How to fix the goo that occurs on some electronic enclosures?

Does it smell slightly sweet? Does it smell at all?

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

This goo issue is coming up quite regularly with the rubberised coating applied to plastics for various type of consumer, DIY and computing equipment.

I'd heard stories of success with Car Brake fluid.

Was the device originally a matt/rubberised finish of some kind, rather than smooth (or textured-moulded) plastic?

I have a Topfield "Black Panther" model PVR that has a plastic front, which was "enhanced" with some kind of matt coating. Over time, it became sticky, as you say it hasn't ...

... so it seems to be a natural failure of the coating with time.

In the end, I did manage to clean it off, but it took a lot of work with isopropanol -- it appears to be doing very little, but persistence paid off.

... may eat the plastic underneath too, so use with care.

Targus slide clicker, both of which have this issue. The black case of the se devices seems to have suffered a breakdown of the surface of the enclosu re that results in a very sticky feel along with the disappearance of some of the lettering on the buttons, case, etc.

of any sort, etc.

ethel, methel), acetone, MEK, mineral spirits, carbon-tet, even tried the dreaded (in my book) WD40. Nothing helped. I know that some of these chemi cals might soften certain types of plastics, but I figured what the hell... .

am more interested in what the problem is and a cure for it - if any.

There's no cure as far as I know. The plastic itself is depolymerizing wit h age. I've seen modern plastics go gooey and others become brittle as cra ckers.

You can try abrading what's left of the surface and coating it with a barri er - like paint perhaps. Maybe depriving it of air as well as light will s low the decomposition down.

Targus slide clicker, both of which have this issue. The black case of the se devices seems to have suffered a breakdown of the surface of the enclosu re that results in a very sticky feel along with the disappearance of some of the lettering on the buttons, case, etc.

of any sort, etc.

ethel, methel), acetone, MEK, mineral spirits, carbon-tet, even tried the dreaded (in my book) WD40. Nothing helped. I know that some of these chemi cals might soften certain types of plastics, but I figured what the hell... .

am more interested in what the problem is and a cure for it - if any.

No solution that we know of. Talc or cornstarch provides a temporary bodge. Several solvents can remove it but it's very slow going. Brake fluid has b een recommended as one of the best. Heatshrink sleeving it is another optio n, or perhaps tape.

NT

Is it the same breakdown process of the perishing of old rubber drive bands in cassette recorders/VCRs? Sometimes go hard and brittle ,sometimes "melt" to a horrible black goo. I'll try brake-fluid , the next time I have to clean off the remnants of such a gooey ex-drive band. Incidently if you have a box of spare rubber drive bands, pour loads of talc in there. Even if it doesn't stop a band perishing, it isolates it to just the one band , rather than the contagion affecting a number of them.

If it smelt of vinegar, then possibly "dolls disease" breakdown of old PVC/Vinyl , the soft plastic as used to make dolls.

Since the last time of googling dolls disease, this informative piece has emerged, as 1996 presumably they're creating an online archive

the infectious nature sounds like what happens in vcr/cassette players, where when one rubber band goes gooey , others start to go gooey although not in direct contact.

Targus slide clicker, both of which have this issue. The black case of the se devices seems to have suffered a breakdown of the surface of the enclosu re that results in a very sticky feel along with the disappearance of some of the lettering on the buttons, case, etc.

of any sort, etc.

ethel, methel), acetone, MEK, mineral spirits, carbon-tet, even tried the dreaded (in my book) WD40. Nothing helped. I know that some of these chemi cals might soften certain types of plastics, but I figured what the hell... .

am more interested in what the problem is and a cure for it - if any.

To elaborate a bit further and answer some questions posed by others below. ..

