I have three inter-connected smoke detectors. One of them repeatedly loses electrical contact with the AC. After having cleaned the contacts and the plug that connects the detector to Hot, Neutral and Alarm, the detector works for a while. It's battery backed up, so there's no need to go into concerns about that. The unit that keeps failing is near the swamp cooler (evaporative cooler), which, as you probably know, is an outflow of humid cold air. The humidity (I'm guessing) is causing oxidation or corrosion between the pins and the connectors. The other two have had no such failures. When I swap them the non-functioning unit functions in the second or third location. So I'm fairly confident the main issue is the cooler. I'd like to put some sort of electrical coating on them that would prevent moisture from reaching the contacts while at the same time not creating a pathway for electrons to short out from Hot to Neutral (or to the 10VDC alarm line).

THE QUESTION:
Will white lithium grease safely insulate the pins without causing electrical issues?

 

This is what dielectric grease is for.

 

I'd use something intended for that purpose.

GB Electrical, Inc. makes something called OX-GARD. I use it on my house wiring that uses aluminum wires (all of my original 30A circuits from the '70's when copper was expensive)

 

THE QUESTION:
Will white lithium grease safely insulate the pins without causing electrical issues?

Automotive Dielectric grease good enough for spark plug shrouds, so it should be capable!
Max.

 

Thanks for the replies. I just want to be sure that what I have (for automotive use) won't be a problem with the 120VAC.

 

Thanks for the replies. I just want to be sure that what I have (for automotive use) won't be a problem with the 120VAC.

Spark plug voltage tends to be a little higher!
Max.

 

Most all non-synthetic greases are lithium based. If you mean a grease like the white Lubriplate, I found to stay away from it. It WAS the go to grease at work when we cleaned a die or mold before storage. Until we had to break the item down after storage to remove the dried out grease. They then switched to a dark regular gease it didn't dry out.

 

The one I use is Permatex dielectric grease from any automotive parts store, so far I have never experienced any drying out.
Max.

 

The good thing about the detector is that it's plugged in and easy to unplug for the application of grease. In the next few days, maybe today, I'll go get some dielectric grease as @MaxHeadRoom suggests.

Again, thanks all.