Radio Shack tuner/contact cleaner vs. DeOxit

[Jeffhs]

What is the difference, if any, between DeOxit and Radio Shack's own brand of tuner/contact cleaner? I've used RS tuner cleaner for years with good results. The other reason I use RS's brand of tuner cleaner rather than Deoxit is I cannot find the latter anywhere (the only electronics parts place near my town is Radio Shack; of course they won't carry anything other than their own stuff). Is Deoxit only available through certain authorized outlets such as RCA repair stations? I can't even find the stuff at Amateur Electronic Supply, an amateur radio supply house headquartered in Milwaukee with a branch store in my home town.

[EchoWars]

DeOxit. Order it online.

The problem with RatShack cleaner is that there is no telling what is in the can. They buy the cheapest spray they can find from different sources all over the world, and put the same label on it. One time you might actually get a can of something that just about works, the next time you get a can that should have been labeled 'Motorcycle Chain Lube'.

Use what you like. It's your gear, your call.

[mhardy6647]

I have one data point. My McIntosh C-28 had some pretty serious contact issues in the function selector switch. Tried several times cleaning it with R/S contact cleaner with no real improvement. Bought a can of DeOxit on a lark when PartsExpress had it on sale. Tried the DeOxit on the balky function switch on the C-28, and it worked!

I have been sold on DeOxit ever since. For whatever reason, it's an outstanding product.

You can see that nasty switch in the top left of the attached photo...

[kx250rider]

If you can find OLD Radio Shack tuner cleaner from the 1980s, it's great! You can tell by the smell. But the new stuff approved by the envoronmentalist lunatics (aka 3M patent lawyers) does not work, Radio Shack or otherwise. I bought a 1-gallon can of precious 1,1,1 trichloroethane in the 80s, and I still have a few drops that I am saving...

Charles

[wcarroll]

My local Radio Shack actually carries Deoxit. Just checked online and they show it there too.... Do a search for "contact cleaner" and you will find it.

[colortrakker]

I've even seen DeOxIt in a couple of RadioShack stores. Probably costs more there than anywhere else, but they have it.

[andy]

Most of the contact cleaners that are still legal to sell are pretty bad. They either don't work, or destroy plastic parts (even if they claim to be plastic safe). CFC based products like Techspray Blue shower were great, but you can't get them anywhere.

Deoxit is the only modern product I've found that works. The down side is that it's very oily and messy, so you can't use it certain places.

[Chad Hauris]

Deoxit works better because it is one of the few products that actually removes tarnish and oxidation from contacts. (Tech Spray "Rid-Ox" works pretty well for this too). It somehow works chemically with the metal to dissolve the oxidation. All of the other cleaners I have used no matter how strong will not remove oxidation, they will just remove surface dirt and/or lubricate.

Deoxit DN5 is pretty "dry", it is non-flammable and not nearly as oily as Deoxit "D5". The DN5 used to be even drier but they seem to have reformulated it several times over the past few years.

We have also had good luck with Deoxit 100% gel which comes in a small tube. You can inject the gel precisely into contacts and then remove with a Texwipe cloth. This gel product is a lot less messy than the spray for contacts that are readily accesible.

[Richard D]

I mistakenly picked up a can of what I thought was DE-OX-IT at the last real electronics supply within 25 miles of my home. After I got home I noticed it was DE-OX-ID, not IT. I tried it and it does work better than anything RS sells but takes awhile to evaporate, does give you some more time to work the control but smells nasty. So far it has not detuned anything, however I have not sprayed it on tuning caps or old barrel type TV tuners.

[Jeffhs]

Hmmmm. I guess I'll have to look around the local Radio Shack a bit more carefully than I did the last time I bought contact cleaner, three years ago when I was trying to restore an old radio, and get a can of DeOxit. Don't know how much a can of the latter goes for, but RS's own brand of cleaner, junk though it may be, still costs quite a bit; I paid $8.99 for a small can of the stuff (I still have it in my toolbox).

