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I have a method that works well for "dirty/greasy" used LEGO...
Soak the bricks in a solution of hot water and dishwashing detergent. Use
one table spoon of detergent to one gallon of hot water. The water should
not be too hot! If it hurts your hand, it is too hot. THIS IS THE
IMPORTANT PART: Use the type of detergent that you would normally use in an
automatic dishwashing machine**. It is worth noting that some of these
detergents contain chlorine bleach and some do not (even the same brands
will vary the ingredients, so read the package carefully). I have great
results using detergent WITHOUT chlorine bleach.
I typically fill a plastic food container with water, detergent and LEGO. I
stir up the mixture and cover with a tight fitting cover. Shake it up and
let it sit for an hour. For really dirty batches, I let it sit overnight
and will shake it all up every few hours. If there are pieces with visibly
caked on dirt, scrub with a toothbrush after soaking a few hours, then
continue the overnight soak.
Rinse the pieces thoroughly - I use a colander and not too hot water.
Up until this point, you have spent very little time actually cleaning the
pieces. The time consuming part is drying the pieces. I find that LEGO
bricks will dry overnight if they are carefully arranged on some paper
towels such that the pieces do not touch and the pieces are placed on their
sides so as not to collect water. While this is by far the most time
consuming portion of the process, if you take the opportunity to sort the
pieces as you spread them out to dry, you will not have to sort them later.
I do not clean printed bricks, or bricks with labels, or other "delicate
pieces by soaking overnight. I recommend cleaning these pieces "gently" by
hand.
The pieces will be clean and have that "grippy" feel - like brand new LEGO.
A note on white pieces that have apparently "yellowed". You may be tempted
to use a detergent with chlorine bleach to "whiten" these pieces, however,
I have found that 99% of these "yellowed" pieces are merely "dirtied"
pieces. In other words, the bricks are only dirty, and do not need
"bleaching". I would be hesitant to bleach any LEGO pieces. If they have
yellowed from the sun, leave them be.
Hope this helps, and please forgive the spelling gaffs.
-Brew B
**Dishwashing machine detergent (eg. Electrolux, Cascade, etc) NOT hand
dishwashing soap.
Richard Morton wrote in message ...
> Hi all,
>
> Quick question. I have just received a HUGE amount of used Lego I won in an
> eBay auction. Some of it is quite dirty/greasy etc and I want to have a go
> at cleaning it up a bit.
> My question is, in your expert opinions, what is the best way to do this?
> Warm water and washing up liquid?
> Anyone tried putting Lego in a dishwasher at low setting? Is that a stupid
> idea? (Probably!)
>
> Obviously, I'm not about to load up my dishwasher full of Lego, but I just
> wondered what the best way to clean it up is?
>
> Hope you can help
>
> Richard.
>
>
>
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I use the same method using a 5 gallon bucket.
1. 1-2 scoops (I use Electro sol DW crystals) in ~3 gallons of warm water.
Mix thoroughly.
2. Add 2-3 gallons of LEGO, (after proper sorting of course) no more, or you
will not have enough "stirring room".
3. Stir the LEGO soup (churn from top to bottom) every hour or so with a
VERY SOFT car wash brush to help loosen the dirt. Do not get carried away
with the stirring, be gentle but thorough.
4. I always soak for 12 or more hours.
5. When finished, stir again and dump ~1/2 the water out and refill with hot
water while stirring to make the LEGO soup warm again. Dump the water trough
a strainer or colander to catch the pieces that always float out with the
water.
6. Now stir again.
7. I now use 2 colanders, 1 smaller than the other to scoop out the Lego
from the soup bucket.
8. Rinse thoroughly under warm running water while stirring gently. NOTE: Do
not use the spray nozzle or the water WILL spray all over the place, :-)
Unless your hands are big like mine, sometimes you can cover the colander
and "spray" under it with minimal mess.
9. Dump the smaller colander into the larger colander and repeat #8. Keep
doing this back and forth until you are satisfied they are rinsed
thoroughly. The soap residue will leave a dull film if you do not.
10. Now gently dump the Lego back and forth between the colanders to dispel
most of the water.
11. Spread the parts on a bath sheet (large bath towel or beach towel) on
the floor. Depending on my mood, I will pick up one end of the towel and
fold it in half and blot the pieces, then fold the other way and repeat.
Then re-spread the pieces on the towel. You may want plastic under the
towel.
12. Point a fan at the pieces to speed up drying. Overnight is usually
sufficient.
13. Now your only limit is the number of 5 gallon buckets and towels you
have.
If the Lego is extremely dirty (why would you buy that?) I will let soak for
24-36 hours, replacing the cleaning broth every 12-24 hours.
I have found this method to be relatively quick and painless. (actual "time"
spent cleaning) and cleans 99+% of the Lego to my satisfaction.
