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How to clean up a dirty, sticky remote control quickly
Short answer: spray a little quick-drying cleaning chemical on a Q-tip and rub the remote until the dirt comes off. Around the buttons, use the Q-tip; on the back, where there are no electronics, you can scrape stubborn sticky spots with your nails or a small tool. In the video I take a really nasty remote and make it look much better in a few minutes.
What you need
- A cleaning spray that dries quickly (I leave the one I use in the video description)
- Q-tips
- Your fingernails or a small scraping tool for the back of the remote
The reason to use a chemical that dries quickly is that you are working around buttons and electronics, so you do not want liquid sitting on the remote.
Step 1: Clean around the buttons with a Q-tip
Put a little of the spray on the Q-tip, not directly in big amounts on the remote. Then start rubbing the surface and around the buttons. You will see the dirt start coming off right away, and the Q-tip gets very dirty quickly, so switch to a fresh one when needed.
Step 2: Scrape sticky spots on the back
The back of my remote was very bad. It looked like it had glue on it, or maybe it fell in honey or something like that. In places where there are no buttons and no electronics, you can use your nails or a small tool to scrape off the sticky residue, then wipe again with the Q-tip.
Step 3: Keep going little by little
This is not a one-pass job on a really dirty remote. Keep working section by section. When I finished, there were small details here and there, but the major dirt that made it look so bad was gone, and that was under a very close zoom.
Prevent it from getting dirty again
The moral of the story: do not eat and touch the remote at the same time. That is how a remote ends up sticky and nasty like the one in the video.
Frequently asked questions
What do you use to clean a remote control?
I use a quick-drying cleaning spray applied to a Q-tip, then rub the dirt off.
How do you get sticky residue off a remote?
On the back, where there are no buttons or electronics, I scrape it with my nails or a small tool and then wipe it with the Q-tip.
Why use a quick-drying chemical?
So it dries quickly and does not stay on the remote and its buttons.
How long does it take?
A few minutes of working little by little, even on a very dirty remote.