Please recommend a flashlight grease for dummies (ie me)

Hey Foy. What's your problem with sil grease? I use it over a year now and found it to be perfect for threads and o-rings. Even Solarforce uses it on their flashlights. ;-)

They make non-anodized threads gritty. Black small particles will appear after some time.

my Quark has non-anodized threads and there is lots of black small particles. i thought it was aluminum.. but aluminum is silver, not black.

eventually i found out that it's rubber from the o-rings. lots of it.

i cant find any of the suggested synthetic lube stuff over here at my place (amazon shipping costs, no way). If Vectrex, who lives in G. too, uses nextorch sil grease on his torches, then i can do it too!

haha.

EDIT: i guess nobody knows a flashlight lube product on Dinodirect?? have some dinopoints left..

same xD

I too don' like the nextorch grease on not anodized threads... and is also hard to apply(very dense, I use a silicone brush used in optics) and come in a very small quantity with a lot of wrap..

Is there any website that ships Super Lube internationally at decent prices? Amazon wants to charge me close to $100 for shipping alone!

I tried stuff like nyo gel before and absolutely hated that stuff, it's like a very thin oil and goes all over the place. I had it on the battery, in the tailcap and even on my clothes. What I like in silicone based greases: that it stays in place if you apply it right (very thin film layer ... best use a Q-tip to apply), that it is colorless ... opposed to many mineral based oils, that it treats O-rings (which are also silicone mostly) right and that it is non-toxic for humans. So if you eating a sandwich while lubing your flashlight or accidentally tap on the threads during battery change... no biggie.. you won't poison yourself. Scuba divers trust their lives by this stuff... being unable to breath is very unhealthy. It's no coincidence that nextorch and many flashlight manufactures choose silicone based grease when they ship their lights. There might be products that do one or two aspects better than sil... but the whole attribute package is hard to beat... especially in the budget sector. I personally ordered original scuba dive grease off ebay, but only because nextorch wasn't available back then. A friend ordered the nextorch stuff and he seems pretty happy with it. The fastest way to get sil in Germany is to buy stuff for expensive coffee makers or scuba supply but I don't like the packaging. Scuba supplies are often 60 grams and more... way too much and the coffee supplies are in those tubes which get in the way of applying the sil thinly and the tubes often only contains 6 g... so too expensive.

Well I found one that will help some of you: Midway USA

They advertise this as a gun grease, but it's the same product. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on Shipping & Return and a pop up menu will appear, scroll down to near bottom and a list of European distributors appears. I checked a couple, but they are not in my native tongue. However, they all carry some manner of grease used for guns, which I have seen as a good substitute for flashlights according to many posts on the subject.

For others, I found a US seller that ships Super Lube overseas: Illumination Gear

(Also a new flashlight source for me!) Prices are reasonable and they offer flat rate USPS international shipping. Just click on the 'International Shipping' on the left menu.

The EagleTac costs 2.50EUR .. nice price!

Btw, the Jetbeam product is said to be compatible with ALL flashlight brands!!!

The Jetbeam and Nitecore are pretty cheap at IOS. Especially if they are ordered with other products or 3pcs.

http://www.intl-outdoor.com/nitecore-silicone-grease-sg7-p-286.html

http://www.intl-outdoor.com/jeatbeam-mg20-silicone-grease-p-287.html

You mean that my Xeno won't explode if I use jetbeam sil on it? Phew, that is good to know.... ;-)

syl-glide is what i use

i think i bought it @ a car parts place. says rite on tube "harmless to rubber"

waterproof, extreme temp tolerance, non runny

My own experience exactly (speaking of NexTorch grease, aren't we?).

DX silicone oil is smooth. Threads remain clean much longer. Alternatively, scuba light silicone grease.

EDIT: Seems available...?

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/high-purity-silicone-oil-lubrication-for-flashlight-torch-10ml-2-pack-53289?r=43033281

Yes, Nextorch silicone grease on non-anodized threads. Otherwise they work fine.

