# How do you clean CD's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2002, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965 "2002-06-26T03:28:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965/1 "2002-06-26T03:28:57Z")
I have several CD’s that accidentally got soda spilled on them. I took them out of the cases and dried them off. Is it OK to wipe them with a damp cloth? Are they ruined? Can they hurt my player if I try to play them. They really got soaked but the CD’s themselves dont look damaged. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965/2 "2002-06-26T03:38:54Z")
I use hand soap and wipe them with a cotton cloth from the inside to the outside. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965/3 "2002-06-26T03:41:16Z")
Don’t play them (yet). Wash them off under in the sink with warm water and dish soap. Then dry them with a lint free cloth wiping from inside to outside (as opposed to a circular motion). They should be ready to go after that. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965/4 "2002-06-26T04:17:40Z")
Use a Brillo pad, for that staccato “remix” effect 😉 Juuust kidding…there are kits you can buy for this at electronics stores. Pay attention to the “wipe form inside to outside, not in a circular motion” advice - that way the CD player’s error-correcting circuitry will have a fighting chance. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965/5 "2002-06-26T05:17:02Z")
and. if soap and water dont do the job. I HAVE gotten away with using rubbing alcohol - rinse throughly immediately, and dab dry. Yes, this also works on CD-R. Haven’t tried CD-RW. ---
**Author:** ![typhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@typhoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typhoon)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965/6 "2002-06-26T05:23:52Z")
This is a bit off-topic, but worth mentioning, I think: If you have a reasonably large hard drive, it’s also practical to back them up in either a lossy format like MP3 (you can get fairly high quality if you use a good encoder like LAME at a high rate) or a lossless one like SHN (absolute CD quality that you can convert to WAVs when you need to burn them, but you can’t really play them without burning them like you can with MP3 and the file size is much larger). ---
**Author:** ![Jenner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@Jenner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenner)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965/7 "2002-06-26T05:36:22Z")
If you can’t find a soft cotton cloth, a cotton ball will work just as well. Rinse the CD under warm water, put a dab of dish soap on the CD, wet a cotton ball, and polish away. Cotton balls work fairly well for drying too, although they tend to disintegrate and leave bits of cotton fibers stuck to the cd if you’re not careful. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-clean-cds/115965/8 "2002-06-26T15:37:16Z")
I just put them under the faucet & PAT dry with paper. don’t rub. someone told me I might get water stains but I don’t notice any.