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I favour a 91% IPA and microfibre cloth method, safe and gives a lovely clean, smear free finish to everything.

If you're going down that route though, make sure and use actual IPA, anything up to a 99% is fine. But at all costs avoid rubbing alcohol, some people recommend it but rubbing alcohol is not always pure and can contain chemicals which are detrimental to computer components. I don't like to take the risk of any accidentally finding its way into the case, which is why I only recommend IPA.
 
I'm more of a 6-8% guy myself, though wouldn't it make your computer smell funky?

I don't mind the smell to be honest, I'm used to it and it fades very quickly
I'll grant you, you can by all means use whatever percentage you like, who am I to say otherwise.
I've just found over the years that the 90-99% does a little bit of a better job. Overkill? More than likely, but effective :D
 
I don't mind the smell to be honest, I'm used to it and it fades very quickly
I'll grant you, you can by all means use whatever percentage you like, who am I to say otherwise.
I've just found over the years that the 90-99% does a little bit of a better job. Overkill? More than likely, but effective :D

99%! Where do you make room for the hops then?
 
99%! Where do you make room for the hops then?


Hey it's handy stuff to have around when you have my condition and fairly regularly end up with nasty cuts and scrapes. Get the alcohol on it, good for preventing infection, cleans surfaces and any electronics and by god it tastes awesome :p
 
I favour a 91% IPA and microfibre cloth method, safe and gives a lovely clean, smear free finish to everything.

If you're going down that route though, make sure and use actual IPA, anything up to a 99% is fine. But at all costs avoid rubbing alcohol, some people recommend it but rubbing alcohol is not always pure and can contain chemicals which are detrimental to computer components. I don't like to take the risk of any accidentally finding its way into the case, which is why I only recommend IPA.

What does IPA stand for ? What is its full form ?
 
It's short for Isopropanol Alcohol, which is used a lot in electronics (among others) for various things including cleaning.
 
"The answer my friend, is brewing in the den. . remember Coffee is your friend" o7

Indeed you are something of a mind reader ;) I'm a coffee lover anyway but after a few days without sleep I'm probably into the several gallons of coffee and energy drinks. Someone could probably make a fortune from the amount of empty cans that accumulate in my recycling bin :D
 
I clean mine each day so I don't really need a strong cleaning solution (prevention over trying to scrape off months of built up gunk). I just use a damp paper-towel to wipe the entire keyboard and case area followed by dry paper-towel. I use a microfiber cloth to clean the screen about once a week as well.
 
I clean mine each day so I don't really need a strong cleaning solution (prevention over trying to scrape off months of built up gunk). I just use a damp paper-towel to wipe the entire keyboard and case area followed by dry paper-towel. I use a microfiber cloth to clean the screen about once a week as well.


I'm not a daily cleaner I must admit, though it is bi-daily, I rarely wait more than three days.

My use of IPA is mainly because, it's very effective and it's completely safe. Should the extremely unlikely happen (because the cloth isn't that wet) and some seeps into the system between a gap I know it's not a problem. Unlike water or many other cleaning solutions, IPA is entirely safe, you could submerge your motherboard in a vat of the stuff and power it up safely.

But each to their own of course. There's not really a wrong way to do it. Well, other than shoving it in the dishwasher or something :D
 
I'm not a daily cleaner I must admit, though it is bi-daily, I rarely wait more than three days.

My use of IPA is mainly because, it's very effective and it's completely safe. Should the extremely unlikely happen (because the cloth isn't that wet) and some seeps into the system between a gap I know it's not a problem. Unlike water or many other cleaning solutions, IPA is entirely safe, you could submerge your motherboard in a vat of the stuff and power it up safely.

But each to their own of course. There's not really a wrong way to do it. Well, other than shoving it in the dishwasher or something :D

I guess I tend to associate IPA with being a harsher solution than plain water. I haven't considered that it may actually be safer than water. Will the IPA eventually wear off the key labels or black paint on the keys though?
 
I guess I tend to associate IPA with being a harsher solution than plain water. I haven't considered that it may actually be safer than water. Will the IPA eventually wear off the key labels or black paint on the keys though?


It would depend on the dye used, if it's a non-polar dye then it's certainly possible for IPA to dissolve it over time. Though I've never experienced it on a MacBook keyboard so I'm inclined to think it isn't.

Thinking of it though, is it a dye on the MacBook keys? I'd have thought it would be a cutout of some kind to allow the light for the backlight illumination to shine through. Though I confess I've never investigated the matter. The black paint, or dye, I think mustn't be non-polar as I've never seen any damage or change in it from using IPA on them over the years.
 
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