Tube of silicon - how much???

[Moley]

About a year ago I had to do some repairs on some analysers. They were made in Canada and a batch had been sent out with faulty SMPSUs so the Canadian company sent 5 power supplies (in case I screwed one up!) and all the tools to swap them over. In the box was two tubes of silicon sealant. Anyway, I did the repair and sent everything back to Canada except for the one open tube of sealant. It seemed like a good quality so I've been using it on and off for various things around the house. Today I used it to fix some new LED lights to the lid of our fish tank. As the tube is now coming to an end I thought I would get some more. I've done some searching around and the cheapest I've found so far is from Farnell. They want £88.65 for ONE tube Looking on Ebay it's over £100 a tube. Why, why, why did I send the unopened one back to Canada

 

[Rpa07]

What type of silicone sealant is it?
Why so special and costly?

 

[Moley]

It's Dow Corning 3145 RTV. Don't know why it's so expensive. It's good stuff though. Certainly sealed around my bath better than any other I've used.

 

[Squid]

The RTV should answer your question its a more specialised silicon and you can buy it a lot cheaper then for £100 notes.

 

[Moley]

I've seen a small squeezable tube of the gray going for £7.95 on ebay but its expiry date was January 2015. The stuff I was sent was in the 305mL size, the size that goes into silicon guns. There's a 3oz tube going for £25 plus £12 P&P. Oh well, looks like it's back to the Tradepoint stuff for me

 

[snowhead]

It's Military grade.
It'll be produced to a very specific and high quality spec.
MIL-A-46146 is the Military spec.

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2...76.400235592.1538853545-1847903164.1536500097

Yes, you were foolish as I bet they threw your returned ones away, possibly risk of contamination etc.

 

[Moley]

It's a bit of a waste using that stuff. Normally when I work on them I use cheap screwfix silicon. Oh well.....

 

[Moley]

It's a bit of a waste using that stuff. Normally when I work on them I use cheap screwfix silicon. Oh well.....

 

[gnuuser]

permatex makes many types of rtv silicone sealants, they are resilient and long lasting. a bit costly but not that expensive.
this is the blue goo we used at work.
https://www.permatex.com/products/g...x-sensor-safe-blue-rtv-silicone-gasket-maker/