Can you damage NES carts by cleaning too hard?

[Anthony1]

Can you damage NES carts by cleaning them too furiously with a q-tip and isopropyl alcohol?


I've been cleaning my NES carts very harshly with my q-tip and the rubbing alcohol, and I hope I'm not screwying them up.

[davidbrit2]

I think you'd have to scrub awfully hard to wear away the metal contacts with a cotton swab. ;-) As long as you aren't using acid or a highly abrasive cleaning implement, it should be fine.

[GrandAmChandler]

Yeah, I don't think I have ever heard of wearing away the contacts by cleaning.

[YoshiM]

If you used a belt sander, yeah there is a possibility :)

No, cotton swabs and isopropyl won't wear a cart out. Now if you dunked the cart in a bowl of the stuff and then stick the wet thing into your deck and flipped the power on THEN you'll have problems.

[leonk]

No chance of this happening..

Not sure where I found this info, but basically isopropyl is part water, part alcohol. The water is the actual cleaning agent.. the only reason the alcohol is there is to accelerate the rate at which the water evaporates. (Don't want the water sticking around for a very long time and starting things to rust!)

[lendelin]

If you used a belt sander, yeah there is a possibility :)


Damn, and I used all this time a belt sander, why didn't tell me anyone?

I clean NES carts for 15 years now with the alcohol/water mixture (50/50), and nothing ever happened. Some used games I bought required THOROUGH cleaning for about 15 minutes, and I rubbed hard, but there was never damage. You just clean it and make it nice and shiny again, no worries about damage.

[den68]

I actually HAVE used sandpaper on NES carts. this was only on badly corroded ones as a last resort and it did work. I used a real fine grain plastic modeling sandpaper and wet it with alcohol before using it.

[GrandAmChandler]

I still remember my manager at funcoland trying to sell cleaners for systems by saying, dont use straight rubbing alcohol, you will ruin your system! LOL

[davidbrit2]

The funny thing is that in those cleaning kits, you're usually paying $10 for about 4 oz. of alcohol. Yeesh.

[GrandAmChandler]

yup, although you do get the system cleaner, which does work to a point

[YoshiM]

I still remember my manager at funcoland trying to sell cleaners for systems by saying, dont use straight rubbing alcohol, you will ruin your system! LOL

Well the carts state not to use alcohol. After buying a cleaning kit (3rd party) I looked at the bottle which happened to have its contents listed: isopropyl alcohol. Looked at the big honkin' bottle under the bathroom sink of the stuff my parents paid 89 cents for and the $10 I paid for perfume tester sized container of cleaner and did the math.

[1bigmig]

I clean NES carts for 15 years now with the alcohol/water mixture (50/50), and nothing ever happened.

ONLY 50/50 ?!? I wont use anything less than 90% and if I could find 100 Id use that. ;)