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Dried up Ferrofluid?

What causes ferrofluid to dry up?  Heat, usage, age?  Is there a usual shelf life, as in, do most 15-20 year old tweeters that originally used ferrofluid, need new ferrofluid?

How is it checked, where is it bought, is the replacement generally the same from tweeter to tweeter?

Thanks ahead of time for any info regarding this!  I figure that there are quite a few good speakers out there that are getting up there in age so this may be something I’ll want to learn to do!
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georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
quincy196 posts03-14-2020 12:44pmThank you George!
My tweeters are Kef pn SP1353.
They do contain ferrofluid.
I am going to attempt a R & R. Seems straight forward.

👍
And if not old enough yet or sounding ok, just like doing preventative maintenance.

I used contact cleaner to FLUSH OUT the old ferrofluid. Paper tape will not remove all the old gunk.
I think even petrol would be fine for the magnet gap, but anything on the voice coil something milder as the coil insulation lacquer needs to be looked after. 

Cheers George
ddd1
261 posts
 

If I have a pair of brand-new-in-the-box unused tweeters as spares for a speaker sold 20 years ago, is it likely that they would still be "as new" or might they also need the ferrofluid replaced due to age?

fiesta75
1,378 posts
 

If they have ferrofluid they won’t sound as good as new for sure. What tweeters?

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