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I recently got an order from Bricklink, from a store in Germany, and when it
arrived it smelled very strongly of smoke. I've been trying to find solutions to
cleaning them that will be satisfactory. Some sites say sealing items in a
container with a piece of bread soaked in vinegar (the bread is for greater
surface area) will do the trick. Others mention baking soda. Others still have
recommended a gentle wash. So far I'm trying the vinegar trick, but I'd like
some backups--especially since I have another lot expected from Italy. I imagine
the likelihood of that, too, smelling of smoke is rather high.
I'm a little hesitant to do a wash because the lot I got includes some heads,
and I don't want to risk any damage to the patterns. I've found no info yet
whether patterns can come off in a wash. One person suggested All Free & Clear,
which is what we use for laundry detergent, but I'd like to be sure it will be
safe for patterned parts. The same question applies to ultrasonic cleaning.
A complicating factor is that my wife has MCS and as bad as the smoke smell
would be for her to be around, most chemical options are off the menu. Pine-sol,
for instance, is out of the question; frankly I can't stand it either.
A while back someone also suggested using a vacuum chamber to clean parts, since
that should unbond the smoke from the ABS. Has this been tested? And if so, does
it pose any danger of warping the parts? It seems to me like a partial vacuum at
least should be attainable so I'd like to know if this option works.
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Hi Lee,
Wash the smoke damaged bricks in warm soapy water with a small amount of bleach.
Let the bricks soak for a few hours. Rinse and let the bricks air dry on a
towel. The bleach smell will fade after a few days and your bricks will no
longer smell of smoke.
Another tip for smoke damaged instruction booklets is to place dryer sheets in
between the pages. This will greatly decrease that smoke smell after a few
days.
Ben
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One of my LUGmates swears by a product called Oxy-clean. He soaks really stinky
elements overnight in a solution of one litre water to one tablespoon Oxy-clean.
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In lugnet.general, Ted Godwin wrote:
> One of my LUGmates swears by a product called Oxy-clean. He soaks really stinky
> elements overnight in a solution of one litre water to one tablespoon Oxy-clean.
Will that cause any bleaching though, and is it safe for patterned parts like
minifig heads? These parts are almost all new and their color is excellent
(except possibly some of the small white slopes), so I'm concerned about keeping
them that way.
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He claims no damage to prints that he has seen. I don't recall what he said
about stickers. If it is a big concern you might test with a few items first to
see what happens.
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Lee Gaiteri wrote:
> I recently got an order from Bricklink, from a store in Germany, and
> when it arrived it smelled very strongly of smoke. I've been trying
> to find solutions to cleaning them that will be satisfactory. Some
> sites say sealing items in a container with a piece of bread soaked
> in vinegar (the bread is for greater surface area) will do the trick.
> Others mention baking soda. Others still have recommended a gentle
> wash. So far I'm trying the vinegar trick, but I'd like some
> backups--especially since I have another lot expected from Italy. I
> imagine the likelihood of that, too, smelling of smoke is rather
> high.
>
> I'm a little hesitant to do a wash because the lot I got includes
> some heads, and I don't want to risk any damage to the patterns. I've
> found no info yet whether patterns can come off in a wash. One person
> suggested All Free & Clear, which is what we use for laundry
> detergent, but I'd like to be sure it will be safe for patterned
> parts. The same question applies to ultrasonic cleaning.
>
> A complicating factor is that my wife has MCS and as bad as the smoke
> smell would be for her to be around, most chemical options are off
> the menu. Pine-sol, for instance, is out of the question; frankly I
> can't stand it either.
>
> A while back someone also suggested using a vacuum chamber to clean
> parts, since that should unbond the smoke from the ABS. Has this been
> tested? And if so, does it pose any danger of warping the parts? It
> seems to me like a partial vacuum at least should be attainable so
> I'd like to know if this option works.
I have successfully used anti-bacterial liquid soap for cleaning smoke
smelling parts. I soak the parts for a couple days in a soapy solution.
One thing I noticed is that the smokey smell comes from an oily deposit, so
my feeling is a soap solution is important.
One thing this will NOT work for is chromed parts, the soap breaks down the
chrome.
Also, I have not left stickered parts in for long periods of time, however,
for a quick wash, I have not had any trouble with stickers as long as they
are well attached.
Frank
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In lugnet.general, Frank Filz wrote:
> I have successfully used anti-bacterial liquid soap for cleaning smoke
> smelling parts. I soak the parts for a couple days in a soapy solution.
>
> One thing I noticed is that the smokey smell comes from an oily deposit, so
> my feeling is a soap solution is important.
That was my feeling too. I started off trying the vinegar-in-a-container thing,
but the smoky bricks now smell like smoke and vinegar; at best the smoke smell
has diminished only a little bit. When I get to washing them I'll make sure to
do a rinse first, to be safe.
I've noticed overall the advice on this front is very scattered--people have
many different techniques but most of them are light on details. Lugnet really
needs a good document on safe washing/drying techniques.
Since most of the conservative advice I've seen revolves around a light wash in
mild soap, I tried this with a load of parts (1 lb. tan, assorted) I got off
eBay. Most of the bricks are in good used condition as described, but a few are
scratched and some had various dirt. I removed patterned parts and did a brief
wash in lukewarm water with a light amount of dish soap (no dyes, no perfumes).
I had to take off the grime from the worst of them, a 1x2 plate, by hand, but it
came right off after only a couple of minutes in the water. I didn't have the
heart to leave the parts in longer. My wash basin is a plastic container with
lots (but not enough) of tiny holes drilled in the base; the holes are only 1.6
mm, 4 LDU, so they're safe for small parts.
I've begun air-drying the parts, having spread them out in 4 rows on paper
towels on cooling racks--except the bottom layer which is on a large bowl lid,
so no air flow underneath. I'm running a fan in the room (not straight at them,
so as not to blow away the paper towels or small parts). One thing I've noticed
early in this process is that the water is clinging to the interior of many
parts, especially the bottoms of bricks and plates. What I'm wondering is, does
air drying take care of that or would a light tumbling every day or so be
recommended?
Also, has anyone ever tried desiccants? I wonder if it's easier (perhaps even
faster) to stick the mostly-dried parts into a container with a bag of silica
gel and let the silica do all the work. Drying from within a container is the
best option if it's feasible, since the drying rack I have set up is on our very
limited counter space and I don't want to have to worry about cats knocking
anything over.
> One thing this will NOT work for is chromed parts, the soap breaks down the
> chrome.
Thanks. I'll definitely remember that. I don't think any chrome parts were in my
smoky lot but I'm sure this issue will come up again in the future.
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