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.