der8auer Demonstrates How He Washes His Hardware Using a Dishwasher

In the old days there were cans of spray solvents that would clean PCB 100% clean. EPA squashed them and the products to replace them would leave a chalky film on the boards.
The technique I developed was to use a baking pan large enough to accommodate the size of the board. I put about a 1/8" deep bath of acetone in and placed the PCB in it solder side down.
It did a great job of dissolving resin and gum, dirt, grease, etc. Acetone will dissolve soft plastic so you have to be careful.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
In the old days there were cans of spray solvents that would clean PCB 100% clean. EPA squashed them and the products to replace them would leave a chalky film on the boards.
The technique I developed was to use a baking pan large enough to accommodate the size of the board. I put about a 1/8" deep bath of acetone in and placed the PCB in it solder side down.
It did a great job of dissolving resin and gum, dirt, grease, etc. Acetone will dissolve soft plastic so you have to be careful.
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Yep, back in the day Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) was used by my employer. Not a good idea for a motherboard though.
 
Some of those old solvents are highly carcinogenic. Others just plain nasty.

Bad EPA stopping poison and cancer.
 
lollerwaffle said:
Ordinary kitchen dishwashers are not super clean, at least not clean enough that I would trust sensitive electronics with them. Yes, they clean kitchenware to a satisfactory and safe level but they always have some soap residue and bacteria left in them. It's not something I would want my electronics to be in. If you never use it for kitchenware but only for electronics, and perhaps have the water filtered, then I can totally see this being fine.
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that would be why afterwards you should use Iso Alcohol to bath them afterwards, on metal I typically use lighter fluid as a solvent and then an electronics cleaner to remove residue especially for cleaning CPU heatspreaders and Capacitors, most will just use the Iso alch, which is fine, but as a machinist I'm used to using nasty solvent baths for cleaning metal crud and coolant off parts, Some of the industrial products are way way better for this kind of stuff but I've used tubes that are 500$ to 1300$ a piece for sensitive applications.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/alcohol-versus-lighter-fluid-for-cleaning/

Here is a forum that further expands cleaning or electronic components.
 
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Shower with your boards! As you get older, your hair dye products turn your typical "green" boards into Über Coolness!
 
mtrupi said:
Yep, back in the day Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) was used by my employer. Not a good idea for a motherboard though.
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Oh man that stuff is NASTY. I used it to peel up a liner in a motorcycle tank.
 
Slade said:
In a pinch you can take a heatgun to any electronics board and bring it up to a temp that will boil off water but not put any solder at risk. I also take care to heat up the whole board evenly in the process.
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Hair dryer would be significantly less risky. heat gun takes a bit of skill and experience to not melt things.

Dust bunnies or whatever can cause a short so washing might extend life of hardware.
 
I've never been in a situation where I would have had to wash electronics.
 
The op did mention needing to get vasoline off of components. Preventing condensate.

I'd be interested in knowing more about the usage.
 
Trepidati0n said:
It shows how smart he is not wasting money on things that aren't required to complete the objective. It is like the person who spends thousands of dollars on tools and barely pulls a screwdriver out once a month.
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So ultrasonic cleaners are unnecessary, got it. What it shows is that you can be a world famous cheap bastard and people will still defend you.
 
B00nie said:
I've never been in a situation where I would have had to wash electronics.
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Get into retro computing, all sorts of nasties that are far worse than your dishwasher assuming it's used correctly. ;)
 
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