corrosive environment close to sea air

[mrrcomp]

HI

My brother lives in the dominican republic near the sea and as a result his AV Receiver get corroded after 1 yr of operation to the extent that they can't repair and he ends up buying a new one.

Is there anyway to protect the circuits boards etc from the corrosion??

Would greatly appreciate your inputs/suggestions



Regards

Mrrcomp

[Paceguy]

I have family who live next to the sea on another caribbean island. They cover their electronic items when not in use. I can't say that it totally protects them from the salty sea air, but it surely slows down the corrosion. Every thing made of metal eventually corrodes there. I believe too that that the rougher the sea in the area, the more that sea spray is developed and increases the rate of corrosion.

[p.larner]

on a lot of my stuff,i find a good coating of new engine oil works well.

[Gyro]

Engine oil is hygroscopic, it absorbs moisture until the engine is hot enough to evaporate it off. This will never happen with room temperature devices so it will just retain it as an emulsion and become corrosive. I wouldn't trust any sort of automotive oil on modern PCBs.

[Greybeard]

...
Is there anyway to protect the circuits boards etc from the corrosion??
Would greatly appreciate your inputs/suggestions

You can try one of these conformal coating sprays:

https://ie.rs-online.com/web/c/?searchTerm=conformal+coating+spray

[Haenk]

I'd say try a cabinet or something like that - plus a a dehumidifier inside.

Conformal coating might help with the PCB, but all mechanical parts like switches and potentiometers will not be easy to protect, unless exchanging them with encapsulated ones.

[DaJMasta]

Conformal coating spray is also going to insulate somewhat, so just spraying on everything will eventually run you into an overheating problem.

While probably not the option that feels the most comfortable in the ocean breeze - room humidity control and possibly activated carbon filtration may be the most effective way to protect things.  If your space is relatively sealed and you air condition it, you should be able to keep the humidity to a lower level and activated carbon filtration should be able to remove some sulfur compounds in the air that speed corrosion.

I've heard of spray on anti-corrosion compounds that exist, but I don't know if they're readily available or good 'works-on-everything' sort of options.  They'd at least require initial disassembly to coat the components.