Ikelite | Silicone Lubricant Tube | 5020 | B&H Photo Video
I only use Ike housings so I only use Ike grease. Warm rinse, working the buttons. And then lube the pusher rods using a bit of Ike lube on a wooden tooth pick. Works for me. The little tubes are cheap and great for travel.
I really wouldn't use warm water.
I did this once, rinsing my housing in the shower with me after a dive... All the buttons went a bit sticky.
Warm, hot water is well know for helping to remove grease!
Also, using these liquid greases might be dodgy. Using oil where grease is designed to be is gonna cause problems. Grease sticks around, providing lubrication for a long time, oil will wash/run off very quickly, and sometimes will take the grease with it (Very much so when talking about normal grease/oils), This will leave the piston seal on the pins dry, and you'll get a VERY sticky button, and a lovely leak.
I've disassembled the buttons on my housings a few times, and the stickiness has always been caused by salt or mineral deposits building up on the stainless steel pins. Clean that off and re-grease the proper way gets them back to perfect.
When water dries slowly it leaves lovely deposits of whatever it has dissolved within it.
Rinsing and drying is the way to prevent sticky buttons for longer.
Using a vacuum cleaner nozzle pressed onto where the button are will sure help, sucking off the water out from in where the springs and pins are.
I've got and have used a syringe like this:
My mate had a tooth infection and was given them to rinse out the yucky hole. The plastic tip tapers down to very narrow, not easy to push the silicone grease out thru! But good for pushing into the drainage gaps and in past the springs down to where the o-ring is sat... But it only helps a bit. You'll have to clean it properly eventually.
Just using and rinsing your housing will slowly remove the grease that's there... Very slowly, but it does.
So eventually, you'll have to re-grease them. Fact of life.
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