I wonder if Nextorch is any different in composition than any other sil grease out there? I have to compare it to mine next time I have access to it. Is the grittiness just cosmetic, or does it shorten the lifespan of the threads? Does someone have a pic or something, that I can get a better idea of the effect?

What grittiness.. i thought you like it for what it's worth. Does it mean that cheapo me has to cancel the DX order? :D

leelou, foy, agedbriar reported problems on non-anodized threads (specifically with NT grease) .... I use scuba sil, a friend told me that he uses nextorch and is happy with it... I assumed that silicone grease is silicone grease no matter what brand... apparently mileage varies a little. If sil grease would be bad in general for threads.. I'm sure the top brands you listed wouldn't use it... so the question is: Is especially NT sil substandard or not, or did they change their recipe.

yeah, the top brands use it because theirs are anodized threads. i wont cancel my DX order. i dont own more than 10 little torches and the threads are all anodized except for 1 brand. o-rings are all rubber which is the standard, and the NT sil will perform fine on them.

i would have bought the recommended superlube but i wasnt willing to pay the disproportionate shipping costs. In the U.S., superlube is a budgeteer's choice (it's so cheap maybe because it's produced in mass quantities and available in every hardware store); and since i am spoiled by the Ch*nese No-Shipping-Costs-philosophy or policy (also seen on ebay often), superlube is a nogoh.

With a positive attitude i am sure not to regret the ultracheap NT cr*p. haha. (2.60$ total)

jo guys, FYI. i know that others on THIS and on other forums and in many threads repeatedly warned about silicone grease. but some people may rather want to see it by themselves in person (like me the el cheapo and el budgee) or hear it from people they know/trust (like the suspicious kreisler me? hehe), so i am repeating it FOR EVERYBODY TO HEAR IT AGAIN:

Nextorch Silicone Grease is highly NOT RECOMMENDABLE, and i promise that you will regret the purchase if you apply it on all kinds of flashlight threads. And here is the most obvious reason why:

check out this video first:

Have you seen the part with the tooth stick? Dont you think that this is weird? It is!! It demonstrates the most essential (positive/negative/youdecide) physical property of silicone grease:

IT IS EXTREMELY STICKY.

With "sticky" i dont mean the stickiness of sugary stuff like dried Coca-Cola or syrup (which is disgusting. i never drink soft drinks. because they make my tongue sticky haha), or the stickiness of glue stuff like glue, scotch tape, etc.

With "sticky" i mean the stickiness of tooth paste or any other (non-oily) highly viscous matter. Grease and tooth paste are still called "fluids" although they dont flow or pour like real fluids (oil, syrup, water, beer).

So tooth paste will "stick" to anything solid, any solid surface it comes in mere contact with. And if it is a layer between two (moving or not) solid surfaces, then it sticks to both. And silicone grease behaves even more like tooth paste, to an extreme degree as showcased in the video. So what *is* the definition of "lube"? Is lube defined as any fluid which is applied between moving parts, or does the fluid have to have a certain set of physical properties to be called "lube" after its definition?

Here is what silicone grease obviously does due to its extreme viscosity:

  • it's not oily, not soapy, doesnt smell. it does leave stains on paper, though.
  • disregarding o-rings for a moment, it DEFINITELY increases the required torque in any kinds of threads, anodized or not-anodized because it sticks to both surface sides within the threads, which makes it behave as real glue and increases the shear stress required for the twisting action. Non-anodized bare aluminum threads (e.g. Quarks) work, without exaggeration, really really bad with this stickiness. you get the total opposite of soft smooth twist action: the Quark head gets stuck and inoperable, and when you force to do some twisting, the aluminum gets severely ground; you can feel it (grittiness), you can hear it (~squeaking), and you can see it (massive grey grease residues after 1x twisting the head on and off; youre going to cry).
  • it seals the threads and o-rings better than any other thinkable "lube". water-proof, water-resistant, guaranteed. so i can recommend it for the Xeno E03 because its tailcap is used for torch sealing purposes after exchanging the battery. With the grease, it's harder to screw the tailcap on giving you a feeling of safety and 100% water-proofness.
  • it immensely reduces the wobbliness in the threads because of its stickiness, its thickness and high viscosity. For example the disassembly of the Romisen RC-29 unveils two bare aluminum parts whose male threads are rather wobbly screwed in the anodized female threads (the LED pill, and the lens holder cup). these 2 parts tend to loosen fast (which is bad) and then begin to emit a rattling sound (which is bad too). Applying silicone grease on all threads and o-rings of the RC-29 ensures the 100% water-proofness and no more rattling. Problem is: the torch may be begin to squeak during the zooming action (at "zoom 1x") and the zooming action is not soft/smooth but rather sticky or squeaky.

