What is preferred/best contact cleaner these days?

Hi Chris- not sure about the Total Contact, but have experience with the Walker SST - that is NOT a cleaner- it was a contact enhancer that was silver based and some sort of oil/lubricant that made it easier to apply, but that dried out over  time and made the stuff a lot of work to remove.  I used Kontak for years, but since IT is no longer available ( at least in the US), I now use Blue Horizon Clean-It.  Same drill - twice a year take apart everything, clean all contacts, and put back together.  With all the pollutants in the air, no such thing as "apply once" as far as I know.

How about a good ol’ Deoxit? Been using it for years so far so good.

well, @audphile1, the OP states at the very beginning,
"I have been using Caig Industries DeOxit contact cleaners for many years now. I am tremendously happy with the results after reapplying every 6 months or so. I am shocked at how much better my audio equipment sounds. The equipment really comes alive and becomes very exciting to listen to. "

hope this helps

Deoxit

Lol

yeah I thoroughly read every word of the op. May be not…

I've been using 99.9% Isopropyl Alcohol.

Then a little High Fidelity Cables NPS-Q45T Nano Contact Enhancer.

for anyone following, make sure that you use a contact cleaner that is ALSO a LUBRICANT.

crc brand of deoxit

And, there are versions for faders, plastics

deoxit fader

WD40 is NOT a lubricant, it dissolves rust/corrosion, that's it.

Audio Classics does not clean sliders with felt or foam strips, the chemicals dissolve them, they suggest just working them full range frequently.

OR, skill/tools needed (if/when a diagnosed problem) take them apart, plan on removing and replacing felt or foam.

Around the edge of vintage back-lit tuner faceplates, the foam is often dissolved by age, and disturbed by disassembly. I used a black shoelace to block edge light for my Fisher 500C’s tuner glass. Another one, I improvised, some soft u shaped strip that pushed onto the edge all around, something hanging around the shop..

Be very careful cleaning the tuner glass with printed info, very light touch, a camera-lens cloth, perhaps a speck of Windex on that smooth cloth, no other chemicals or textures, avoid perfection here.

Check out Stabilant 22A. It works by filling in the micro-gaps between the conducting surfaces on a molecular level and then sealing the contact from the atmosphere. It is expensive but very effective. Used by NASA.

(I read about it on Audiogon two years ago and have no affiliation.)

Micro-gap filling ? Talk about diminishing returns, there’s one for the ‘tweaked’ audiophile ears. Most can’t realize a difference doing an A/B cable test. Pastes, pads, contact crap, magic rocks / beans, it all makes a difference ? Laughing is good, no BS there.
Cheers

I replaced Kontak with MG Chemicals 409B-340G Electrosolve Zero Residue Contact Cleaner (previously used Cramolin/Caig-Deoxit stuff).

It's doubled in price over that past 10+ years, but it is still a bargain for what you get (easily as good as Kontak - which I suspected may have been a Naphtha based dry cleaning fluid marked up a bazillion times).

DeKay

+1 on DeKay posting re: MG Chemicals 409B-340G. I recently have been using American Recorder S-721-H, which is "Formulated to clean audio/video/computer tape heads, capstans, guides & rollers." I used Kontak for years until price and limited availability became an issue. I avoid lubricant or conditioning agents.

The thing I dislike about our hobby is cleaning contacts.

I’ve never kept track of the timeline.

I use Stabilant 22 contact treatment (it is not a contact cleaner). Stabilant 22’s primary function is preventing or slowing oxidation. Important for inaccessible avionics, etc. There’s no BS marketing with this product. It does what it’s supposed to do. No more. No less.

Cleaning is easily done with 70% isopropyl alcohol, although Electrosolve is an excellent suggestion.

+1 @tvad 

Deoxit and forget it.......

Regards,

barts

I have tried many cleaner/enhancers over the DECADES. Everyone I tried eventually oxidized (much like CD treatments). By far the very best which I do not expect to oxidize is a combination of precleaning with 99% isopropol immediately followed by Mad Scientist Graphene Contact Enhancer

+1 @tvad 

+3 @tvad 

Stabilant 22, 5ml Kit

tvad et al

I did purchase some Stabilant 22 it kit form, and understand that it should be cut with isopropyl alcohol at 3 to 1? I have yet mix it, and thus have not installed it. Any recommendations on proper coating with the Stabilant?

This is a very interesting topic for me. Until I read this I totally forgot about cleaning my contacts for a few years now. I found what I was using and it was Kontak. I still have a half bottle left. I will do all my connections today. I was surprised to hear that this is not sold in the USA anymore. I also googled Total Contact Perfect Path. The owner of it died and so did his product. It was originally listed for $299 which is very expensive when it was available. I also saw it listed on AG that was sold a few years ago for $1200. lol. Even for $300 it is a ridiculous price to me. Kontak is selling but not in the USA for $28. And they will ship to USA. Don’t know how much shipping is but shouldn’t be much. As far as Deoxit there are so many to choose from. Which Deoxit does everyone use ? 

