Dielectric grease VS Vaseline

[occool]

I’m rebuilding my water-cooled rig and I’m adding a peltier. I can’t find the dielectric grease to insulate the socket on my mobo. I read somewhere that some people are using Vaseline instead. If some one knows where can I buy dielectric grease or know if Vaseline is safe on mobo, I would appreciate any insight on this subject. Thanks

 

[robertm]

You should be able to get dielectric grease from an auto supply.

I would stay away from vaseline myself.

 

[ol' man]

petroleum jelly is working great for me! All it is is lower weight waxes. Cleans away easily with alcohol.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Vaseline could get a bit runny if your case happens to get warm, and get everywhere (like in connectors and things where it will be a bugger to chase out) I think the other stuff is more stable at the temp range we'll want it for.

Road Warrior

 

[occool]

Thanks guys, I will try auto shops.

 

[ocean]

I'm using the same silicone grease I use on my scuba gear. Seems to work ok. Stay away from the siilicone grease sold at plunbing supply stores. Too runny.

 

[Bubba]

If you have a Home Depot near you they will have it or an Auto Zone.I got some small packs for like $.30 at Auto Zone.

 

[xhwfed]

I WOULD NOT use Vaseline if i was you because it melts from very low tempratures, if you put it there it will melt and run every where

 

[ol' man]

I WOULD NOT use Vaseline if i was you because it melts from very low tempratures, if you put it there it will melt and run every where

Well why would you want to use vaseline on something that is going to be running way below room temp. My rig is running around 0 deg. C. You can bet the pet. jelly is very stable at this point. I got both dielectric grease and pet jelly but when I went to clean up the dielectric grease it took acetone. I am not going to put acetone on my mobo. I would not like to try and RMA a mobo that has dielectric grease all over it. My warranty still has a good 7 months on it! Pet jelly will wash away easily with alcohol that is why I use it.

Now if you put pet. jelly on the top of the pelt you can bet it will run as that side is very hot, now why would you worry about condensation on that side anyway.

 

[Silver]

Dielectric grease is readily available at automotive stores. On todays electronic ignitions it is used to keep the spark from arcing under a spark plug boot to ground. I.E. it is put on the inside of the spark plug boots whenever they are pulled or replaced. Might explain why many have a miss, did'nt use it. I did'nt in the beginning but the car had a definite miss. Opened the hood one night and watched the fireworks around the sparkplugs.

 

[Colin]

A number of folks have reported green CPU pins from Vaseline. I'd stick with dielectric grease.

 

[kevin_bouchard]

I am working on a system that will hopefully go down to -20c, will pet. jelly freeze at this temp? will it expand like water?

thanks for any help in advance

 

[JoeCrappa]

i'm using pet jelly. works fine for me. my room is pretty hot and it works just fine.

 

[ol' man]

A number of folks have reported green CPU pins from Vaseline. I'd stick with dielectric grease.

This does not make sence since pet jelly is a pure hydrocarbon and does not react with metals at all. If they got "green" pins it must be because they put something else on it.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Hmmm come to think of it, green pins sounds more like condensation reacting with the copper and tin of the connectors in the socket.

 

[Colin]

If the Vaseline was not doing it's job and condensation was the result, you would get green pins. The folks I know that have experienced this are not noobs. Use dielectric grease.

 

[ol' man]

If the Vaseline was not doing it's job and condensation was the result, you would get green pins. The folks I know that have experienced this are not noobs. Use dielectric grease.

Probably didn't use enough. Maybe they are not noobs now but they may have been then? Pet jelly is parafin, other wise known as wax. My granni uses it to seal up jars of jelly but sometimes she screwed up and didn;t seal it all the way, it then got moldy. Toilet seals are made of wax also. Wax is a good sealer if used correctly. If one cannot figure out how to seal up the pins with parafin then one will prbably screw up with dielectric grease also. Use what you want I just know that dielectric grease was a ***** to clean up.

The only probalem I see is not having H2O flowing over the pelt and yer friends probably did this and the heat from the pelt melted a bunch of the parafin away from the pins. They then figured ,"What the hey." Crank it up!


Since you are recommending dielectric grease so highly what do you recommend to clean it up with if he has to RMA his board or chip?

Acetone will eat away his mobo and components as also toluene. Alcohol will not dissolve it but it will dissolve parafin(pet jelly), I know I have had to clean it up from my chip and MOBO before. Works like a charm.

 

[Colin]

Pelts require conformal coating and insulating the motherboard. An RMA is out of the question. The same goes for CPUs since all but the latest crop of Xeon's require the use of the supplied thermal pad to keep the warrenty intact.

 

[ol' man]

Pelts require conformal coating and insulating the motherboard. An RMA is out of the question. The same goes for CPUs since all but the latest crop of Xeon's require the use of the supplied thermal pad to keep the warrenty intact.

Yeah right.

My H2O block requires a "comformal" coating also.

 

[ol' man]

Without ICE on it and coolant flowing.