And here is what silicone grease DEFINITELY does NOT do. The downsides of silicone grease:

  • it does not reduce the friction (or shear stress) in between the two facing surfaces. this holds true for both anodized and non-anodized threads. in fact, the torque is increased. guaranteed. you will need more force (torque) to twist the threads. guaranteed.
  • "smooth". depends on what you mean by it. If your threads were gritty and squeaky and wobbly and felt bone-dry (e.g. in the iTP A3 Titanium), then the silicone crap "smoothes out" all that, yes. But in this example, does "smooth" mean that the A3 head is easier to twist? No, it doesnt. Twisting action has become harder! Same with Tank E09. Twisting the head *was* smooth and easy when it came pre-lubed (I am not sure which lube they had used!!) and one-hand operation was very easy and welcome. After applying the grease, twisting the head single-handed has become challenging. The tight threads of the A3 and the E09 are still to be called smooth *with* the grease. Twisting the head feels good, there's no squeaking, no wobbliness and you can feel that it is "lubed". Twisting resistance has increased, that's all. (So what again was the purpose of "lube"??)
  • to repeat myself: like glue (or toothpaste or beer), it does not reduce the friction between parts but the opposite. Think of massaging human body parts where you wish 100% "smooth" action and minimized friction between the two rubbing skins. In this example, you get minimized friction with soap (the best! with enough water). Expensive massage body oil is good too i guess, very slippery. But in case of silicone grease? nah, that rather tears the skin tissue when rubbing vehemently (e.g. up and down movement) and you would have preferred not having applied anything on the skin, i.e. dry skin rubbing against dry skin: not bad at all, nice massage!

The above blah treated the physical properties of silicone grease on threads. On o-rings it does the best sealing job and it's better than using dry o-rings. But here again "smoothness" in the sense of "easy twisting action" is something different. Silicone grease on o-rings is *not recommendable at all* if you want easy twisting action, e.g. on the twist UI of AAA lights or the 8-mode UI of the Quark Tactical. While the grease spares o-rings (because dry o-rings flake or show signs of abrasion), it does NOT provide easy twisting operation on the o-rings (nor in any threads!).

What about the chemical properties (interactions) of silicone grease on threads (aluminum, stainless steel, titanium) and on o-rings (silicone o-rings, rubber o-rings)?

i dont know. I mean who cares. The above listed physical properties suffice to declare silicone grease as crap for flashlights. It's only good for sealing purposes (Xeno E03) or for reducing the wobbliness of loose threads (2 threads of the Romisen).

**ck it. really.

Thanks, kreisler - very informative. I haven't tried the Nextorch grease but my first attempt at lubing was with some Silicon dielectric grease and I was not impressed. I'm really starting to like my bike chain oil - the key is very light application. Might stop by a Gander Mountain store and see how much gun lube costs just to try it out.

gun lube is the best (cpf threads).

the point is the price. i was hunting for a solution from DX, DD, KD or MF because it's shipping free and i got DD credits. and my attitude was: hey, any lube should do the trick, better than bone-dry!, so lemme buy the cheapest accepted solution.

now i learned it in person. no more silicone stuff (grease, oil, whatever). I dont know about oil, but it's out of stock (DX), and i doubt that it works on the Quarks.

i am thinking now of buying superlube off ebay. no more experimenting. i heard that superlube is not the best, but it's among the best.