Oatley Grease Question

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Oatley Grease Question

Author: Brono (RI)

Good afternoon,

When rebuilding my Symmons shower valve I added some plumbing grease to the diverter valve to make it easier to slide in. All I have on hand was this Oatley plumbing grease (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Oatey-1-oz-Plumber-s-Grease-30620/203489444) which happens to be petroleum based. After some reading, learned you should only use silicone grease on plastic and O-rings. My two questions are:

1. Is this fine and I’m overthinking it?

And

2. If it isn’t, can I just clean it with alcohol and reinstall or should I just purchase the part again and put a new one in?

Thanks!

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Re: Oatley Grease Question
Author: packy (MA) plumbers grease has been in use for decades before silicone grease was even invented. never a problem that i am aware of.
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Re: petroleum based plumbing grease

Author: vic (CA)

Packy is correct that plumbers grease has been used for a very long time.

I'd like to add that using food grade silicone grease such as "Super Lube" is ideal as most natural rubber will degrade faster or will even swell slightly from petroleum based products. If the o-rings are made from nitrile then using petroleum based grease is probably ok to use.

Also some plastics can swell or breakdown prematurely from petroleum based products. I once sprayed some petroleum based spray on a plastic roller to lubricate it and it blew apart. I was shocked and so did research and found that in fact some plastics get damaged from petroleum based products.

I don't know what Symmons orings or plastics are made of so can't help further than that.

Personally I would always only use Super Lube (or similar) so that there never would be a potential issue.

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Re: Oatley Grease Question
Author: DaveDIY (NJ) Good old plumber's was also made of bee's wax. The plumber's oil used to cut threads but I would use it for potable water contact. Silicone grease is cheap and safe to use.
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