Realized I'd been cleaning old CRT monitor screens wrong for years

I always used Windex on my old Sony Trinitron from 1998. Last week my buddy saw me do it and just shook his head. He told me the ammonia eats away the anti-glare coating over time. Sure enough I looked at it in the right light and there's these cloudy streaks all over the place. Anybody else wreck a vintage screen before figuring out they should just use distilled water?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray_williams1mo ago

I heard this from an old AV guy who used to work at a TV station. He said they kept a spray bottle of 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and distilled water for cleaning monitors, and nothing else. The alcohol dries fast so it doesn't soak into anything, and it doesn't leave streaks. I tried it on my old Dell monitor and it worked way better than any cleaner I'd bought at the store. Just don't spray it right on the screen, put it on a microfiber cloth first.

jamesf291mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah I read some AV forum where a retired broadcast engineer swore by that same mix for CRT monitors back in the day.

kaigibson1mo ago

Man I read something about that same 50/50 mix idea, @ray_williams basically confirmed what I'd been wondering. Sucks that we didn't know sooner though, the ammonia really messes up that coating once it starts peeling.