Many thanks to Mike Nikolich (N9OVQ), who writes with another solution for sticky radios:
After the display on my Eton E-1 receiver died, the good folks at Universal Radio swapped my broken but lightly used radio for a factory reconditioned unit. Fred Osterman warned me that the plastic case was sticky and somewhat gross and he wasn’t kidding, but I was still grateful that he had a replacement radio.
After searching around the Internet (including your blog) and trying various cleaners and solutions that didn’t remove the dirt and grime from the radio (such as rubbing alcohol, Gunk and dishwasher detergent), I went to my local O’Reilly Auto Parts store and asked if they had a recommendation. Their solution was a product called Purple Power ($4.49) and a microfiber shammy mitt ($4.50). In less time than it took me to watch an episode of “Dr. Phil,” my Eton cleaned up beautifully, with no damage to the unit — it looks and feels brand new. The plastic retained that nice tacky feel without all of the stickiness that attracts gunk like dust, hair and other crud.
Purple Power is made by Aiken Chemical. You’ll want to have a clean bucket of water to remove the gunk that Purple Power removes from the plastic — it really was disgusting but I won’t hesitate to give the radio a Purple Power bath the next time it starts getting gross. And, no, I’m not affiliated with Purple Power, Eton or anyone else, including the microfiber shammy!
I ordered Purple Power from the US to clean up my grundig G6 (live in Belgium). no success i’m afraid. tried acetone earlier. now it’s partially clean, with dirty patches that won’t go away.
Purple Power does indeed remove the sticky residue/coating of the Grundigs. However, be sure to completely DRY the radios … removing all trace of the Purple Power (compressed air? hair dryer?). I was obviously not diligent doing this … Purple Power “ate” the nubs off of the Flip Stands (the nubs crumbled) but also, I obviously left a bit of Purple Power inside the recessed screw hole that attaches the antenna to the unit and the case disintegrated inside and around the screw hole.
Lesson learned: these are harsh cleaning “chemicals” and if not careful, you can also damage the units with these chemicals.
As far as the sticky residue goes, otherwise my two radios look(ed) great.
I’ve Got numerous radios with no sticky problem, but I do have a hi-power spotting scope that
has lived in a box for several years because its too sticky to use. The methods outlined here
should work equally well on my scope. Thanx.
I have used Purple Power in my garage for years with great success. When I read this post I decided to try Purple Power on my E1, which is 6 years old and quite sticky. After a relatively easy hour, it is like a new radio. I can’t wait until tonight when I will go outside and enjoy DXing with this radio once again!
I found a real easy fix.
Use borax on a moist rag and it wipes off easy.
Then use a vacuum cleaner to get the borax off the radio.
Cleaned in 5 minutes.
I know this reply is late. I don’t care. I had tried everything on the E1 to no avail. I had essentially given up on using the radio. Then I saw N9OVQ’s post on Purple Power. That stuff is virtual magic — fast, no scrubbing, still $4.49 two years later. It’s not real magic, though, because the background hiss is still there.
There is something else you might want to try that I have used before. Rampal Latour from France. There “Savon noir nettoyant concentre” is the best one. I’m used it to clean some old radio tubes I had. The other good this is it has no chemicals.
very very good