View Poll Results: Do you clean your contacts with water?

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  • No.

    6 15.79%
  • HELL No.

    32 84.21%
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Thread: NoMoreBlinking.com -- New NES Site with Info & Guides

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Push Upstairs View Post
    Personally, when my NES starts blinking or giving me trouble instead of cleaning my connector with water i just put the whole thing in the dishwasher.
    !

    Reminds me of an episode of the classic British comedy series from the 80's "The Young Ones" where they discuss whether or not they should clean their VCR with dish-soap. In fact ... I even found a script online for that episode (for the benefit of those who have never seen it)!

    MIKE: Maybe you shouldn't have poured all of that washing-up liquid in it.

    VYVYAN: But it says here, Michael look, "Ensure machine is clean, and free from dust"!

    MIKE: Yeah, but it don't say, "Ensure the machine is full of washing-up liquid"!

    VYVYAN: No, but it doesn't say, "Ensure the machine isn't full of washing-up liquid"!

    MIKE: Well, it wouldn't would it! I mean, it doesn't say, "Ensure you don't chop up your video machine with an axe, put all the bits in a plastic bag, and bung 'em down the lavatory"!

    VYVYAN: Doesn't it? Well maybe that's what's going wrong!

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by mrgreggie View Post
    Also, if anybody can point me to a good reference that shows that water is worse than alcohol for cleaning contacts, I'll be happy to change the FAQ and give credit for the correction.
    I don't have an online reference (I was fixing computers for extra money before the Web existed, so I learned this stuff from books) but off the top of my head I can tell you two reasons alcohol is better to use than water. #1 is corrosion. Not as big of a deal on other systems as inserting a cartridge will knock the corrosion off, but on an NES, you want as little as possible. Using water is bad for the same reason blowing in the carts is bad. #2 is residue. You don't want to use rubbing alcohol (50% water) because it leaves too much residue. If it's all you've got, fine, try it, but it should be a last resort. 91% alchohol, Everclear (190 proof, so it's 95% alcohol) or denatured alcohol from the hardware store are best. Or use zero-residue contact cleaner, sold in aerosol cans at hardware and auto parts stores.

    Since 91% isopropyl alchohol is a household item and available at any pharmacy, I see no reason not to recommend it. If it were hard to find, I'd look for alternatives, but it's not hard to find, nor is it expensive.

    For a really stubborn dirt on cartridges that alcohol alone won't remove, use a soft eraser on the contacts. My favorites are sold in art supply and craft stores. I think they're called Magic Rub or something. They cost about $2 and last a long time. They're tough on dirt but they don't scratch the contacts.
    Last edited by Dave Farquhar; 09-27-2007 at 07:36 AM.

  3. #23
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    Sorry for bumping such an old thread, but this keeps coming up in my Google searches so often and over so many years that I figure I better correct the record for others stumbling across it. It seems that the NoMoreBlinking website owner himself didn't explain this, so I'll have to.

    But first: Even though the website is long gone it seems that the owner's SEO services are still going strong and raising the ranks of results that include references. By mentioning Google's search rankings and services to manipulate them, Google should down-rank this thread at least a bit.

    Anyway, who seems to think that water is safer than alcohol? Well, Nintendo themselves, of course! I've known since I first used an official NES Cleaning Kit ~30 years ago. The manual very clearly says to use WATER. I can't recall if they suggested distilled water but it wasn't anything fancy like PCB-safe "deionized." I can actually check when I get home because I have three Official NES Cleaning Kits (two CIB). They do expect you to dry it.

    They said to use isopropyl ONLY if water alone didn't work (last resort?). Even then, they said to dilute it with 50% water. There was nothing about common 70% vs 91% concentrations. I just stick with 99.9% and ignore their instruction to water it down. This evaporates faster! They didn't call it "rubbing alcohol" and didn't warn against it either. My suspicion is that they didn't want to sound like they were contradicting their own "Do not clean with alcohol" care instructions.

    TL;DR:
    Water is safe but obviously doesn't work as well.
    Nintendo themselves tells you to use water.
    They also say to use 50/50 isopropyl+water if that doesn't work.

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