ESS AMT Crossover Silicone Removal Solved!!

Finally came a product that should solve this problem. As you can see, ESS loved the black silicone to seal and attach componets. My first set,(3 coil) well I didn't have too much prolems removing the silicone-it may have be a different formulation as well.
With this set (4 coil), lots of the silicone is located at terminal/attachment points.
Interesting, I just picked up a set of later 3 coils, and this had zero silicone attacheng the board-just the 2 pegs-but I bet ESS resorted back to the silicone because the 2 pegs don't provide the most secure attachment-and are probably prone to vibration.
Contrary to believe, this silicone has not caused any trace of corrosion-if they were in a constant damp enviroment- this may be another story.
They are good quality circuit boards for sure, and the inductors top quality-caps another story (more of a age thing then any thing)-hence the overhaul
The stuff isn't exactly cheap, at around $75 shipped, but it will solve alot of probelms realitively quickly-and worth the money.
Hopefully this will be helpful to those persuing a ESS crossover overhaul!:thmbsp:
http://rmoreau.com/item/su100-silicone-remover/60

You're lucky. Most ESS xovers I've dealt with have had copious amounts of hot glue on them.

Lar

diamondsouled said:

You're lucky. Most ESS xovers I've dealt with have had copious amounts of hot glue on them.

Lar

Click to expand...

Good point-seems the non AMT Ess speakers had a tendecy to use hot glue, and/or silicone.
My first pair of 3 coil AMT 3's used hot glue and silicone on the inductor coils, but only silicone of the PCB.
It really doesn't pose a big probelm unless your trying to replace componets at those points.
I thought about merly drilling new soldering points with a small drill bit set-but one I found this product I figured it would be a intersting experiment-as I never found any good info on this problem here @AK-or other forums-saw some mention of mineral spirits-this works for the 'oil' residue-but doesn little for the underlying 'skin' left on the PCB traces. Abrasive methods obviously won't work.
This is a 'bath'/soaking type of material-so wipeing on/etc probably won't work.
It is not totally non corrosive-very mild-it may cause some discoloring of copper-but the owner of the company assured me it has been widely used in the electronics industry for this exact purpose and poses no long term or future corrosion problems nor effect the conductiveness of the PCB board.