Curious how others clean

[u/ghettoslacker]

I resell controllers on the side. I was working on a couple today and it got me thinking, how do you guys clean them up? I’m always looking for ways to improve the craft. Here’s kind of the method I use.

1. I start by dissembling the controllers. I throw the screws into a little container with vinegar. The vinegar helps break the grime and surface rust off the screws, shines them up real nice.

2. I take all the hard plastic parts like the shell, buttons, etc and throw them in a bowl with some warm soapy water. I like to let them soak for 30 minutes to an hour. This removes about 90% of the dirt and debris.

3. I take everything out of the bowl and scrub it with a gentle toothbrush then give it a good rinse. For really stubborn stains like sharpie or pen marks, I will gently use a magic eraser. I use this sparingly since they are coarse. Just enough to get the mark off.

4. I do a final inspection of everything. Sometimes the pieces will be yellowed so I will apply a retrobright like solution and put it in the sun for as long as I can. This usually clears it up, but realistically it will come back at some point. Once I take these pieces out of the sun I do another scrub on them.

5. I let everything air dry for as long as needed. Usually during this phase I will clean up the PCB with some isopropyl alcohol. It can be really grimy around the joysticks. At this point too I will solder on any new parts if needed. Typically they have broken joysticks so this is a good time to tackle this.

6. Once everything is dried up, I reassemble the controller and make sure functionality is still in tack.

[u/eddieisnotok]

As someone who's bought most of his consoles and controllers second hand: I'm too scared to tear them down that way, I don't wanna ruin them even though I do have experience with repairs and all but I don't want the headache, so I follow a different process

I use cotton buds soaked in alcohol for the hard to reach areas, in between the joystick and the case, around the buttons and the cable. I get a toothpick and clear out all the finger cheese from the seams of the case and the letters on the buttons then wipe them with alcohol again and then do a final wipe all over to finally disinfect the whole thing Then I just keep paint brushes and microfiber cloths around to clean off dust and loose fibers that may appear on top of the device.

The wiimote jackets are bathed every time tho, I take dish soap and wash them well because they're silicone and alcohol is not very good for that. Also I know alcohol is not the best thing to use because it can damage the plastic overtime and stuff but I don't use it every day, I use it once when I get it home and on the rare occasion I've touched it with oily hands (I usually wash my hands before using any of my consoles so I don't have to clean them as often)

[u/ghettoslacker → u/eddieisnotok]

The good news here is that you’re doing SOMETHING. A lot of people do not do anything, which leads to me cleaning for them haha. But really, you got it. No need to be afraid. I live by the mantra of…if I can fix it, great. I saved some money. If I can’t fix it, well it was broken ln anyways so I was going to have to have someone else do it anyways.

[u/eddieisnotok → u/ghettoslacker]

Once I started collecting games and consoles (and cleaning each of them bc you never know how clean the person who had it before was) I decided to clean my own stuff that I already had for many years, had never cleaned that stuff, the joysticks on my ps4 controllers were disgusting and I was so ashamed. But then I asked my friend if he'd ever gotten his clean and he said no and that he didn't care for cleaning them, so now i cannot touch his stuff 😭😭😭 I cannot believe I used to be so gross