Does anyone know why television manufactures would warn against using glass cleaners like Windex on the tubes?
They may contain chemicals or abrasives that can affect the antireflection coating on the face of the tube. Pretty unlikely, but possible; they’re covering their a**. I use 5% or 10% isopropyl alcohol(IPA) and have never had a problem. IPA is the major consituent, if not the only constituent, of the products sold as screen cleaners.
I repaired TVs for years and never heard that you shouldn’t use windex.
My old tv repair manual says"For cleaning purposes use any nonabrasive glass cleaner and wipe with a soft,grit free cloth."
There may be plastic coatings on todays pix tubes that could be affected by certain chemicals but I think windex is mostly alcohol ,water and a little bit of soap.
I asked the same thing about computer screens here.
I use it, works fine. Spray it on the cloth not on the tv.
Contains ammonia. stinks.
Whenever I spray Windex on my TV, there’s a large halo area in the middle of the glass that repels all the liquid. Why does my TV do that?
Because of the negative electrical charge of the Phosphor coating, required to provide suffient difference of electrical potential ( about 45,000 volts’ worth) to attract the electrons from the color guns. Turn the TV off before you clean the tube, Einstein.
Do not spray anything on a CRT, not even when it is turned off. Some of the spray mist can float down into the vent slits on top of the back of the picture tube and get the 45kV circuitry wet. I realize that it isn’t necessarily dangerous if you’re careful where you spray, but you never know… A friend of mine at a previous job was spraying his monitor with some kind of aerosol cleaner and some of it got inside and the monitor burst into flames right in front of him. If you must clean your screen then spray the solvent only on your dust-rag, not on the screen.
Good post SarumanRex, but the 45KV potential is inside a rubber cap at the top of the DRT about 4" bach from the anterior face.
Spraying ISP or windex on a cloth is a better idea, but if you must spray it on the screen, make sure none runs off the screen before you wipe it.
It is off when I clean it.
You know what? Just skip using it & use distilled water on a rag, does the same thing.