Honestly, however, I did not realize RS's tuner/contact cleaner was such bottom-of-the-line junk until I read EchoWars's post yesterday morning. I spritzed a bit of the stuff into the bandswitch and dial drive mechanism of a Zenith radio a few days ago; seemed to work OK--the band switch now works a lot more smoothly than it did when I first got the set, and the tuning drive, which up to that point was sticking close to the top of the dial, now operates absolutely flawlessly from one end of the dial to the other. I must have bought a good can of tuner spray this time around, not recycled motor oil or some such garbage which will gunk up the contacts worse than they were before the job was begun.


How Radio Shack can get away with such a thing is beyond me. Sign of the times, I guess. RS was at one time an electronics store any electronics buff could trust for quality electronics, parts and supplies, but not today. So much of Radio Shack's merchandise is substandard these days; as was mentioned in a post here at AK some time ago, even the store personnel often do not seem to know one end of an AC power cord from the other (for example). The people at the Radio Shack in my area aren't nearly that ignorant of electronics (most have been able to answer any technical question I have put to them so far), at least they don't seem to be. Obviously, however, a lot of them elsewhere in this country are, if the posts from a lot of you here are any indication.

The merchandise they sell must not be entirely junk, though, as I bought a small electronics tool kit from them (soldering iron, solder, iron stand, diagonals, needle-nose pliers, two screwdrivers, all in a well-fitted plastic case, for $12.99) last year. I still have it; the tools are still in good shape. I bought my digital VOM from another store (Amateur Electronic Supply, HQd in Milwaukee but which has a branch in my hometown). I had to return one of these meters to them immediately after receiving it via UPS, when it refused to power on; turned out I had been sold a unit with, of all things, a dead, corroded battery. (The meter had been manufactured two years before and probably had been sitting on the dealer's shelf, with the power switch on [!], for at least that long.) The new one, made very recently, worked much better and still works today. Both meters were made by Velleman, a company with which I am not familiar at all (must be some offshore company).

[mhardy6647]

...I bought a small electronics tool kit from them... last year. I still have it; the tools are still in good shape.

Jeffhs, I am going to rant a little, but please understand that this rant isn't directed at you!

I am just discouraged by a society which might think that "I still have them" is praise for some one-year-old tools. My father still has some of his father's tools. They're almost 100 years old, and they're "still in pretty good shape", too. They were well-made, of good materials. They were people's livelihood, so they had to be.

As natural resources become ever scarcer, one can only hope that the disposable-consumer mindset runs its course, but quickly! :-O

[vintagecollect]

rad shack's cleaner is expensive, $10 a can now or more, can't quite remember when I bought a can. I commented to them on the price, they think it's liquid gold. I could remember when this stuff was $ 4-5 a can. They have cut down on most electronic parts and now just gouge on items they still carry.



Unfortunately a private parts store recently closed since his business was half way based on declining TV repair. I bought out his stock of HV mylars I wanted, His contact cleaner was probaly not as good as deoxt, but was reasonable at $5.99 a can.


I'm going to look for deoxit. Thanks for info,all of us need a good cleaner for projects.

[Carmine]

Since we're kinda on the subject, I wonder if anybody can recommend a cleaner to remove the greenish corrosion that often occurs on male/female connectors used on cars (I suspect it's related to moisture).

The only way to fix this issue is to try and scrape inside all the male/female connectors, usually with limited success. It would be nice to just spray something in there, even if it was pricey.

[Richard D]

The best thing I have found for cleaning is baking soda an old brush and plenty of water to rinse everything that the baking soda and crud touched. Do NOT let any of this get into the battery as baking soda is a great acid neutrilizer. After its all clean you can get a can of spray protectant for the terminals from any parts store. Don't forget the battery pan.

[Carmine]

Yeah, I feel ya with the baking soda on battery terminals... This is usually on wiring harness connections (no acid involved).