Whats the best way to clean a PCB?

wesk74

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I have some JAMMA PCB's and some Neo MVS carts that really look like they have been through the mill. The boards have a solid 2-3mm of thick dusty grime. I have kind of air blasted and used a paintbrush to get some of it off, but it just isn't cutting it. I was thinking of wiping them down with 90% alcohol, but can that damage the board itself? What would be the best way possible?
 
I have outright washed multiple monitor chassis (flyback and all, psychotic as that sounds), a Defender power supply board, and some other game boards which have been I think an MK2, 2 de-cased Sega NAOMIs, a Space Invaders Deluxe and probably some other stuff I can't remember off hand with... some dollar store Simple Green and a water sprayer. you just have to pull all socketed items like roms or security chips or bios chips, and the backup battery.

I have kind of an advantage, doing these at work with a sprayer in our kitchen and those bathroom blow dryers for drying the boards. everything's worked for me, so I don't see any major issue with my crazy approach.

one exception though, I will not do this to a Capcom CPS2 board, the kind that have those "suicide batteries" because I don't want to discharge any of that circuitry in the water. those you're just kind of relegated to a toothbrush I guess. sucks, I know, but you're kinda stuck unless you have Phoenix roms on those.

but anyway, spray it with the Simple Green everywhere, rinse it thoroughly, then dry it however you see fit to the best of your ability. you can finish it off with sun heat, a fan, a heater or whatever. exercise the same kind of PCB handling precautions, though, doesn't that kind of go out the window by doing this?

this I've found is way better than rubbing alcohol. rubbing alcohol somehow makes the surfaces you wash sticky.. this stuff gets EVERYTHING off.

people may think I'm crazy, but there's some other strangelings on here that throw them in dishwashers....
 
I just run them under a tap and put them outside for a few hours to dry. I always stand them up against a wall or something so that the excess water can run off the board.
 
Do a search please. There are several multi-page threads on this.
 
Thanks guys, I just didn't really know if there was a better option than just "washing" them. I have seen a lot of PCB "cleaners" on the market, I just wondered if they were overpriced detergents or alcohol based solvents re-branded. I guess giving them a bath is still the best solution.
 
I just use the dollar store variety of Simple Green called Mean Green. I have had great success with it. As channelmanic mentioned, there have been many threads literally over the years here discussing the topic. A search for "dishwasher" should be the ticket lol.

Other people resorted to "drying" their boards in ovens. They have dozens of different ways of doing it, but I can only comment on my way. The secret is rinsing and drying properly. There are many places water can get trapped, and a lot of people freak out about rust, so if you got a hair dryer or even better, a dehumidifier, or dry and let sit vertical in front of a box fan for a couple days, any of those is good.

Lots of people will say they wait 2 weeks before powerup. My max wait was 2 days and I didn't blow anything up lol
 
Yeah, I have heard of people dishwashing them, I don't think I am willing to try that, sometimes a cup or bowl get flipped in mine, I don't think I am putting my Mortal Kombat boards in there.
 
LOL 2 weeks?? I've fired up boards after less than 2 hours.

20 minutes in the oven at 170F and a couple of minutes to cool down and the clean boards here are ready for powering up.
 
Dishwasher and a good compressor to blow water out from under components. Couple of days in a dry place has always worked for me
 
I work in IT and years ago I would be in the company kitchen loading the dishwasher up with keyboards. People looked at me like I was crazy. Little do they know the "new" keyboard they are using at there desk looked like someone wiped their ass with it the day before LOL. As long as you make sure everything is nice and dry, it's normally a safe bet. But like everyone says, make sure you do not mess with certain boards.

Dishwasher and a good compressor to blow water out from under components. Couple of days in a dry place has always worked for me
 
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