Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Derrick Yamaura, who reached out to Eton Corporation seeking a solution to sticky radio chassises. Derrick writes:
I phoned Eton Canada’s customer support number and reached a friendly lady who immediately responded with a solution as soon as I mentioned “sticky rubber”.
She stated that Eton officially recommends a product called “Purple Power Industrial Strength Cleaner/Degreaser” because it is water-based, non-toxic, biodegradable, non-abrasive, and contains no solvents.
This reader used Purple Power to clean his benchmark Eton E1.
It’s made by Aiken Chemical and can be found at auto supply shops (e.g. Autozone, NAPA, etc.), home improvement stores, and a few major retailers (such as Walmart).
The method involves dampening a cloth or microfibre towel with the cleaner, then wiping the radio in a single direction with gentle pressure. Don’t rub back and forth or swirl in circles. It won’t remove logos, lettering, or numbers.
The agent stated that only one cleaning is necessary. The rubber coating will remain non-tacky, permanently, after using Purple Power.
Having said all that, I haven’t personally tested it. You’ll might recall that I had already cleaned my radios with oven cleaner.
Also, Purple Power is hard to find in Canada. I do have other degreasers in my workshop; some of them are even purple-coloured (e.g. Zep Commercial Purple Cleaner and Castrol SuperClean), but they’re highly corrosive and toxic, so I’m not keen on trying those on my
radios.Therefore, if one of your other readers already has a jug of Purple Power handy, maybe they can test it out and report back to us.
Thanks again for the great website!
Thank you so much, Derrick, for taking the time to share this. I’m happy to hear that Eton endorses the use of Purple Power–we posted an article about this cleaner five years ago. Sticky radios are so common, we have a number of posts in the archive on the topic.
My Grundig G6 desperately needs cleaning–its chassis is incredibly sticky at the moment. I also know I have some Purple Power at home, so when I return from travels I’ll put it to work on the G6!
Thanks again!
Click here to check out Purple Power at Amazon.com (affiliate link). As Derrick notes, Purple Power is also widely available at local auto parts stores, home improvement stores and big box retailers.
Very good. The next step is buying sticky radios for little money fron unaware sellers 😀
Goo gone seems to work, but it’s slow. Has anyone tried removing the case and soaking it? Is it very difficult to reassemble?
I just spoke with Esther at Eton and she told me they are now recommending CLR and De-Solv-It. She said to pour this onto the clean side of a cloth making cloth damp with the cleaner; then wipe off the radio. I asked if they’d found that the stickiness was coming back after using the Purple Power, and she said no, but that these two seem to work better and that the stickiness will not come back when using these. It appears that the De-Solv-It is citrus based (for what that is worth). I have not tried either as of yet.
Goo Gone works too!
I have used Rubbing Alcohol to remove the sticky coating on my Eton radio and it works very well ! The sticky stuff is all gone.
I have a Grundig G6 and after reading many of the responses, I went with the Purple Power cleaner. I used an old wash cloth and with some light repeated scrubbing the stickiness was gone. I noticed the dull streakiness after the radio dried so I sprayed some WD 40 on a light cloth and wiped the radio. It took out almost all of the streaks after using a light buffing rag.
I purchased the Purple Power at Home Depot for only $7.98 a GALLON!
This product worked wonderfully! I purchased a Grundig G5 that was as sticky as cotton candy! Several applications with some elbow grease cleaned up this great treasure and looks great! Thank you for sharing this information . I totally recommend Purpke Power!
This may be a dumb question that has been previously addressed. Why did eton cover these radios with
this type of coating. Was it to make them less slippery/grip wise to avoid dropping the radio, etc..
Yes, I think it was just to provide a tactile grippy radio body. They had no idea it would break down so quickly.
-Thomas
Another product i used that worked wonderfully is All-Purpose solution, produced by ecomist!
Thanks Derrick. Shipping is really high direct from Max Pro. I found it on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003753F34/
Where can one buy Max Pro Ink/Adhesive Remover (online or in store)?
Max Pro Ink/Adhesive Remover seems to be difficult to find. I went to their website and looked at their list of retailers. The list was pretty big and had all of the usual suspects (e.g. Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Walmart, O’Reilly, etc.), but the only one that had it in stock was Lowe’s (for $16.99 per can). Most of the other websites said that they were out of stock or that the product had been discontinued.
(And, as I’ve found when looking for Purple Power and other cleaners, this stuff isn’t sold in Canada.)
However, the product page shows that it can be ordered directly from Max Pro for $9.99 per can. If Lowe’s doesn’t work out, then you could go that route.
I have tried all the sticky case cleaning approaches, and in my opinion “Purple Power” is top notch for greatly reducing the sticky *feel* temporarily. It is very safe to the radio’s case but the stickiness eventually returns (2-3 months in my experience). The finish is NOT removed with this method but the radio’s coating will feel much better for a length of time.
On the other hand, “Max Pro Ink/Adhesive Remover” is a citrus-based cleaner that will *remove* the sticky finish while leaving lettering / silk-screening unaffected. I think it is the safest method for actually removing the sticky goo once and for all. Kudos to John Figliozzi for originally alerting SWLing Post readers to this product! I’ve removed the sticky mess from two E1XMs before, and the job went a lot easier with Max Pro than with the 90% isopropyl alcohol method.
Noted! Thanks for the extra endorsement, Guy!
Hello Guy, I will like to clean my Eton E5, but, living in Portugal, do you know if Purple or Max can be found in Europen market? Thanks for your dedication, 73!
Once got a mint G3 off eBay which had the stickies.
The popular solution then, was to remove it using isopropyl alcohol.
A laborious task, for sure, but since it had worked beautifully for my E100 I gave it a shot.
Ended up removing all of the silk screen printing from the front panel too.
Same here Mike; used isopropyl alcohol on a Grundig M400 which took all the screen printing off far too easily. Thankfully it’s a simple radio to operate without the screen printing! I have a Pure Move 2500 personal DAB radio that has a rubberised jog wheel that’s gone all sticky. This time I didn’t use isopropyl alcohol for fear of damaging the encoder behind it so I used talc instead! I’ve noticed this stickiness before on headphone cables and the like that have been stored away and have had decent results restoring them by airing them for a while. Has anyone else experienced this too?