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How to Clean Your Cell Phone and Tablet Screen Safely

Cleaning screens on electronic devices including cell phone and tablet touch screens requires careful selection of cleaning agents that won’t harm the surfaces while effectively removing dust, dirt, and smudges.

One of the Dirtiest Surfaces We Touch Everyday

Our cell phones are one of the dirtiest objects we touch on a daily basis, dirtier than a toilet seat, door knob, your pet’s food dish, check out stands, and kitchen counters!  We wash our hands more often than ever, yet many don’t think of ever cleaning their cell phones.

How Many Germs Live on Your Cell Phone? Take the Quiz

This 14 question quiz from a website called The Oatmeal asks about your hygiene behaviors to come up with an approximation of the bacterial count on your cell phone.  This author took the test and the answer was 1,168,000 germs on my cell phone.  Here is a link to try the quiz for yourself:  How many germs live on your cell phone? Quiz – The Oatmeal

Highly Sophisticated

The technology that makes touch panels on phone and tablets work is beyond the scope of this article.  The surface we need to clean is glass with a special oleophobic (oil repellant coating) applied to it.  The purpose of this coating is to prevent the build up of body oils from the continuous touching of the surface.  This coating does wear off over time, but diminishing of the coating can be exacerbated when using harsh cleaning products.

What to Avoid when cleaning Cell Phone, Tablets or other Touch Screens.Someone holding a tablet computer

Avoid common household products that contain harsh ingredients.  That means avoiding the following:

Bleach based cleaners and disinfecting wipes:  One might be tempted to use a cleaner or disinfecting wipe containing bleach.  Don’t do this, bleach is a harsh chemical and a strong oxidizing agent.

Household Glass Cleaners Containing Ammonia or solvents: Ammonia and solvents are common in glass cleaners, avoid these products to maintain the performance of your device touch panel.

Household Vinegar or acidic cleaners:  Many people use vinegar as a cleaning agent, but contrary to popular belief, vinegar is not a great cleaner,  and like other acids, vinegar has a low pH that will reduce the life span of the specialized coating on your electronic device.

Sanitizing agents containing alcohol:   There are a number of popular sanitizers that contain high levels of alcohol.  Alcohol is a solvent and is not recommended for cleaning sensitive touch screens.  Watch for cleaners containing isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) or ethanol.

Watch this 2 minute video on how to clean your cell phone or tablet screen.


 The solution  to  Safely  Clean  Surfacespicture of Pink Splash Quart Bottle

Pink Splash is a glass, specialty and all surface cleaner designed to clean without harming sensitive surfaces.

  • Cleans safely with no streaking.
  • Removes greasy fingerprints.
  • Leaves surfaces more resistant to re-soiling.

Pink splash excels as a cleaner for glass, polycarbonates, mirrors, polished metals, granite and quartz countertops and much, much more.  Cleaned surfaces resist water spotting and annoying fogging.

picture of a person with a mask and one fogged eye glass lens

One lens cleaned with Pink Splash the other with regular glass cleaner.

Glasses Fogging?

Surfaces including eye and sunglass lenses cleaned with Pink Splash resist annoying fogging when wearing a mask.

Pink Splash is great for cleaning computer monitors, LCD and LED screens, including sophisticated OLED screens.  The cleaned surfaces are anti-static, so they avoid attracting dust and dirt.

Use Pink Splash to clean computer keyboards, appliance touch panels and much more.

It can also be used to clean all types of electronics since its pH neutral and free of harsh chemicals such as bleach, ammonia, vinegar, acids, alcohols and other solvent VOC´s.

Remember This:  While Pink Splash is a safer product that uses mild ingredients, you should never spray Pink Splash directly onto Cell Phones, Tablets, TV Screens or other surfaces, as you can run the risk of getting liquid into open ports.  Always spray a microfiber or other lint free cloth first.  Forget about paper towels, you will leave lint on the surface.

More information on Pink Splash

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Visit our website at multi-clean.com

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About us:  Multi-Clean is a 75 year old manufacturer of professional grade cleaning products.  Multi-Clean products are sold exclusively by authorized distributors throughout North America.

 

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  1. Tools Specialist Reply

    I agree that cellphone is one of the dirtiest objects that we touch every day. That’s why we should have to clean this regularly. Thank you for this article!

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