I was visiting a local SGC dealer years ago as he was troubleshooting a
brand new antenna tuner that was not working. When he opened the plastic
case, that special RTV acidic smell almost knocked us over and all the
tinned circuit board traces and exposed wiring were corroded and black.
SGC claimed they used the wrong type of RTV on a batch of tuners that
was not for electronics use.
Mike


Roy Lewallen wrote:
The advice to avoid acetic-acid smelling RTV because of corrosion is
passed along from person to person like an urban legend, but like an
urban legend it's just about impossible to find anyone who's actually
seen any corrosion result from its use. (A number of queries I've made
over the years has produced just one, using a very early version of RTV.)

I've used the acetic-acid smelling stuff for decades on a variety of
metals including tinned and untinned wire, aluminum, nickel, and copper
circuit boards, and never seen a hint of corrosion. But formulations
vary widely, and my experience certainly isn't exhaustive. I'm not
entirely convinced, though, that among the many formulations there
aren't others, which don't have that smell, which might be corrosive to
some materials.

People who worry about this should buy an industrial product and stay
with it, since there's a much better chance the formulation won't change
in the future without notice.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL