Yellowing old consoles - The Solution (literally)

I used the liquid version of the developer instead of the creme, and while it probably wasn’t 100% as effective as the creme, it turned out Ok and avoided the blotches. Just something to consider for next time.

This is why I gave Oxyclean a shot this time. The creme works fast but I have a marbled US SNES now :scream:

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You mean custom?

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Uhhhmm yes. A rare limited edition in fact! :sweat_smile:

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Pics of the white spots?

Me or @FiZiX ?

My Dreamcast controllers and my Atari ST is starting to yellow. There are a ton of Oxi Clean products. What should I use?

Would this work?
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A rather long but interesting video on just using the Sun to remove yellowing:

He’s talked to a bunch of smart people (one is a Chemist that looks into plastic degradation issues for GE Global research) in researching this video.

I like that he cuts deep into some plastic keyboard keys to show how deep the yellowing goes (not deep at all) and tests how heat also affects yellowing. The heat, I think, would explain how a Dreamcast case I retro brightened re-yellowed within a few weeks despite being left in a cupboard.

Seems the downside is it takes a lot of time but no disassembly or making the plastic more brittle like with other retro bright methods. Also, it appears that the more you repeat the process the more resistant the plastic becomes to re-yellowing.

A UV blocking wipe was mentioned (only works on surfaces that have never yellowed) which could be a good way of preventing it on consoles that are still in good condition but I get the feeling it might leave a surface glossy?

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Really good video. I think I’ll leave some stuff out in the sun this summer.

I have a snes controller I’ll try out and post the results.

Can you give a few bullets to summarize?

Interested in what is said, but won’t have time to watch until later.

Very interesting video.

Unfortunately I think you will really need to live in a location that gets lots of strong direct UV from the sun for this to be viable without any additional peroxide help.

Warmth for sure affects plastics more than anything else. I had a nice white mechanical keyboard with no signs of yellowing that I put in my airing cupboard (which has a small boiler in it) and when I took it out it out of storage some weeks later it was very badly yellowed and had never seen any light at all.

I’ve had some good success using Jerome Russell Bblonde 40 volume 12% Peroxide though in one case the yellowing returned and the process had to be repeated.

Dreamcast modem BEFORE compared to my Japanese Dreamcast modem blanking plate :

AFTER a day coated with the above 12% Peroxide cream with light through my kitchen window:

Blue and Purple plastics tend to turn grey such as my Gamecube GBA Player:

But after same Peroxide treatment over 3 days:

My Hitachi CM802E VGA Monitor and old PC Stereo Speakers I picked up (since they have proper shielding in them) really need de-yellowing sometime so willing to try something new.

My main problem is I don’t have a safe outdoor area I can use to try using direct sunlight only.

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Yellowing is caused by combination of filtered UV-A, heat and fluorescent light (really not sure about that last one myself)

Deyellowing can be done by putting stuff in the sun to get unfiltered UV-A/B, prevention using LED lighting and anti-UV wipes.

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That’s the exact solution I’ve used with good results. I did have the lettering on a Super Famicom name plate start to come off which scared me a little but so far I’ve not had any marbling with the solution and technique.

Great results btw, it’s funny you posted those pics because I also have a purple cube that has gone grey-ish, good to know this will work on that too. Now to wait for the summer to hit England!

@matt thanks for the summary!

That would be good to see! he showed the results of leaving a yellowed piece of hardware out for 3-days but it looked like it could do with a little bit longer to me. Still, pretty decent results for such a relatively low effort.

Yeah the big thing about this method that’s nice, is you don’t have to disassemble the unit. I’ve got some old monitors that are nice and clean, but yellowed. Taking them apart would be a pain.

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I’ll give it a crack. We’re heading into winter soon but it’s still hot and sunny af most days.

Do we ever really get Summer in the UK?

Seen a fair few Blue (Euro/Americn) CPS2 B Boards for sale online that have turned grey. These things are stored away inside a cabinet, so again light is maybe not the most important factor in the discolouring of plastics. The amusing thing here though is that Asian CPS2 B boards are actually grey which are only compatible with the Asian CPS2 A board which can lead to some confusion.

Looking forward to seeing the results!

My badly yellowed Hitachi CM802E is in front of my window and should get a decent amount of (albeit filtered) light throughout this summer. May just wait and see if I can notice change over several months, before I resort to any other methods.

Are we really not going to comment about how aweome that dude’s retro setup is? Just look at it :heart_eyes:

The UV is very harsh here. Judging by toys my son leaves outside, my guess would be it’s just gonna turn stuff to brittle dust, so I’ll try it with something I don’t care much about first :sweat_smile: