Thoughts on silicon grease replacement?

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dleffert:
FWIW, I was talking to the Ikelite service folks awhile back about this very same question, and basically what I got told is that OEM's are using a wide variety of different materials for their o-rings and there are a lot of different o-ring lubricants being made as well, and the chances of a compatibility match while cross-branding are somewhere between slim and none (and Slim's walking out the door).

I was told that non-compatibility would lead to o-ring stretching and failure so I would be better off to use the Ikelite lube on their o-rings and the Sony lube on my Sony housing o-rings, and not take the risks of mixing.
Hmmm. I may be in trouble. On my last trip to the PI, I used canon grease on Ike's o-rings.
 
So far I've only used the Canon lubricant for my Canon WP-DC90 housing. As for stretching in general, I would suggest removing the o-ring when storing the case. I leave a light coating of grease on the o-ring and put it in a ziploc. This also prevents the o-ring from getting a "memory" to the housing shape.
 
I have to agree with justleesa, not all O-Rings are created equal, nor the grease. Some O-Rings are rubber based others Silicon. If you put grease designed for rubber seals on Silicon based seals it becomes tacky and will not let the camera door close correctly.
Not sure about the other way around didn't want to find out the hard way again.
 
clgsamson:
I use a trident brand now...

Trident is pure food grade silicone grease and is not compatible with the Olympus O-rings or other O-rings made of silicone rubber.

You cannot use silicone grease on silicone rubber.

That is what I had tried and it broke down and stretched out my main O-ring.
 
Gilligan:
Trident is pure food grade silicone grease and is not compatible with the Olympus O-rings or other O-rings made of silicone rubber.

You cannot use silicone grease on silicone rubber.

That is what I had tried and it broke down and stretched out my main O-ring.
then I may have to stop using it ...
 
Distributor for Dow Corning 3451 and 3452 fluorosiolicone grease tubes (~$40 USD) below:

Rats - wont let me post the URL since I'm new - but just go and Google the following company: Moore & Balliew Oil Co, they sell a simple tube at a time.
 
Trident is pure food grade silicone grease and is not compatible with the Olympus O-rings or other O-rings made of silicone rubber.

You cannot use silicone grease on silicone rubber.

That is what I had tried and it broke down and stretched out my main O-ring.

Some greases or oil made from silicone will cause some silicone o-rings to swell, resulting in higher forces and excessive wear on the o-rings. It's not very reliable, often one lot of o-rings will swell when exposed to a particular silicone oil but another lot won't-- this makes testing almost impossible, so almost everybody recommends that you stay away from silicone lubricants when working with silicone o-rings.

Petrolatum (aka Vaseline) is an all-purpose lubricant that works on most o-ring chemistries, including nitrile rubber, silicone, neoprene and fluorosilicone. It's not the best lubricant for any o-ring, but it is almost always the most versatile.

You can check out page 3-4 of the o-ring bible for more information on o-ring lubrication:
http://www.parker.com/literature/ORD 5700 Parker_O-Ring_Handbook.pdf
 
Hey Jamdiver,

I can send a sample of a fluorine based to you. It is an oxygen compatible grease and can replace your silicone based grease and not damage your O-rings.

Was in Kingston a few months ago (Fortis Forever) but never got around to MoBay. Have to get serious about scuba diving as plan is to be there at least 2X per year. Let me know if your grease situation has been resolved.
 

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