Should I Be Conformal Coating My PCBs?

[Clbraddock]

Just found out about conformal coating. Is this something I should be doing to pcbs after I finish them? The pcbs are just used in my home studio, not in any weird weather. I'd never seen it mentioned in any diy projects though.

 

[zoji12]

I don't think it's necessary in your case. We did it on a pcb that ran inside a chicken grill/stove where it would potentially get greasy and dirty. We never did it on the studio tape recorders we built (3M). It might be advisable on a high impedance circuit like a condenser mic capsule pre.
It's actually not that bad for rework, but it's worse than none, that's for sure.

 

[Philbo King]

It's mostly for wide temperature range (where moisture collects going from cold to warm) or corrosive environments (salt-air) or mil-spec/aerospace (design requirements). It does complicate desoldering repairs quite a bit (adding extra steps).

 

[Clbraddock]

It's mostly for wide temperature range (where moisture collects going from cold to warm) or corrosive environments (salt-air) or mil-spec/aerospace (design requirements). It does complicate desoldering repairs quite a bit (adding extra steps).

I'm assuming it is a modern thing, is that right? Were they doing conformal coating on Urei, Teletronix, DBX etc back in the 60s-80s? zoji12 mentioned 3M not doing it for studio tape recorders. Sounds like I don't need to worry about it since I'm far from the ocean and the hardware never leaves my temperature and humidity controlled room, but just curious.