Cleaning the SNES???

[onklsven75]

I just bought a SNES from Goodwill the other day, and except for the middle section, it has really yellowed over the years.

 

Does anyone know how to clean it and make it new, or is it a permanent thing.

 

Thanks.

[Raijin Z]

Permanent. The plastic cures over the years and becomes yellow. Not every SNES used the same mixture, so some don't change colors.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I've also been told that SNES from a smoking home are more prone to this Ole Yeller condition more than others. I bought a SNES used from a game store in here town and it is two tone yellow and grey. Funny though, I noticed that almost every SNES that my local GameXChange sells are the pure grey and don't have the yeller upper case problem. Makes me wonder if they only accept non yellow SNES systems from people who bring them in as trade ins?

 

[joeybastard]

I have 2 SNES, 1 is yellow, 1 isn't. I learned the yellow is permanent the hard way. I tried cleaning that thing with about 10 different cleaners and nothing helped. They both work perfectly though so that's all I care about.

[Xot]

It seems to depend on the age. Newer consoles, the ones with the Nintendo service number sticker on the back, seem to be made of a better mix of plastic and not prone to yellowing. I still have my original SNES from about a month after launch and it's yellow pretty much all over; yet a newer one I got from a thrift looks, well, new.

[Mr.FoodMonster]

ahh yellowing plastic. I have an old keyboard and mouse that are BRIGHT yellow over the years, its really funny actually. this makes me wonder if my SNES that i traded so many years ago is yellow.

P.S. onklsven75, I LOVE your avitar, for obvious reasons

[onklsven75]

Thanks for the info.

It works great, and it was only $15, so I'm happy anyways.

[JB]

Permanent. The plastic cures over the years and becomes yellow. Not every SNES used the same mixture, so some don't change colors.

Nice snap judgement.

 

MY SNES went from dingy yellow to the original gray with a good scrubbing with a cloth and rubbing alcohol. And it was a first-year unit.

 

I bet there's many SNESes out there that can be restored to their original glory if someone would actually clean them instead of just taking people's word for it that it's permanent.

[Jasoco]

Mine is still grey. My original. It does have the sticker on the back.

 

I notice that every yellowed SNES I've seen is yellow everywhere except that middle piece. What gives with that?

[Kialan]

Instead of starting a new topic, Ill resurrect this old one.

 

I recently got another SNES but I'm so worried that if I use it as my main it will turn yellow like my first (which I bought new back in the day.) You can see in the picture there is a huge difference. I noticed that the new is actually different in other ways, too. The eject button has Eject in grey in raised plastic on the grey one, while on the yellow one the eject is in white and is not raised. Also I notice that the new one has more purpleish power/reset buttons than the other (maybe they also yellow over time?)

 

I read the comment about the Service number sticker on the back, but both of them have it, so I doubt that is accurate.

 

Serial numbers for the yellowed one: UN20386335

Serial for grey:UN293020273 (the last digit is in a darker box)

 

Could that mean revision 3?

 

And as for the reason why the center plastic is more grey than yellowed...well for my console at least, it's because the sunlight came from the back to the front, and the shadow of whatever cartridge was in it blocked the rays from hitting part of it.

 

I'd really love to know if anyone else has input on this. Is it safe to keep the grey one out of the shadows?

 

EDIT: Oh and I just tried 70% alcohol on the yellowed on...didn't help at all.

[Jasoco]

My SNES has been out forever. I have never put it in a closet and it's never really hidden away. And it's STILL grey, as I said in October.

 

BTW, MY serial number is UN11311880 which would make it the Zeroth revision?

 

Actually, my 0 isn't in a box by itself. I just say the lower the number, the earlier it was made. Which makes mine one of the really early ones I guess. And it's still grey.

[The MilkMan]

I just recently revived mine from a long slumber being at my folks house. This is my original SNES. It's serial number is UN16488893.

