It’s important to know how to properly clean your TV – whether it’s brand new and has a bunch of different requirements or one you’ve had for a long time and should be taking better care of.
TVs need to be cleaned for more reasons than just hygiene. Furthermore, it keeps layers of dirt and dust from obscuring your viewing experience and stopping your picture from looking its best. Even the slightest fingerprint mark can really irritate you once you’ve spotted it mid-movie.
It’s not just about the display. There is a constant flow of air throughout machinery that causes dust to accumulate in vents and speaker grilles. Old houses with fireplaces are particularly bad for releasing a lot of dust that can clog up expensive gadgets. We can remember our Xbox 360 covered in coal dust in the past.
The question is, how do you keep your television clean without damaging its parts or screen?
Use A Lint-Free Cloth
When you watch television all day, or all night (we don’t judge), make sure there is no dust or grime on the screen.
Lint-free cloths work best (like a clean microfiber cloth), since they don’t shed fibers when rubbed against surfaces. You should also prevent clutter around the TV, as this can scratch the glass and even generate static after a while. Wipe with a cloth – the kind of cloth that you use to clean your glasses is perfect).
If you have a small TV or a 65-inch TV, both will have a glass display, regardless of whether it’s an LCD, OLED, or QLED panel.
Don’t stop wiping halfway: an uneven clean may be even worse than a dusty one, since some sections of the screen may be less covered in dust than others.
Go Easy On Liquids
Do not apply sprays, water, or cleaning solutions directly to the screen.
In general, you should use just a dry cloth, just as with a lampshade or any other sensitive item. But, if your television is very dirty – it happens – you may want to dampen the cloth with water before wiping it down.
It’s important not to use corrosive cleaning products, as regular cleaning products “can strip the protective coating from delicate screens.” Even soap may be too much for it, depending on how dirty it is (honestly, do you keep it outside?).
Additionally, you should avoid using too much liquid, as large amounts can drop inside the TV and damage electric parts: If you mix liquid with electricity, the result is usually bad.
Casing And Ports
So you’ve cleaned your screen – but what about the rest of it?
If you treat the casing the same way – with a dry or slightly dampened cloth – it will generally be less sensitive than the screen.
Cables and ports with leads should not be letting in dust, and these days AV kit doesn’t require you to blow out dust all the time to get it to work, unlike the hefty game cartridges on the Nintendo 64. Empty ports, however, may need a little blow of canned air occasionally. This should remove dust.
Cleaning Your TV Remote
As the device that gets the most hands-on action in your home entertainment setup – and, therefore, is at the greatest risk of harboring bacteria – keep your TV remote clean as well.
Keeping liquids out of the crevices of the remote is just as important as keeping liquids out of the television, as it can affect the function of the buttons – although if you want to kill germs on the remote, it takes more than just a damp cloth.
We recommend removing the batteries before cleaning – just to be safe – and gently wiping the buttons and sides with a cotton wool pad soaked in alcohol cleaning solution. Use a non-water-based solution to clean the remote, as water-based solutions can damage the electronics.
The inside of the battery compartment can also be wiped down, but this is less necessary.
Summary
And that’s it! By following our guide (which is based on years of cleaning experience), you can now enjoy your pristine television and gleaming remote!