Phone & Computer Cleaning Kit Instructions

Follow these Instructions to get Phones and Computers Clean... FASTER than you ever thought possible!

The best way to get repeat customers is to make sure they get the best product possible, and if it looks as good as it works, they're going to buy from you again.

NEW General Telephone Cleaner

NEW General Telephone Cleaner is a concentrated detergent-based cleaner that will clean ballpoint ink and remove dirt from plastic surfaces without damaging them! Some cleaners (and brushes/cloths) are not safe to use on plastics. They’ll break down the glaze on the plastic as you scrub (you can use our Telephone Polish to shine it up).

Use NEW General Telephone Cleaner in a spray bottle with a nice size trigger (that won't hurt your finger). These are available at any drug or hardware store. We also have a Universal Trigger Sprayer that you can use right in the NEW General Telephone Cleaner or Lemon Tape & Label Remover bottles. Cut it to the right length for that bottle.

Spray the phone or computer equipment lightly, making sure you don't spray where the liquid will drip into the hookswitch, speaker or other openings.

I normally remove all the paper desis while I'm spraying. If you don't remove the desis it will take you longer to clean the phone. It will look very bad if the desis get wet and you don't replace them. Remove the desis!

1. Let the cleaner work on the dirt for about 30 seconds (SECRET #1).

2. Use the Magic Brush to clean all of the surfaces and crevices on the phone (SECRET #2).

Our Magic Brush works great. The secret is the bristles - they're soft enough so they don't scratch the plastic, but firm enough to get the dirt off the plastic and get into the crevices and holes that are on every phone and computer.

After using the Magic Brush, wipe the plastic with a soft cloth or paper towel, just wiping the dirt off instead of scrubbing it off - since the dirt has been loosened by the Cleaner and the Brush.

The best supermarket paper towel I've found for cleaning plastic is Job Squad. Make sure you use a soft towel that won't scratch the plastic (very noticeable on black or dark colors). Keep in mind that all of our Cleaners are specially formulated to clean the phone without breaking down the glaze on the plastic, like many other cleaners will do.

On lighter colored plastics you shouldn't have to polish it. It should shine like new if the glaze hasn't been damaged.

To clean keyboards, make sure they're unplugged and spray lightly. Use the Magic Brush. Foam type Q-Tips (for cosmetics) also work well. You can also use a towel moistened with the General Telephone Cleaner, being careful to keep the liquid from dripping into the keyboard. Don't plug in the keyboard until it’s dry!

CLEANING CORDS...

If you have a modular replacement cord of the proper color, it's usually cheaper and easier than cleaning the cord. If the cord isn't modular or is an oddball color that you can't match easily, the NEW General Telephone Cleaner works great. I usually put a lot on a towel, then wipe it down the cord to get it wet.

After 30 seconds, I go back and wipe it down again once or twice. This usually works great on either straight or coiled cords. I’ve gotten good (and fast) at putting the coils back on coiled cords after cleaning. Dick Lavender from The Phone Shoppe in Michigan suggests putting a wooden dowel rod down the middle of the cord, then wiping the cord.

Another alternative is a 50/50 mix of NEW General Telephone Cleaner and water in a large Tupperware type container or a pail. Let the cords soak overnight and wipe them clean. Be sure to cover the container to prevent evaporation. If you keep the container sealed, you should be able to reuse this mix for quite a while. You have to let the modular ends dry out before using the cords! Note that nothing will get ink out of the cords, but this will get the dirt off.

NEW Glazit Telephone Polish

This stuff is like magic!

Telephone Polish works great on black and dark plastics, both shiny and textured. The Magic Brush works great with the Polish. Buy a Can Gun at your local hardware store, which has a big trigger that makes it easy on your finger if you're doing lots of phones.

Spray the plastic, let it sit for 20 seconds which lets the cleaner in the Polish work, then wipe it down with a soft cloth.

If you need to polish phones that are really scratched or discolored, we also have an expensive Buffing Wheel that runs at 1800 RPM so it won’t melt the plastic, along with Cloth Buffs, and Tripoli and Rouge abrasives.

Lemon Tape & Label Remover

A lot of phones and computers have labels stuck to them!