Smoke free house, but was stored in the entertain cabinet. Pulled out about once a month for occational use. When I was bringing it home couple weeks ago, I never really noticed the yellowing effect until then. Not only yellowing, but a freaky 2 tone action! Being locked up causes yellowing? Dam weird SNES consoles!

[Adrian M]

My SNES never turned yellow and I bought mine back when they launched in August of 1991.

 

However, my Apple Macintosh 128K (original Mac) has yellowed so much over the years that it looks as if it has come from a household with heavy smokers. The keyboard in particular is pretty bad.

[mechanized]

Yellowing can be caused by a great many things. Yellowing susceptibility does vary per batch of plastic, with some plastics apparently impervious and others veritably setting out a welcome party for Ol' Yeller.

 

Common causes would include: smoking (as in other areas, this is a 99% preventable problem), storage in the dark (potential bacterial/fungal agents, moisture, and other airborne pests), storage in sunlight (repetitive long-term exposure to sunlight can affect the plastic), handling (body oils), dust (airborne contaminants), and humidity (moisture seeps into the plastic, becomes hospitable to microbes, which could discolor plastics).

 

The summary of the Above is this: pretty much, its mere existence subjects it to discoloration.

 

There are things that can be done for most discolored systems, of course partially dependent on 'that' batch of plastic used. I would theorize, though, that there is a remedy for Every plastic.

 

I've had a lot of success with baking soda, peroxide, and various whitening toothpastes.

 

What I do is this:

Dismantle the system (kids, ask your parents for help!), separate the plastic parts, separate the rest and set it in a bag (just to be safe), then find a bin (or other sizable, water-tight container).

Create a mixture of blended whitening toothpaste (pretty much the whole tube and a couple cups of water), some water, a healthy dose of baking soda, and some hydrogen peroxide (higher concentration, and I don't mean the stuff you get at cosmetics stores for bleaching hair ... I haven't tried that yet myself). Try to have this pretty concentrated, since you'll have to water it down a little later.

Now, hit the stove and boil some water, maybe a couple pots' worth...get it nice and hot. Once it is boiling, set the plastic in the bin and slowly pour that pot of boiling water over it. Pour your second pot, slowly, making sure you don't pour in just one place... you want to evenly warm the plastic with the water. Carefully stir the plastic in the water to make sure every last area of plastic gets some of the hot water treatment.

Once the plastic has had a good few minutes to soak up the heat, pour in the mixture, and stir it in. Make sure all the plastic is submerged, adding hot tap water to top it off if need be. (If your plastic floats, weight it down.) Now cover the bin and set it aside for at least a few days. You may want to periodically open the bin, pull out the casing parts, rinse them in hot tap water and give them a scrub, then put them back in.

 

Fast foward...

 

Pull the bin out, remove the plastics, give them a decent scrub and rinse. At this point, the system should look a world better, but if not, it should at least look somewhat better and just require more time.

 

I've used this method to clean two SNES units, an original model NES (successfully after a good week or two, the plastic is 'tighter'), a handful of SNES games, and various white and light colored Transformers' body parts.

[Great Hierophant]

Some before and after photos would be welcome.

[Kialan]

Thank you Mechanized for that detailed restore method. When I get the time someday I will try it out.

 

Just need a security bit set and a lack of love for labels.

[mechanized]

For games: don't dilute the original mixture, apply it like a paste and avoid the label, let it set a while and give it a scrub, rinse, repeat.

 

Otherwise, you'd be better off soaking the label in Goo Gone, carefully removing it, and reapplying it to another, pristine SNES cartridge (I grab cheap Sports titles from GameSpot, for instance, or look at game lots on eBay that feature crappy titles). The Goo Gone will eventually wear off and leave the label intact and sticking to the cartridge. (If you're unlucky, though, it'd just be a matter of removing the label again, wiping away the remaining adhesive, drying out the label, then reapplying it afterwards with a new adhesive.)

 

As for Before and After photos, sure thing, once I find another grungy SNES or an NES that needs a clean. Then it's a matter of how the yellowing happened and the plastic... but yeah, I'll get some pictures.

[Atariman]

whoops. never mind.