Tried using isopropyl alcohol to clean a dirty potentiometer... big mistake

I had an old Pioneer receiver with scratchy volume control. Read online that 99% IPA would clean it out fine. Sprayed some in there and it worked for about 2 days then got worse than before. Turns out the alcohol removed what little lubricant was left and the wiper started wearing down the track faster. Now I only use Deoxit F5 for pots. Anyone else ruin a pot with alcohol before figuring this out?

2 comments

2 Comments

shane6559d ago

Yeah finleyh89 that sucks man, I had the exact same thing happen with my first receiver.

finleyh899d ago

Yeah my buddy did this to a old Marantz amp he was fixing up. He soaked the pot with 91% IPA and it worked smooth for a weekend. Then the crackling came back worse and the volume would jump all over the place when you turned it. He had to track down a replacement pot on ebay and it took months.