Removing smoking smell out of electronics?

All: I just a got great deal on a Samsung 32" HDTV. The only issue is the smoke smell. Is there a way I can get it off and out of my new HDTV without ruining the TV? Thank you.

Keith Lee

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Keith
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Tobacco-smoke tar is one of the more difficult gunks to remove (Consumer Reports used to use it as their "difficult" contaminant, when testing glass cleaners). Unfortunately, washing the exterior of the cabinet and the tube leaves you with an uneasy choice... cleaners which are strong enough to strip the tobacco tar, may mar the plastic case or (perhaps) whatever anti-glare coating was placed on the front of the tube.

Fresh air and sunlight is probably your best bet. The UV in sunlight helps break down the tobacco tar and the volatile materials which cause the odor, and the heat helps volatize what's left and let it blow away. I remember reading of one service outlet which had a standard practice, when they got in a tape deck or receiver which smelled of cigarette smoke - they'd take off the cover and leave it out in the noonday sun for several days before working on it.

This isn't the right time of year for lots of sunlight, alas, and opening up the interior of a flat-screen TV to allow sunlight to penetrate the insides may not be feasible.

My guess is your best bet, at this point, is to clean the exterior of the cabinet with a general-purpose liquid household cleanser (test it in an inconspicuous spot on the back to make sure it's not damaging the surface), and clean the glass front with whatever sort of glass cleanser the manufacturer recommends. Don't spray liquid on it, or use a soaking-wet rag to use the cleaning... just dampen a clean rag and then wipe... you don't want to get liquid into the interior.

Then, put it in your garage, aim a big fan at it, and blow air on it for several days... dissipate as much of the odor as you can that way.

--
Dave Platt                                    AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page:  http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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Reply to
Dave Platt

smell. Is there a way I can

I've seen one TV stink when new out of the box. I think it was a fairly large Vizio, but I don't recall the model number. Near as I can guess(tm), it's lint and styrofoam from the packing material getting into parts of the PCB that are getting hot. Ignite some packing and styrofoam and compare the stench with the TV.

The smell went away after a few days. I tried opening the back and removing the crud with an air hose, which turned into a waste of time because the lint was baked into the components and would not move.

Some options:

  1. If it's really a new TV, then it shouldn't stink. Exchange it for a different unit. That's what warranties are for.
  2. Open the back and clean up whatever is stinking. If you happen to have a 00 FLIR infrared imager, you'll be able to see what's getting hot or smoking.
  3. Let it cook for a few days and see what happens. It will either fix itself, burn down the house, or create a warranty issue. Check your homeowners insurance to see if damage from flaming HDTV's are covered. Everything else should be covered by the manufacturers or the stores warranty.
--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

If you're talking about tobacco smoke smell (or any kind really), try Awesome Orange cleaner. It works better than anything I've ever used to get tobacco stains and smells off anything. I wouldn't use it on the inside though. If the smell is inside, remove the components, spray, wash, and dry them and re-install.

Reply to
Wes Newell

smoke smell. Is there a way I can

Assuming the smoke source is now gone, I've not tried this though. "shake n' vac" or Bentonite or whatever that microporous volcanic mineral is. Scatter inside, leave for a few days, take outdoors and blow it out.

Reply to
N_Cook

smell. Is there a way I can

Been through this many times;

1) Clean the exterior thoroughly with Windex and paper towels.

2) Get a Sharper Image 'Ionic Breeze' air purifier. It produces ozone, which will kill virtually any household odor.

A_C

Reply to
Agent_C

All: Luckily for me, the smoke smell seems to be disappearing. I hope it will be gone within a few days. BTW, what do any of you think of using vinegar on a tobacco smoke smelling object? Thank you.

Keith

Reply to
Keith

smell. Is there a way I can

Imho: there is a very simple, common and rather safe solution (no pun intended). Over here (the Netherlands) it goes by the name Biotex. That's an enzymes attacking laundry detergent (or something like that. Housekeeping-english is not my forte :-)

Anyway, just some clothes and the washing solution. Works like a charm. (Well, as far as cleaning can go.)

--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok
Reply to
Gerard Bok

You should never let the smoke out of electronic components. They will fail to work afterwards.

