Servisol Super 10

Product Information

So I guess the super 40 is better in this sense as it will not boil off at high voltages leaving it dry, but it is still conductive so the equipment will malfunction.

At approximately 2mm distance between the probes there is approx. 180MΩ resistance in the deoxit F5. When placing the probes so close that they almost touch it is approximately 172MΩ. On delivery you must inspect the goods carefully for damage as Inta Audio is unable to accept responsibility for damage in transit, shortage of delivery or loss of products unless the customer advises Inta Audio of such within three working days from the date of delivery. As for lubrication of electrical components at work we use Rheolube from Nye lubricants.Unfortunately I'm not at work at the moment and can't tell you which version we are actually using. I want to say Reolube 716R but I'm almost 60 and could be having a brain fart. This is an extremely thin grease that we use on the mechanical parts of electronic systems.Think gear trains and bearings for matching networks, sliding and rotating components.I've never used it directly on a pot though.Rheolube though is good where you need something with a little more cling than plain oil. I would be inclined to agree with you, so after seeing this comment I did a little testing to see what the reality is. So of course, I kept going but it was not until I I reached 384.5VAC when the lamp lit up to full brightness and started drawing 52mA.I repeated this test with my 'big' power supply and I started getting around 35µA of current at about 495VDC. So in my opinion, the Deoxit should only be used up until around 50VAC. Which I guess is fine for audio circuitry, which is exactly what they advertise it is designed for.

Now the Servisol Super 40 was similar at low voltages but performed better further up. I got exactly the same 25µA at 56VAC, but when I went to 103VAC I was still only drawing 0.96mA. This was a lot better that F5's 80mA! So again, I kept increasing and I eventually got to 400VAC and could not get the deoxit to boil. This is as high as the power supply will go. I will do half the channels on this mixing desk with Servisol super 40 and the other half with Deoxit F5 and see what the difference is. I repeated the test with the Servisol Super 40 and got approximately 41µA of current at about 452VDC. So I conclude that they are both pretty darn good with DC and about the same performance as eachother. Using a DC voltage, I turned it up all the way to 100V and there was no significant conductivity (less than 20µA which is as low as my ammeter measures).

Has anybody got a can of Deoxit F5 that can send me a pic of the ingredients on the can please see what it actually is? I did think about opening the pots up but they appear to be melted plastic pegs through a hole in the metal casing so I can't simply bend up any tabs like most pots.

In the short term as I stated previously the super 40 seems to be a perfect lubricant for these purposes. I increased the voltage again and when I got to 138VAC, the lamp lit up full brightness and was drawing approximately 195mA. Oh dear It is hard to predict if a given product will solve a given problem on a given fader. It might ruin it, too. Most products will at least temporarily clear up a "dirty" pot problem, but long-term may be another matter. Pot replacement may be the best choice. My experience with Deoxit generally is that they are good, but can't permanently cure a worn pot. I do not think slight conductivity of the Deoxit F5 is anything to be worried about as it is still very high resistance, especially as we are only talking about low voltage signals.What lubricant is used in the factory? When the potentiometers are new they have a 'stiffness' to them if that makes sense? Unlike Marshall who have the luxury of, in Jim Marshall's words using "off-the-shelf components" which are easily available. A sensible move in their business model in my opinion as I have yet to find a Marshall amplifer that Marshall cannot supply parts for no matter how old it is. Another USA vendor that has most of these products and links to the MSDS is parts-express.com - search for deoxit.

The only difference I found is that the Deoxit is ever so slightly conductive. I sprayed a small amount of each into two bottle caps and then used my ohm meter to measure the resistance. When probing the faders with the ohm meter they measure the corerect value when moving all the way along using either spray.

Whereas with the servisol there is more than 1000MΩ resistance with the probes a hairs width apart. My meter doesn't measure any higher than this. I have done a lot of research and narrowed it down to three types of lubricant which are available under many different brand names: Thanks for all the advise. The aim here is to try to extend the life of the existing pots as much as possible. Especially with this mixing desk which I cannot get the pots for anymore.