com

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.


** Such products only work if you believe in them.

Like crystals and pyramids etc.



.... Phil

I originally bought the Tweek because Jerry Pournelle recommended it
in his column in Byte magazine. Has any magazine published
objective, scientific tests of Tweek, DeoxIT Gold or any other
contact enhancers?
--
When a cat sits in a human's lap both the human and the cat are usually
happy. The human is happy because he thinks the cat is sitting on him/her
because it loves her/him. The cat is happy because it thinks that by sitting
on the human it is dominant over the human.

 

[gregz]

Daniel Prince <neutrino1@ca.rr.com> wrote:

"Phil Allison" <phil_a@tpg.com.au> wrote:


"Daniel Prince" <neutrino1@ca.rr.com

I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some new contact
enhancer. Which one do you use and recommend?

I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in liquids that you
apply with a brush, squeeze tubes, and aerosol sprays. Which form
do you think is best? Thank you in advance for all replies.


** Such products only work if you believe in them.

Like crystals and pyramids etc.



.... Phil

I originally bought the Tweek because Jerry Pournelle recommended it
in his column in Byte magazine. Has any magazine published
objective, scientific tests of Tweek, DeoxIT Gold or any other
contact enhancers?

I have done a little testing myself. Just take some flat metal and some
leads, VOM.
Scrape around bare metal vs applied lubes or whatever. I get some positive
results vs dry metal.

Greg

 

[whit3rd]

On Monday, December 10, 2012 8:14:06 PM UTC-8, Phil Allison wrote:

"Daniel Prince" <neutrino1@ca.rr.com



I cannot find my bottle of Tweek so I need to buy some...
I have looked on eBay and contact enhancers come in [various forms]

** Such products only work if you believe in them.

Like crystals and pyramids etc.

The advertising and marketing DOES look like snake-oil, but there's
some real technology behind it. A small amount of residue contains
a liquid semiconductor, which is the active part of Stabilant-22 and
DeOxit Shield S. NATO stocks the stuff (NSN 6850-01-435-6479 is
the stock number) for aviation and other high-reliability electronics applications.

The original patents have run out (issued about 1970), so the sales literature
no longer touts this very real electrical contact improvement.