If any white pieces remain slightly yellowed after the above, I will soak
them in a 1 part bleach to 9 parts water solution for 12-48 hours. Be
warned, it DOES work most of the time, but tends to leave the bricks with a
matte finish!
HTH's
Thanx,
Mark Millère
LUGnet # 525
Visit Milissa's LEGO store, Millère's Spares
<http://www.brickbay.com/store.asp?i=MMillere>
-----Original Message-----
From: news-gateway@lugnet.com [mailto:news-gateway@lugnet.com]On Behalf Of
Stephen Altbacker
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2001 1:36 PM
To: lugnet.general@lugnet.com
Subject: Re: Cleaning used Lego
I have a method that works well for "dirty/greasy" used LEGO...
Soak the bricks in a solution of hot water and dishwashing detergent. Use
one table spoon of detergent to one gallon of hot water. The water should
not be too hot! If it hurts your hand, it is too hot. THIS IS THE
IMPORTANT PART: Use the type of detergent that you would normally use in an
automatic dishwashing machine**. It is worth noting that some of these
detergents contain chlorine bleach and some do not (even the same brands
will vary the ingredients, so read the package carefully). I have great
results using detergent WITHOUT chlorine bleach.
I typically fill a plastic food container with water, detergent and LEGO. I
stir up the mixture and cover with a tight fitting cover. Shake it up and
let it sit for an hour. For really dirty batches, I let it sit overnight
and will shake it all up every few hours. If there are pieces with visibly
caked on dirt, scrub with a toothbrush after soaking a few hours, then
continue the overnight soak.
Rinse the pieces thoroughly - I use a colander and not too hot water.
Up until this point, you have spent very little time actually cleaning the
pieces. The time consuming part is drying the pieces. I find that LEGO
bricks will dry overnight if they are carefully arranged on some paper
towels such that the pieces do not touch and the pieces are placed on their
sides so as not to collect water. While this is by far the most time
consuming portion of the process, if you take the opportunity to sort the
pieces as you spread them out to dry, you will not have to sort them later.
I do not clean printed bricks, or bricks with labels, or other "delicate
pieces by soaking overnight. I recommend cleaning these pieces "gently" by
hand.
The pieces will be clean and have that "grippy" feel - like brand new LEGO.
A note on white pieces that have apparently "yellowed". You may be tempted
to use a detergent with chlorine bleach to "whiten" these pieces, however,
I have found that 99% of these "yellowed" pieces are merely "dirtied"
pieces. In other words, the bricks are only dirty, and do not need
"bleaching". I would be hesitant to bleach any LEGO pieces. If they have
yellowed from the sun, leave them be.
Hope this helps, and please forgive the spelling gaffs.
-Brew B
**Dishwashing machine detergent (eg. Electrolux, Cascade, etc) NOT hand
dishwashing soap.
Richard Morton wrote in message ...
> Hi all,
>
> Quick question. I have just received a HUGE amount of used Lego I won in an
> eBay auction. Some of it is quite dirty/greasy etc and I want to have a go
> at cleaning it up a bit.
> My question is, in your expert opinions, what is the best way to do this?
> Warm water and washing up liquid?
> Anyone tried putting Lego in a dishwasher at low setting? Is that a stupid
> idea? (Probably!)
>
> Obviously, I'm not about to load up my dishwasher full of Lego, but I just
> wondered what the best way to clean it up is?
>
> Hope you can help
>
> Richard.
>
>
>
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Stephen Altbacker wrote:
> I do not clean printed bricks, or bricks with labels, or other "delicate
> pieces by soaking overnight. I recommend cleaning these pieces "gently" by
> hand.
Believe me, printed bricks (other than some early ones) can absolutely
safely be soaked. I have never had a printed brick be damaged, even when
soaking for several weeks (yea, sometimes I get a bucket of LEGO soaking
and then run out of time to deal with it). Stickered pieces are best
washed by hand and immediately blotted, however, if the sticker is in
relatively good condition, I have found they soak just fine (every once
in a while as I'm sorting the newly cleaned LEGO onto a bath towel for
drying a stickered piece turns up, no worse for having had a loooong
bath. TLC uses nice high quality stickers, for current ones, the
material itself is plastic, and the glue is pretty resilient, but peels
off clean, and can usually be peeled up once or twice and be re-applied
and hold just fine.
Frank
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In lugnet.general, Frank Filz writes:
> Stephen Altbacker wrote:
> > I do not clean printed bricks, or bricks with labels, or other "delicate
> > pieces by soaking overnight. I recommend cleaning these pieces "gently" by
> > hand.
>
> Believe me, printed bricks (other than some early ones) can absolutely
> safely be soaked. • <snip>
> Frank
The only thing I've found really detrimental to printed pieces is silly
putty, which I briefly considered as a cleaning agent. Yes, it gets dust
and grime off and is really cool for recreating scenes from the blob with
your legos but it did pull all the gold off of classic space minifigure torsos.
Detergent, while not as fun, is perfectly safe.
Allen D. Carley
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