The salt-air and humidity in Mazatlan don't mix well at all with anything metal. Anyone who lives here and most who have visited will have already figured that out and be wondering if I have a point. We've all seen the rust on the iron bars on our gates, on metal shelving, silverware, pots, cars, and numerous other things. Most of us know that things like iron gates need to be painted to protect them from rusting. I want to mention a few things that won't be news to anyone who has spent extensive time here, but may be a bit of a surprise for short time visitors or people starting to consider moving here.

Paint doesn't last. It doesn't seem to hold up any better than metal. Our house along with the iron gates, and bars on the windows were painted last year before we moved in. Several people including our landlord told me that the iron really needs to be scraped clean, primered, and painted every year to keep it protected. I really thought that the people telling me this were being a little bit overconscientious. Nine months later I'm looking around our property and noticing all the places where the paint on the iron has chipped or worn and there is exposed metal starting to show. It could probably wait another year before being painted again, but that would be pushing it. Any longer than that and there would be damage starting to appear from the rust. You might be able to clean it up and paint it without doing any repairs, but letting it go too many cycles like that will definitely mean repairing or replacing your iron work. The paint on the exterior of the house is not fairing any better. We've already had the roof sealed this winter in preparation for the rainy season. I'm not as concerned about the wear to the paint on the exterior of the house, but I will say that it definitely affects the appearance of the house. I believe it will probably be due for another painting next winter.

I have learned that all of the door locks, padlocks and some tools need to be cared for every 6 weeks or so to keep them from failing. Many people here use WD-40 to free up a sticky lock or clean the rust off of something. One thing you need to be careful of is that WD-40 is actually not a protectant or lubricant. WD-40 is designed to remove the rust and then evaporate leaving no protective coating behind. There is nothing wrong with that and it works great for removing rust. However, you need to consider protecting whatever you spray with WD-40. For locks, I use some powdered graphite after the WD-40. This helps provide a protective layer to slow down the rust and keep the pins and internals of the lock from wearing. A light machine oil would work just as well. For most other things I prefer a silicone based spray lubricant. I brought some graphite and silicone with me when we moved, and I have not found any here yet. I also haven't really looked for it since my supply is holding out well. I feel pretty sure that at least graphite and machine oil are available here.

I have been noticing something recently that may come as a bit of shock to many of you. I have plastic items that are starting to rust or corrode. Before you ask, no I have not taken to sniffing the WD-40. I have several items around the house that fake chrome or silver colored plastic. These items apparently have enough actual metal content in the finish that they can start to corrode. The finish starts bubbling up and turning green. These items are no big loss to me, and were not nearly as big a shock as the CDs and DVDs.

I left a few CDs sitting around on a shelf outside of a case for a couple of months, something I'm pretty bad about doing. I was doing some spring cleaning today and picked them up to put them away. I discovered that several of them are pretty well nothing more than coasters now. Again this isn't really a case of plastic corroding. Without getting too technical - CDs and DVDs have a metal foil reflective layer. On commercial or "pressed" discs that layer is sandwiched between two polycarbonate layers. On recordable media that metal layer is either the top side of the disc, or very close under the top if the disc has some sort of label or coating such as the discs that can be printed in an ink-jet printer. The best recordable media uses gold to make that reflective layer. The most common is silver. All of the discs that I left out were silver. One of two things has happened. I suspect the salt content in the air started to corrode the very thin silver reflective layer. In fact on the worst discs that layer is pretty well gone. The other possibility is that a fungus ate my discs. I have found a few reports online of a fungus that can be found in tropical climates that will destroy the reflective layer.

From BBC News: Fungus Eats CDs

I'm not sure whether I believe the fungus theory or not, but either way my discs are certainly useless.

Now for the good news. None of these damaged discs contained anything that I can't replace. Wait, maybe you were hoping for good news about how you can avoid this same fate. I don't have hard answers, but I do have some suggestions. First- two of the discs I left out were commercial "pressed" discs. These two discs did not suffer any damage. I'm sure that is because of the extra polycarbonate layer adding protection. However, keep in mind that the edges of these discs are not sealed. Second- none of the discs that I had in cases shows damage. It appears that any case or dust cover helps. I have CDs stored in the spindles that CD-R media come in with the top on them, and these are okay. I also have CDs and DVDs in plastic jewel-cases, paper and cardboard sleeves, and vinyl CD-cases. All of those discs appear to be okay. So if you have any valuable CDs make sure to keep them under wraps. Also, if you are looking for a long term method to store data or music on a CD or DVD, discs with a gold reflective layer should last considerably longer than the cheaper silver discs. Gold should hold up to heat and light better over time as well as reacting less to corrosion. It is even worth noting that the article about the fungus stated that the gold CD-R's were fairing better.

Just like myself, my computers and electronics now live in an non air conditioned environment very close to the ocean. So far, they are all fairing well. I have taken some measures to protect them, but I don't believe it has been long enough to make any statement about whether my precautions are effective. Since computers are how I make my living this is definitely a topic of interest to me. I am doing quite a bit of research, and keeping a close watch on my own devices. As I have more information I will be sure to post it here so that hopefully it will benefit others.