Myth: Grease Interferes With Conductivity There are many misconceptions about connector grease, the most common being that dielectric grease interferes with conductivity. Unfortunately, this misunderstanding prevents many people from using a grease that would otherwise protect their connectors against corrosion, fretting, and power failure. Does Grease Affect Conductivity? | Nye Lubricants
Kind of a rerun of post #10, but the most interesting part of that page is probably the part where it explains why: I had never seen 'asperity' used to mean a high spot on a surface, but sure enough it is a 3rd meaning according to Merriam.
What does Sam have to say about air not being a conductor, there are spaces opposite to asperities, does that mean not to use air? Or a corrosion film is not a conductor, how many millions of connections have a corrosion film.
I've definitely had connections fail on account of a corrosion film. That, apparently, was too tenacious to get squeezed off the asperities....
For all of you morons who do not seem to understand the simple fact that dielectric grease is NOT conductive.............. Try putting it on your spark plug threads liberally and see how good your engine runs. If you do that with a motorcycle engine, you might even be able to feel the spark in the handlebars.
I apply my grease as a topical. To keep exposed metal from rusting and in the case of connectors to keep moisture out of it. Like in the hybrid battery usually under the nuts its not to bad but corroded all around it. You want grease that will stay where you put it and not change state being exposed to air. Like No-Ox that works but is a nasty looking color dark brown. My moly stays bright red no matter how long its exposed to air.
I see that Sam is now left harping on the unasked question of whether the grease itself is conductive, now that reality has left him no more maneuvering room on the question of whether an electrical connector with the grease applied to it has its conductivity impaired or not, which was the question at issue in this thread.
Which is how it is intended to be used. Like with a lot of other things, good advice that is not fully explained often ends up being BAD advice when it is carried too far. Some people have put dielectric grease of switch contacts and relays.......and on spark plug threads......with dire consequences.
That is a question that can not be properly answered without knowing exactly what kind of connector it IS, what kind of current or signals it is carrying AND what environment it will be exposed to. Simply saying "it is not a problem" is NOT the right answer. Sometimes it will be a problem......and sometimes it will not. Getting into the habit of blindly slapping it on everything is NOT a good thing to do. The odds are great that it will eventually cause more trouble than it prevents........if not used with a healthy dose of good sense.
