Recommended Grease for Brass Gears Light Duty

[nielkfj]

I'm servicing a Honeywell zone valve on a hot water heating system. I need to re-grease some brass gears that are part of the valve assembly. The heating system operates at 140 F, and the valve has a little motor inside it, so the grease will need to withstand some heat. But the valve doesn't operate very often so protecting the gears from wear isn't very important.

Can anyone recommend a grease for this application?

 

[Boomer]

How about high temp silicone grease? Get a tube of the stuff you apply to spark plug boots and use it on your gears. Non-corrosive, won't harm any rubber it contacts and it should be long lasting.

 

[nielkfj]

How about high temp silicone grease? Get a tube of the stuff you apply to spark plug boots and use it on your gears. Non-corrosive, won't harm any rubber it contacts and it should be long lasting.

Ok, thanks for the recommendation.

I was thinking about getting this Super Lube product in the NLGI 2 version:
https://www.super-lube.com/multi-purpose-synthetic-grease-with-syncolon#product-434

It's food grade and a standard grease thickness so I figure I can also use it as a general purpose grease around my home. Do you think it would be appropriate for the zone valve gears too?

 

[facility1]

is that a sealed valve/with gasket,we had some older ones at work,,used 80w-140 gear oil inside them,,kendall brand,,,dont over fill

 

[Boomer]

The gears are brass so I would avoid gear lube.

 

[nielkfj]

is that a sealed valve/with gasket,we had some older ones at work,,used 80w-140 gear oil inside them,,kendall brand,,,dont over fill

The gears are brass so I would avoid gear lube.

The gears are external to the actual valve. They are part of the drive mechanism that opens and closes the valve. I can't use oil anyhow because it doesn't have a sealed casing - the oil would just run out of it.
I bought the Super Lube product I mentioned above and put it on the gears. It's NLGI 2, but it seems pretty light so I'm a bit concerned it will melt and drip off when the heating system is used.

 

[spasm3]

Super lube or Mission silicone grease.

 

[facility1]

try some spray grease,,mystik jt-6,,just a thin layer,,or even bike chain lube or ,overhead garage door track spray,,this should not affect the brass gears

 

[Soft Cars]

THIS is what I recommend for your application.

 

[Elkins45]

Almost any brake or bearing grease would work. They all have to withstand much higher temps than 140°. You could buy a jar of ceramic brake slider grease but it’s expensive.

 

[nielkfj]

The regular Super Lube NLGI 2 grease appears to be holding up well.

I took the cover off the drive mechanism and inspected the grease on the gears and it is still in place. The valve has been hooked up for a couple days now and the heating system has been on a few times. But more significantly is that the valve is a normally open design, so when the heat is off, the valve is closed and the motor is powered. As a consequence the casing of the motor and gears is quite hot all the time. I touched it and it almost scalded my finger. I would estimate that the surface temperature is around 180-200 F (80-95 C), which is actually still in the lower operating range of the grease -45-450 F (-43-232 C).

So if the grease hasn't melted and dripped off after two days under those temperature I think it is fine. Probably a thicker grease would be better, but this will do. I preferred to buy a food grade grease that I can use around the house and get on my hands without too much concern. But I don't think Super Lube makes a thicker food grade grease than NLGI 2.

I appreciate all the suggestions.