
The Miracle of WD-40 - secoif
http://www.subtraction.com/2012/01/10/the-miracle-of-wd-40
======
jrabone
Cringe. _Please_ use contact cleaner for electronics (Servisol is a good
brand). WD40 may well eat plastic & rubber seals (although nitrile rubber, eg.
o-rings, should be safe). It's a light oil spray and water displacer. It's not
a substitute for proper lubrication - it will wash grease & oil OUT of
bearings for example. For brass hinges, locks etc. use graphite dust (soft
pencil lead if you have nothing else, but graphite is cheap). Oil will attract
dust and other crap and make the problem worse over time.

~~~
bwarp
This individual speaks sense. If you've ever had to degunk an edge connector
which some muppet has sprayed WD40 on you will understand. When you wipe the
PCB, the traces come off as well...

------
jdietrich
Don't do this.

If you've ever seen the mixing desk in a big recording studio or concert
venue, you'll understand that maintaining buttons and knobs is something of a
preoccupation for sound engineers.

The solvents in WD40 will clean switches quite effectively, but WD40 leaves
behind a lubricating residue which isn't very conductive and will attract
dirt. Using WD40 as a contact cleaner tends to be a vicious cycle - you end up
using WD40 to remove the old WD40 gunk.

The best thing for the job is Caig Deoxit. It's not especially cheap, but
neither is an iPhone 4. WD40 claims to do a million jobs, but Deoxit does only
one - safely clean electrical contacts.

------
jondot
During my army service, I spent 3-4 years being an AN/TPQ-37 tech. Its a high-
voltage, high power, immensely complex Radar. Even though it is such a beast,
and could take a lot of mistreatment, we had one "do not use WD-40" rule
tattooed into our brain. On the long run it always caused much more damage
than help!

DO NOT USE WD-40 WITH ELECTRONICS.

We used to use Freon and silicon based lubricants - but I'm not sure these
substances are legal anymore.

~~~
iamandrus
Freon is heavily regulated these days. Very hard to get unless you know
someone who works with it regularly (like a car mechanic).

------
Too
> the home button — the sole physical button on the device’s face

Isn't this a bit silly. The most expensive phone on the planet has one big
button you barely use and they can't build it to last a year even after 4
iterations of (almost) the same design. Older cheap phones have plenty of tiny
little keys, they last for years and years and those keys you use all the time
because you don't have the touchscreen. Maybe that's the solution, press your
home button more often.

------
Anechoic
It may work, but I wonder what else the WD-40 may be eating away. I'd probably
try contact cleaner first.

------
PaulHoule
WD-40 is crap.

It's marketed as a combination cleaner and lubricant, and it's bad at both of
those.

If you need a cleaner, get a cleaner, if you need a lubricant get a lubricant.
WD-40 will wreck anything you use it on unless it's something that's
impossible to wreck.

------
okhan
I think it's most likely working as a lubricant. WD40 leaves a lubricating
residue that in my experience works well on creaky door hinges. I never
thought to use it on sticky buttons though!

~~~
moylan
i use the graphite of pencils on door hinges. also the soft eraser on the end
is quite good at cleaning contacts on motherboards from grease and the like.

that and a non conducting pencil is handy for raising the guard on uk and
irish power outlets to plug in 2 pin cables.

just that i find it easier to carry a pencil in my toolkit than risk a
possibly leaking container of wd40 near the rest of my electronics.

------
sneak
You know what else fixes busted home buttons? AppleCare.

~~~
viraptor
From the comments:

> I went into the Apple store, they at first thought it was a software problem
> (just bs the were told to say apparently) and then wanted $150 for an out-
> of-warranty replacment.

That's why it might not be worth it.

------
secoif
I don't actually understand why this worked, but it did.

~~~
illicium
Probably because the solvent(s) in WD-40 are dissolving the gunk/oxidation
that is causing the button to fail.

------
georgieporgie
Deoxit, which is carried by Radio Shack under their own label, will probably
do a better job of dissolving grime and oxidation, and with less chance of
unintentional destruction of innards.

~~~
nodata
Why? If it's a rebranded WD-40, why will that work?

"unintentional destruction of innards" - can you give some examples? I've
never had it destroy anything.

~~~
Jimmie
Deoxit is different to WD40. Deoxit is a contact cleaner while WD40 is a
lubricant. They work in nearly the same way but WD40 leaves residue which will
build up over time while deoxit completely evaporates.

WD40 will work but I wouldn't use it on anything I want to pass on to my
children.

I've also heard some second hand horror stories of WD40 penetrating old IC
casings and destroying them but I can't confirm them myself.