Removing every trace of the label is easy with Lemon Tape & Label Remover, and it won't damage the plastic (break down the glaze) like other chemicals will.

Soak the label with Lemon Tape & Label Remover, and let it sit for 30 seconds.

Tear off the top layer of the label, or the whole thing if you can. You want to get the Lemon Tape & Label Remover into the adhesive part of the label. It may take a couple of applications, and the Magic Brush works great for removing labels that won't come off clean

Fingernails also come in handy, as well as the scraper end of our Magic Brush, or a little plastic pot scraper that won't damage the plastic.

Store Lemon Tape & Label Remover in the metal can – it will cause plastic bottles to "suck in."

Lemon Tape & Label Remover can be diluted by putting 4 ounces in a gallon of water. Lemon Tape & Label Remover is a citrus based product that will also clean plastics without damaging them. This citrus cleaner will actually remove some types of sticky dirt that nothing else will!

Magic Glass & Utility Cleaner

This is one of the most amazing cleaners I've ever seen!

It probably cleans plastic a little faster than our NEW General Telephone Cleaner, but since it's an aerosol can, it's more expensive to use.

It does an amazing job on anything around an office, including KSUs and computers. The first time I tried it, I just wiped the black stuff that had been accumulating around my monitor screen off in one wipe.

It also works great on glass. It really doesn't leave streaks!

It's also the best cleaner for car and boat vinyl tops I've ever seen. Really amazing stuff.

Vandal Mark Remover

THIS STUFF IS DANGEROUS! Use it at your own risk!

KEEP VANDAL MARK REMOVER HIDDEN IN A DESK DRAWER!

You don't want someone grabbing this can and spraying a phone, figuring that it's a regular cleaner. It will absolutely melt the plastic on the phone. It will take anything off of anything that's not real porous.

We use it to get permanent marker off the bottoms of telephones, KSU cabinets, House Boxes, 66 Blocks, and even station jacks (I'm cheap, so I don't throw much of anything away!). Don't forget about our unique 66 Block Wire Remover Tool, which makes it easy to recover old blocks.

Even if you're not cheap, it's great for when you made a mistake at the top of a row of 66 Blocks, and you need to fix a lot of blocks (Don't spray it where the punchings are, since this could change the electrical properties of the plastic and give you problems you'd never find).

Vandal Mark Remover works great for removing permanent marker off the bottom of phones or computers where someone has written... BAD.

It's hard to sell something that you fixed, that still says BAD on it!

Vandal Mark Remover will remove the printing off some labels, but most computer equipment has labels with a clear coating over the printing. If someone wrote BAD on that type of label, the Vandal Mark Remover will never get to the printing and won't damage the clear coating. Just spray a little Vandal Mark Remover on a paper towel and wipe the BAD right off!

NOTE: It EATS UP PLASTIC immediately, so DON'T spray it on phones or computers that you like! If you spray it on the phone, you can actually wipe off a layer of plastic with a paper towel. It ends up looking like the skin dripping off a monster's face in a horror movie. Because it takes off a layer of plastic, it does take the yellowing out of a phone, but you'd have to do a lot of buffing to get it smooth.

We tried buffing yellowed phones in our shop and stopped it after a day. It's real messy and time consuming, because you have to take off so much plastic to get below the yellowing.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THE BURNISHING TOOL FOR CLEANING

If you have a dial or any type of key that is sticking (from Coke etc.), use our Burnishing Tool and a little Telephone Polish to get between the button and the frame around the button, to clean out the gook. This is much easier than taking the dial pad apart to clean it the right way. It works about 80% of the time, and I usually do it in the field, right on the customer's desk (put some newspaper or cardboard down first!).

Don't use the Burnishing Blade for cleaning contacts after cleaning out Coke! The Pen Type Burnishing Tool comes with extra Blades in the body (remove the screw-on metal cap).

A more traditional use of the burnishing tool is to clean the contacts on relays and switches. Put the tool between the contacts and operate the switch or relay by hand to provide pressure on the contact while you move the burnishing tool in and out (like a file). The burnishing tool has a very fine abrasive on it, so it only removes oxidation, not metal. Use it on the contacts on the backs of dials, on hookswitches (like 2500's, 1A2 & Merlin), on 1A2 line keys, and relays when you can get the plastic covers off.