Protecting absorption refrigerators PCB
The last few years during the storm season I've been having issues with my refrigerator (Norcold N641) not working temporarily. At first I thought there was something wrong with the PCB as the frig...
Forum Discussion
77rollalong wrote:
there is electronics cleaners i have used that work quite well , i kinda surprised the board is not coated with some sort of epoxy thought, the contacts for the connections could be coated with a dielectric grease to keep moisture out .
No the PCB isn't coated with anything, the board material with holes that the circuits are attached to yes, it's covered in some thin lacquer type substance.
I have some CRC electrical cleaner, perhaps there are better ones?
Using dielectric grease directly on circuit board isn't a good idea. On electrical contact yes, but directly on circuit boards, No. Even though dielectric grease is an insulator it doesn't insulate one hundred percent so any sensitive circuits might be effected as there is small amounts of conductivity. Also dielectric grease tends to attract dust and small particles some of which can be made from metal.
A conformal coating on the other hand is designed to be applied to circuit boards and there are different types and thicknesses that can be applied as some circuits may require certain amount of thermal transfer such as heat sinks, etc.
https://www.electrolube.com/technical-articles/conformal-coating-of-printed-circuit-boards/
Below is a pic of a similar pcb for my Norcold. Under the 16-pin plug there's some slight corrosion I haven't yet been able to clean off and also some of the chip pins soldered through the boards holes still have some leftover of corrosion.
If applying a conformal coating you want to try to get the board 100 percent clean, any leftover residue, rust, corrosion, mold, mildew, will become trapped by the conformal coating and potentially can effect the circuits.
Pointer to image
