I was on the Early Television website, and on a page with "restoration tips" is suggested removing all the tubes and actually spraying down the chassis with dishwashing liquid and water.

I have a 1957 Westinghouse portable apart right now which has a ridiculously dirty chassis. Normally I take a set outside, armed with an old paintbrush, and dust it off with the tubes removed. But this one is exceptionally bad. When I used to work on older computers, I took a 1977 Commodore CBM and used this same method, with no ill results.

Has anyone tried this, and if a set is thoroughly dried out in the sun, would it harm any of the components?

I've washed quite a few chassis with no ill effects.

There are some rules however.

1. Never allow water to get inside the power transformer (or any transformer that's somewhat sealed, i.e. has end bells) you will never get it dry enough not to short out.

2. Never get the paper covers on filter cans wet, they disintegrate immediately.

3. You should avoid getting the yoke wet, high voltages in there and it will arc if not 100% dry.

4. Flybacks, I've washed a few, it really depends on what type it is and if it's in good shape, the old 40's RCA type survive it fine but stuff with a less well sealed tire might not. Hair fine wires mean no scrubbing allowed.

5. drying in the oven is a good idea, 150-180 degrees for 30 minutes or so seems to be okay, keep an eye out for anything plastic or wax that might melt under that heat.

As always use your best judgement and try it at your own risk!

People have been known to put R-3XX geartrain assemblies in the dishwasher & run 'em thru, but, they're stainless steel, & have almost NO electrical components on 'em. I might chance it w/a common set, but NOT something that's rare/oddball.

Okay, I went for it today. The set is not rare, and anything I can do will be an improvement over what it was like before. I let it air dry, though it's going to be a good while until it sees power (there's lots of wiring issues), I can say it was partially a success (don't know until I plug it in). There was so much caked on grime, I couldn't read the values on the capacitors! Now, I can at least make out what they say. The chassis has two parts, the bottom was the one I washed. I didn't get anything inside the HV cage or the transformers wet. The yoke did get a tad bit wet, not soaked though.

Try Brake part cleaner it will 3 cans to the job it evaporates very quickly
No damage will occur cleans really well

Try Brake part cleaner it will 3 cans to the job it evaporates very quickly
No damage will occur cleans really well

The currently available good stuff* or the wimpy newest formulation that's safe for air-transport?





*I'm turning 29 soon, so I don't have many memories of good old 'tet, R-10, CCl4, carbon tetrachloride, when it was cheap as chips, but since it's been more or less banned for consumer use it always :rockon:. Now I hoard any that I can acquire, because sometimes the skin(and other) cancer risk is outweighed by the effectiveness of what it can do.


I also find mirth in the fact that my hoard of R-12 (Disclosure: I am EPA 609 certified.) has significantly outperformed my investment portfolio by several orders of magnitude since I bought it in 2000, and I've actually used some of it!