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Sticky surface on remote

Zombie

Zombie

pfm Member
I've got the bigger Quad remote to the 99/Elite series. It has been in a drawer with allsorts of cables, old chargers etc.
Today I took it out and felt the bottom side was a little sticky. Didn't remember if it was when I put it there a year ago, maybe.
Tried to clean it with a damp cloth and found it got even stickier. Now it is really unpleasantly sticky. Spotted a remote to the Touch and it was slightly sticky on the surface too.
What causes this? I have read about the B77 sticky Nextel etc. but a couple of newer remotes...
 
Odd. I`ve had mine for 12 or more years and no sign of a problem. Didn`t even think it was painted.

Has something else in the drawer outgassed or leaked in some way?
 
Do you have the big 99/Elite remote? The one with a cover made of metal and needs four batteries?
 
Ah, no, I`m not familiar with that one, mine takes two batteries - often.

I do also have a touch remote - no trouble with that either.
 
Some of the slightly rubberised/textured finish to recent remotes have certainly gone the way of Nextel, i.e. turned to nasty sticky crap. My Cambridge 752BD CD/SACD/DVD/Blu-Ray player’s remote went this way despite very minimal use and it took me at least an hour buffing with isopropyl alcohol to remove it back to a clean black plastic finish. Probably longer as I remember it being a right PITA. Got there in the end though and you’d not notice anything amiss if you didn’t know it should be a matt rubbery finish.

It baffles me that this sort of dreadful design and manufacturing can exist these days. One would expect the people who design the chemical formulas had the slightest clue about durability, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ve no idea what was wrong with a standard durable plastic finish that made them even try this. By saying that I could rant for quite a while about shit remote control design, starting with the fact they should all be shaped in a way that it is obvious which way up you are holding the thing. The one that came with my Sony TV just feels the same either way so it is way to easy to point the wrong end at the TV and push the wrong button. There is just no excuse for bad design IMHO.
 
I have a power drill that has a rubberised grip which became sticky. I used acetone which seems to have worked.
 
Sticky rubberised grips are very common.

This came up only 3-4 weeks ago and someone posted a cure - paint with this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I8MJF94/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21. From their description it seems likely that the cure of the varnish reacts with the surface and fixes the stickiness.

I have a large woodworking router that now sells for peanuts on EPay so I decided to buy one for spares. Mine is absolutely fine, the spares one is almost unusable because the grips are so sticky.
 
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I've had an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite lying around doing nothing, and when I dug it out to charge it, it had gotten tacky. I get that the matte rubbery texture feels nice and is grippy but it's annoying that it starts to feel like fly paper after a few years.
 
It is certainly a problem with many textured plastics. My old Pure Elite DAB radio has the same issue. Now confined to garage/workshop duties.
 
Tony L said:
Some of the slightly rubberised/textured finish to recent remotes have certainly gone the way of Nextel, i.e. turned to nasty sticky crap. My Cambridge 752BD CD/SACD/DVD/Blu-Ray player’s remote went this way despite very minimal use and it took me at least an hour buffing with isopropyl alcohol to remove it back to a clean black plastic finish. Probably longer as I remember it being a right PITA. Got there in the end though and you’d not notice anything amiss if you didn’t know it should be a matt rubbery finish.

It baffles me that this sort of dreadful design and manufacturing can exist these days. One would expect the people who design the chemical formulas had the slightest clue about durability, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ve no idea what was wrong with a standard durable plastic finish that made them even try this. By saying that I could rant for quite a while about shit remote control design, starting with the fact they should all be shaped in a way that it is obvious which way up you are holding the thing. The one that came with my Sony TV just feels the same either way so it is way to easy to point the wrong end at the TV and push the wrong button. There is just no excuse for bad design IMHO.
Click to expand...

It’s to give them more grip and stop them sliding of laps, arms of sofas etc... fine when new, awful after 5-10 years, especially in a warm environment. It will wash off on warm soapy water though (warmer the better)... I cleaned it off all the “soft touch” parts of my VW Golf and a couple of Linn remotes. You just need to strip them down first, it’ll come of easily with gentle pressure from a rag.
 
I think the problem only occurs when you don’t use it. I had two remotes for the cable box, one got used the other put away in a drawer. The daily one is fine but the other is all sticky.
 
I had this on my Squeezebox Touch remotes. Disassembled them, gave the sticky surfaces a first clean with isopropyl alcohol to get the worst dirst off, then soft sponge with soap, and finally a good rinse. Good as new.
 
had this on power tools grips as well as said only seems to happen when not used for some reason. I found pink stuff cleaner took it off and back to the bare plastic no issue after that seems when it breaks down its beyond repair?
 
I think if you use them regularly it doesn’t happen - presumably your skin oils or regular rubbing effect of handling, or something, that probably stops it building up to noticeable levels. I’ve had this on a couple of remotes I’d left in a drawer. At first I thought it was battery leakage, but I googled and found it’s something that leaches out of soft touch plastics over time.

The preferred solution is the baking soda paste, above.
 
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