The Remote Control Keypad Silicone Oil ProblemMichael Shell
http://www.michaelshell.org/gadgetsandfixes/keypadsiliconeoil.htmlThe symptoms are all too familiar - the buttons of a remote control require very hard presses to be recognized, and the problem only gets worse with time. Many, many, millions of remotes are replaced and/or discarded because of this problem. Upon investigating the cause, I found the presence of an oily substance between the rubber keypad and the printed circuit board (PCB) it makes contact with. At first, I thought it was the result of a spill or perhaps even a buildup of hand oil (and there are technicians who can never be convinced otherwise). However, the oil did not seem to be petroleum-based as it was highly resistant to detergent. It reminded me a lot of DOT 5 silicone brake fluid. And in fact, that is exactly
what it turned out to be - silicone oil. [...]
I posted about this issue on December 8, 2000 in the thread "
Do remote keypads sweat silcone oil?" (dang it, I misspelled "silicone" in the title) to the Usenet group sci.electronics.repair and have received email about that post years thereafter. The solution is easy enough - to clean and degrease the internals of the remote. And this will have to be repeated every few years, although the interval will become longer as the amount of oil trapped in the rubber keypad decreases. The remote for my old Dish Network 3000 satellite receiver (shown at the upper right) was a major offender and required cleaning every year. My more recent Dish Network 3900 remote, requires cleaning every 3-5 years. Based on my experience,
most remotes with silicone rubber keypads cannot go a decade without needing to be cleaned.
The pressure generated by pressing a button rather than time itself appears to be the trigger by which oil is released. [...]
Opening and Cleaning the Remote[...instructions...]
