Just curious on how everyone cleans their amps. My boyfriend has a few amps, and their in need of a good wipe down. I am guessing, the insides could use a cleaning too. Are the insides easy to clean, or should I leave it alone?
I just wipe down the outside. I spray a cloth with Pledge and then wipe. I would never spray anything directly on the amps, but you want something moist to get them clean. Nothing too wet, either! Just a light spray of Pledge or even a glass cleaner.
gofar99 Messages: 1969 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, I don't clean the insides unless I suspect a problem. Like excessive dust accumulation. Then I usually use compressed air to blow it out. Most solid state amps never get enough dust inside to worry about. Ones with fans, can though. For the outsides, pretty much anything you might use on furniture placed on a rag will do. If it is a metal surface with say finger prints, a rag with something like windex is generally OK. No solvents.
Yes, amps with fans can definitely get dust problems. Like Bruce said, compressed air is good in that situation, just like cleaning the inside of a computer.
Where I live it gets pretty dusty during the summer, so I blow mine out once a year. If I don't, I know they'll get bad. I stand back a bit though so there's not too much air pressure being applied. I also have one or two small fans going nearby so the dust doesn't settle back from where it came from.
Whatever you do, keep the inside of the amps away from liquids. Even if you use a damp cloth, ensure that it is only slightly damped, and then clean only when really needed. I prefer using air pressure, once, maximum twice, a year.
My uncle used to recommend buying specific cleaners for cleaning amps and few other electronic devices, but my father and I were too lazy to buy those. We only cleaned the outside and we did it the old, simple way: not-so-wet cloth. We were not confident cleaning the insides although we had seen video tutorials on internet. Dad prefers to bring it to my uncle if it breaks. As far as I know nothing serious happened; we had one for years before we replaced it with a new one once it broke.
We don't exactly clean regularly, we just do it when we feel like it's been too long since we last checked. We soak toothbrush or paintbrush in water mixed with dish detergent to clean the inside parts. Sometimes we also use blower. No serious problems found so far.
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