Reply to
badgolferman

Jeff Liebermann wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

electronics used around smokers develop a smelly grunge film that needs to be WASHED OFF,and then dried for several days,preferably in a drying oven. I did a lot of that while I was at Tektronix. It sometimes was so thick that you could see the brownish yellow gunk running off as you rinsed the unit.

that gunk also attracts and hold other dirt and grime.it's NASTY.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
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Jim Yanik

moke smell. Is there a way I can

Alkaline cleaning solutions attack smoke residue. I've had good result (on plastic, NEVER ALUMINUM) with a teaspoon of lye in a quart of soapy water. Dishwasher detergent (contains sodium carbonate) is also a good bet. Rinse with (deioinized or distilled preferably) water.

The only safe solvent for most of the electronics, though, will be alcohol (denatured alcohol is best, isopropyl also good) but watch out for plastics other than epoxy and mylar and vinyl. The boards that take soldering temperature all will tolerate alcohol cleaning.

Reply to
whit3rd

Note that the original question sorta hinted that this is a NEW Samsung TV. "Great Deal" around Christmas time usually means he bought it on sale somewhere. Unless someone at the factory smokes, I doubt if the TV had time to accumulate enough tar and crud to stink.

Yep. My method is to use common 90% alcohol and give it a bath. If immersion is possible, I do it. Hitting it with a hot water spray, to wash off the ionic contaminants, water soluble flux residue, and general accumulate crud, is not beneath my dignity. The trick is to immediately blow dry the boards with an air compressor (with a dryer filter attached). If there's something involved that's porous (wood or press board cabinetry) or can't be washed (paper speaker cones), then I have to let it air dry for a few days. Otherwise, the smell is usually gone with the blow dry.

Yep. To keep my office/shop clean, I won't let anything inside until the dust has been blown out and all the crud removed. I clean everything, even if I later decide that it's not worth repairing.

Yep. For the ultimate mess, I have to deal with a machine shop that uses various plastic case laptops and PC's near the machines. Hot chips melt and imbed themselves in the plastic parts. Oil, dust, and dirt adds to the mess. I usually have to scrape the case for chips with a putty knife before I can safely move it. I wanted to baptize the PC in the vapor degreaser, but the owner wouldn't let me.

Another fun mess are kids laptops that are literally wallpapered with stickers, pogs, and stick-on skins. All the sticky back stuff can be removed with some solvent or other, but there's no solvent that will reliably remove all the different types of sticky glue.

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# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

gone within a few days.

object?

Windex (or generic equivalent) works better.

-- Les Cargill

Reply to
Les Cargill

Best place for the vinegar, is on the chips ...

That's a joke for the Eastpondians :-)

Arfa

Reply to
Arfa Daily

All: Luckily for me, the smoke smell seems to be disappearing. Keith

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Maybe, maybe not. After a relatively short while, even the most obnoxious odors become tolerable to the point of being unnoticable. It's an adaptive response to your environment.

Reply to
Brenda Ann

moke smell. Is there a way I can

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, When we fetched our car from the mechanic, we could smell his pipe- smoke several days inside the "non-smoker-car." He has lost 1200 customers on that account. He is inseperable from his trusted pipe. We on our part enjoyed the reminicense of our trusted mechanic which we had returned to after some years with "factory service." After 3 days the smell disapeared. No harme done.

Which detergent removed tolerance and flexibility?

Jens

Reply to
Lyrik

to

oven.

Hot air gun ,low heat setting, has removed all gum based stickers that I've come across except some 10 year or older that must have some sort of chemical welding process into the underlying plastic over time

Reply to
N_Cook

All: Well, I used vinegar on a cloth on the outside of the TV and vinegar in a bowl overnight. Also, I tried opening up the windows for a few hours a day. So far, the smell does seem to be dissipating. When I mentioned it was new, I believe that I stated that it was almost new. It seems that the previous owner smokes Marlboro regulars. Every question I asked him about, and I forget that one. :-) I cannot access the inside of the TV where the smell seems to be covering from most of all. I will have to wait until the smell completely dissipates or get a mechanic to take it apart, clean it out, and then put it back to together. Thank you to all who gave me these great ideas.

Keith Lee

Reply to
Keith

powdered pumice was the odour eating mineral I was trying to remember

Reply to
N_Cook

I damaged a laptop LCD cover while using a hot air gun to remove some stickers. Hot air works great on metal surfaces (i.e. removing bumper stickers and pinstriping from automobiles), but I haven't done so well when I tried it on a laptop. My guess(tm) is that there's insufficient difference in temperature between where the adhesive melts, and where the plastic begins to melt.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Jeff Liebermann

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