[ARC5] Chassis cleaning - Tap vs de-ionized water.

[Scott Robinson]

Hi Les,

Well, let me tell the tale of an experiment done about 20 years go by a 
guy who had a tropical test chamber (hot & wet) at work.

He bought about 25 electrical box covers--plated steel like a 
chassis--and washed them with 25 different cleaning products. He then 
rinsed them all with tap water, and further rinsed *half* of each one 
very thoroughly with distilled water. He put them all in the test 
chamber for a month and posted a picture of the result.

Half of each was very rusty, and the distilled water rinsed other half 
was not. I wish I had captured the image, but I didn't. Moral is, don't 
use any soapy kind of cleaners except in places you can thoroughly 
rinse. For tobacco grease removal--WD-40 which is essentially 
de-odorized kerosene--works fine and corrodes nothing. Water and cotton 
balls, which you used, should be fine too, although distilled or 
de-ionized water would be better.

FWIW,

/scott