........Deoxit to me left a residue when I used it at one point in my '' career '' . Kontak in my system had the best results and amazed at the gunk that was on the pipe cleaner after using it. The issue is / was with Kontak is that if the bottle is not totally sealed it does evaporate. 

1971gto455ho   Typical response from this member who is here just to spread  his negative words of non-wisdom. 

Funny how my friends day back in the day used liked the GTO's but always laugh as he does now with audio by always saying ; ' GTO ...Get The Tools Out ''......    

Stabilant22 applied to any analog contact results in brightness which does not disappear with burn in. And yes, it was diluted as suggested. And yes, I used very little. 

My audio friends and I have used the Q45T for the past several years. Yes, it is expensive, but it is the finest sounding of all the contact enhancers including Total Contact, Quicksilver Gold, that we have tried. Apply once and probably the only time you’d ever need to apply it again would be on AC plugs that you occasionally disconnect from the wall outlets prior to a storm. I’ve disconnected my 4 plugs from wall outlets about 15-20 times over the course of using the Q45T and still haven’t felt the need to reapply. The stuff stays on well and remains slightly moist so no drying out. The sound just keeps getting better the longer it’s on for up to 4-6 months. You can argue with my opinion, but who cares. Try to find a better spent $345 for the gain in SQ in other ways. If your system is not seriously extensive, you can share a bottle with 2 and maybe 3 friends and hit ALL the contacts.

Bob

Given the amount of contacts & connections I'm getting to dote over, think I'll opt for alcohol and a flock of DetoxITs'...

Used Cramolin when it first appeared....long ago, and far away....and the things were a bit less in numbers...

Way overdue... 

Oops poked the Garebear, who cares ? Season change time to wake up.

Cheers

@dorkwad Have you and your friends tried Stabilant22?

…..I am not asleep GTO I am very much awake . Thank you and who cares you ask I do and that’s all the matters …..

@vinylvalet 

No we have not.  We have read many comments from those who've used it and other enhancers and have been more impressed with both Total Contact and especially the Q45T. I have about 245 individual contacts to treat if you count each pin on a tube of which I have 9 tubes in my system.  My friends and I are pretty heavy into trying out many different tweaks, many of which have raise the SQ of our systems considerably.  If one of us tries something that really works great, we share it with the other two and it usually is a group home run.  The Q45T is just one of them.  If you are gonna go to all the trouble of treating all of your contacts, you'd really like to have as much prior info on the different choices as in my case, it's about a 3-4 hour job to do mine.  Not something you want to have to do over and over.  I'd pretty much guarantee that you'd love the results and even more as the weeks go by and it causes jumps in performance while you just sit there and enjoy the music.  

Good luck

Bob

Thanks, Bob. I appreciate your detailed response and sharing the experience with your friends earlier. I understand completely.

Might be worth a try one day. If equal or better than Q45T or even slightly less effective, many audiophiles would love paying about 1/6 the cost.

Stabilant 22 is the concentrate and the Kit as previously mentioned allows you to do a proper dilution with alcohol and is then referred to as Stabilant 22A.  I use pure Isopropyl (99.9%) from Amazon.  It is a proven contact enhancer used in avionics, NASA, auto industry, etc.  It does have a detergent and lubricating action.

The alcohol evaporates very quickly leaving the Stabilant on your connectors, etc.  I use it on every connection in my system.  Using a very small brush is ideal.  Overapplication is not the intent and will just waste the product.  Nothing is equivalent or performs better.

Michael Dayton Wright invented Stabilant 22 and was famous for his XG10 Electrostatic Loudspeaker and so many other electronics and conventional loudspeakers.  A brilliant fellow that I had the pleasure of knowing for many years. I believe that he held degrees in electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering from MIT.

As a sidebar trivia, he was the first to use black enclosures for his electronics!  His family continues to produce Stabilant 22. There are a number of papers that detail its actions in great detail.

Check-out the Dayton Wright Hommage loudspeaker: 

@perazzi28, Good post.  Thanks for the link, too.

Stabilant 22 and Q45T are the two products I’m interested in.  Plan to try 22 soon. 

In another thread here on AG, I learned that George Merrill of Analog Emporium sells it for perhaps the lowest price in the USA.  So, I’m getting it there since he’s very close by.  Just passing along a pricing tip to anyone else interested.

FWIW, George told me the smaller bottle is enough to do my system many many times over and that once applied it lasts for 20 years.

If I decide to try the Q45T eventually, I wonder if the maker/seller of it would advise I remove the Stabiltant 22.  If anyone knows how to remove Stabilant 22, please share.  I will ask George M, of course.

@dorkwad, how is Q45T removed?

@rc22 

It is easily removed with 90% alcohol.  Q45T

@dorkwad 

Thanks.

George Merrill is a great fellow and analog aficionado, designer and builder. None finer and a very straight shooter.  I've purchased many products from him.