Kitchen faucets, fish tank valves—Why is sealing silicone grease water-resistant and provides long-lasting lubrication?
Publish Time: 2025-08-25
In everyday life, items frequently exposed to water, such as kitchen faucets, bathroom showerheads, fish tank valves, and washing machine water inlet fittings, often experience problems such as malfunctioning openings and closings, leaks, clogging, and even rusting. Curiously, many manufacturers and repair technicians recommend using a "transparent or copper-colored paste" for lubrication and sealing—that's sealing silicone grease.
1. The Secret to Waterproofness: Excellent Hydrophobicity and Chemical Stability
Ordinary greases (such as butter) easily emulsify and run when exposed to water, losing their lubricating and sealing properties and even breeding bacteria. Sealing silicone grease, however, is based on silicone oil and is extremely hydrophobic and chemically inert, effectively repelling water and preventing it from being washed away or dissolved. Even after prolonged immersion in hot and cold water, its structure remains stable, preventing delamination, deterioration, or corrosion of metal parts. More importantly, high-quality sealing silicone grease is resistant to acid and alkali corrosion, resisting the chloride ions in tap water, the weak acid and alkaline environments in fish tanks, and chemical attack from kitchen detergents. It truly "leaves no marks after water passes through, and provides long-lasting protection."
2. Wide operating temperature range: Stable operation from -40°C to 220°C
Sealing silicone grease is known as an "all-purpose lubricant" thanks to its excellent high and low-temperature performance. It remains soft and unhardened in temperatures as low as -40°C, and resists volatilization, carbonization, or cracking even at temperatures as high as 220°C. This property makes it suitable not only for homes but also for a wide range of applications in extreme operating conditions, such as industrial valves, solenoid valves, and automotive brake systems. Thermostatic valves in kitchen water heaters are prone to seal failure due to thermal expansion and contraction during repeated heating and cooling. Applying high-temperature sealing silicone grease not only reduces friction but also effectively prevents leaks caused by thermal stress.
3. Superior Lubrication and Anti-Wear: Reduces Wear by Up to 80%
Sealing silicone grease contains special additives and a polymer thickener to form a stable oil film structure, imparting excellent anti-friction and wear resistance. In areas subject to high loads or frequent sliding (such as ceramic faucet valve cores and O-ring sealing surfaces), it significantly reduces the coefficient of friction, improves smoothness, and prevents shaft locking and hysteresis. Experimental data shows that under high-temperature and high-load conditions, using high-quality sealing silicone grease can reduce wear on lubricated components by up to 80%, significantly extending equipment life and reducing maintenance costs by over 60%. This is particularly important for bathroom and aquarium equipment that require long-term stable operation.
4. Excellent Material Compatibility: Protects Plastics and Rubber from Aging
Many traditional greases react with plastics and silicones, causing them to expand, embrittle, or crack. Sealing silicone grease, however, is specially formulated for excellent plastic compatibility and is suitable for a variety of non-metallic materials, including PE, PP, PVC, and silicone, without staining, swelling, or performance degradation. Using silicone grease for sealing glass pistons or plastic stopcocks in aquariums ensures smooth opening and closing without damaging the seal structure, preventing leaks caused by material aging.
5. Anti-corrosion and Rust-Resistant, Safe Insulation, Versatile Use
Sealing silicone grease also offers excellent rust and corrosion resistance, forming a protective film on metal surfaces that isolates moisture and oxygen, preventing rust. It is particularly suitable for common waterway metal components such as copper, stainless steel, and aluminum alloys. Furthermore, its excellent electrical insulation properties make it suitable for applications requiring insulation and sealing, such as potentiometers and electrical connectors, to prevent leakage and short circuits, ensuring safety and reliability. Its copper-colored formula is not only aesthetically pleasing but also non-staining and water-safe, meeting drinking water safety standards. Therefore, it is widely used in food-contact equipment such as water purifiers, water dispensers, and coffee machines.
From kitchens to bathrooms, from aquariums to industrial equipment, silicone grease, with its multiple advantages including water resistance, temperature resistance, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, strong compatibility, and safe insulation, has become an indispensable "invisible guardian" in the modern sealing and lubrication industry. It not only improves the user experience of the equipment, but also significantly reduces the failure rate and maintenance costs.