1. The Targus 'clicker' seemed to have a rubberized feel to it (to increase grippiness) but it feels like a extremely thin layer of a coating The Foscam PTZ enclosure has a matte texture/feel to it but I can't determi ne if it has a coating or not
2. Smell? well my smell sense is not that great, yes, maybe a very slight ' sweet'
3. Same condition as rubber component breakdown? no. it is not hardened ( as in rubber capstan rollers, etc. It is more sticky and a slightly gooey , but nothing comes off or stretches when it is handled.
4. I have a bottle of 'rubber restorer' that I use on tape decks, old phono graphs, etc. I'll try that but I see it as a softener and if the gear I ha ve is already 'soft' I didnt see this a very helpful. Brake fluid. I'll try that. Thanks

It is annoying to think that this stuff is 5 yo or less and it has decayed like this. This seems like a situation that should be understood & resolve d. J

Sustained unusual humidity or temperature ?

I had that same issue with a Grundig G6 portable AM/FM/SW radio. After a number of years (maybe 7 or 8), the non-slip material on the outside of the case turned gooey/sticky. Like the OP, I tried all sort of things (alcohol,etc) without luck. I found a post somewhere where someone recommended a solvent to fix it and ordered some. It still wasn't easy to get the goo off, but I did eventually remove it. The radio still worked great. I wish I could remember the stuff I used. I will try to find it and add to this thread if I succeed. By the way, there was no unusual temperature or humidity involved. The radio was in a desk drawer in an air conditioned house for 99.9 % of the time.

Pat

As promised, I looked into what I used. It was oven cleaner. Here is a link to the blog where the problem was described and solved:

Pat

We remove cured silicone rubber with overnight contact with mineral turpentine. The product swells greatly and can then be rubbed off.

Drench a rag in mineral turpentine, wrap it around the item, then wrap the whole in polythene film to retard turpentine evaporation.

Oven cleaner will etch into some plastics , so check on the rear first. Its great for removing tobacco stain and with caution , its etching will remove sun-browning of white platic cases. Assuming this rubber coating is for anti-slip reasons, is there any mobile phone/tablet model with this treatment?

ue.

nd a Targus slide clicker, both of which have this issue. The black case o f these devices seems to have suffered a breakdown of the surface of the en closure that results in a very sticky feel along with the disappearance of some of the lettering on the buttons, case, etc.

cals of any sort, etc.

s.

opal, ethel, methel), acetone, MEK, mineral spirits, carbon-tet, even tried the dreaded (in my book) WD40. Nothing helped. I know that some of these chemicals might soften certain types of plastics, but I figured what the he ll.....

lly I am more interested in what the problem is and a cure for it - if any.

below....

crease grippiness) but it feels like a extremely thin layer of a coating

etermine if it has a coating or not

ight 'sweet'

ened (as in rubber capstan rollers, etc. It is more sticky and a slightly gooey, but nothing comes off or stretches when it is handled.

phonographs, etc. I'll try that but I see it as a softener and if the gea r I have is already 'soft' I didnt see this a very helpful.

cayed like this. This seems like a situation that should be understood & r esolved.

-his-grundig-g6/

This link was very helpful. I wish they would have noted the oven cleaner product (Easy-Off?). I will try the oven cleaner, goo-gone, and the kitche n goo gone. Oven cleaner has some nasty vapors... BTW, the devices I have stayed indoors, so no humidity issues (unless the o ccasional 90% humidity days we experience in the summer to be of concern) Thanks again

I have had the same problem with a FoodSaver device. All the exterior black plastic surfaces except the bottom developed this sticky GOOK. I tried alc ohol then CitraSolv (which may be concentrated GooGOne) ... didn't help a t first but a few hours later hubby got it clean, with alcohol paper towe ls and lots of elbow grease. Methinks there must have been residual CitraS olv doing something in the meantime - the wipe job had been less than thoro ugh.

normally caustic soda

NT

On Thu, 18 Apr 2019 10:45:59 +0100, N_Cook wrote as underneath :

Yes, I have an STK mobile phone with this very thin spray coated type antislip on the back panel. No idea if it will gooize in time, probably! Even Sony used it on handy cams etc years ago. Awful mess to clean up and very difficult; I remember it was 'relatively' easy to get the coating that had already gone gooey, off - but the coating hadnt all turned yet and the ungooy stuff in patches was almost impossible to remove without aggressive type thinners (toluene, MEK etc). C+

I've just realised the blue rubbery part-covering of an Oral-B electric toothbrush is going tacky and failing in a similar manner.