Does anyone know how to clean the inside of a receiver?

[pancakeplease]

Its self explanatory I guess, open it and clean it but are there any special parts I shouldn't touch or clean with vinegar or alcohol, wet cotton, etc.?

I bought this receiver used and man, I dont know WTF is up with it. like the dude before me spilt some perfume or dropped some of that glade air fresh gels inside and it melted OR SOMETHING cause there's this perfume smell coming out of my receiver. Especially when I start using it and it gets hotter.. I placed the receiver under my table and the vents are right there under my nose and its giving me a ******* headache. I placed a ton of activated charcoal bags on top of the vent so the air coming out gets adsorbed by it but its not really helping. About to open this sucker and wipe it down.

Any thoughts? Seriously the perfume.. ugh. It's like a Lisa Frank notebook exploded in my receiver.

 

[Oldlistener50]

Do some reading online for "audio gear restoration"

I have read articles online by people who restore stereo gear and also ham radio gear. Believe it or not, they use cleaners such as simple green, a toothbrush or other small brush, and water. They essentially "hose them out" (light pressure water). When done, I think they just blow them dry (hair dryer?). Have seen some amazing before and after pics.

 

[j_garcia]

Sorry, any kind of liquid cleaner or water in an old receiver is just a, REALLY, REALLY bad idea in my book. I just used compressed air cans like you would use to clean a PC, some cotton swabs, maybe a swifer and some Deoxit on contacts.

 

[Oldlistener50]

Check this out

Identifying The Drake TR

Just something to read.. interesting!

 

[lsiberian]

I have read articles online by people who restore stereo gear and also ham radio gear. Believe it or not, they use cleaners such as simple green, a toothbrush or other small brush, and water. They essentially "hose them out" (light pressure water). When done, I think they just blow them dry (hair dryer?). Have seen some amazing before and after pics.

For dust use compressed air for anything else use alcohol(rubbing) not beer.

 

[Rickster71]

If it was only dust I'd use compressed air. Your perfume problem will need compressed air first, then a damp sponge soaked in baking soda and water.
Even though circuit packs are washed off during the manufacturing process, I wouldn't spray water and soak it.
You want to avoid getting water in the transformer, switches and volume controls.
Depending on how bad the smell is, you may want to leave it plugged in and on out in the garage for a while.

 

[sawzalot]

Plug it in.. Plug it in.... sorry couldn't resist
I would steer clear of the water approach as well, compressed air and dampened swabs/swatches, gently we go slow and steady, when dry leave the cover off and fire er up and let the remaining residues fade (burn) away, good luck.

 

[highfigh]

Unplug it, remove the cover and spray denatured alcohol or tuner cleaner on the surfaces, then use a cheap natural bristle paint brush to scrub the circuit board(s), blotting the bristles dry with paper towels. Repeat, then use a blow dryer or small fan to dry everything. Since it's open, you might as well clean all of the controls and switches, too. Once it's dry, put the cover on and try it.

BTW- perfume often has a high alcohol content, so this will remove most types.

This worked when someone I know spilled a beer into his wife's Sansui receiver while it was on in about '86. It still works fine, which is amazing since it's a Sansui R series receiver.

 

[Rickster71]

If it's an older receiver with a single sided brown circuit board that doesn't have solder mask, the smell is going to soak in.
That's why I suggested the water and baking soda.
You need something that will neutralize the perfume.

 

[pancakeplease]

Okay guys, i bought some activated charcoal.. like an assload of it and left it inside the receiver (contained of course) and the smell isnt going away. The perfume smell gets worse as the receiver is ON and heated.



Is THIS the culprit? I think it is but when I smell it up close it doesn't smell for some reason and I don't want to be scraping off some "heat" or "thermal" glue.

What is that goo crap. That's where the smell originates from but it's a little weird that the closer I get, the smell is harder to detect. but from the looks of it, that doesn't look normal to have that goo plastered on the metal like that. I tried wiping it off with vinegar and water and a papertowel but it won't budget.. its gel-ed on. It'll come off if I scrape gently with a knife or sandpaper. But I came rushing here to make sure I'm not doing some permanent damage by removing some "essential" glue.

Opened:

Look at the metal block (magnetic something, super heavy.. it's like 10lbs no joke) on the right:

Close up of that goo stuff:

Another angle:

Someone clue me in here Asap! The smell is causing my head to spin.

 

[Alex2507]

Try Goof Off. It's a citrus solvent. You don't want to get it in anything but it should loosen up the bulk of the goo and then you can get the hard to reach spots with a Q-Tip. I'm not sure if it will work better than denatured alcohol but I think Home Depot will carry both, the denatured alcohol for sure.

If all else fails throw a dead fish in there.

First you have to be sure that the yellow stuff is the source of the funk.

 

[pancakeplease]

Try Goof Off. It's a citrus solvent. You don't want to get it in anything but it should loosen up the bulk of the goo and then you can get the hard to reach spots with a Q-Tip. I'm not sure if it will work better than denatured alcohol but I think Home Depot will carry both, the denatured alcohol for sure.

If all else fails throw a dead fish in there.

First you have to be sure that the yellow stuff is the source of the funk.

I seriously cannot tell if the yellow goo is the source of the smell. When I scrape the goo off and smell it, it triggers a gag reflex I swear I'm going to barf. And I'm not the type to barf at anything. It has a very weird smell to it. It doesn't smell like the perfume though so I dont know if it's giving off that perfume smell only when its heated up or if it's just a completely different issue altogether.


I'm going to leave it on and leave it "doing work" by hooking up a DVD player to it without any speakers and leave it on for a few days in the garage. I dont think it'll overheat, it's cold outside anyway.

 

[Alex2507]

I seriously cannot tell if the yellow goo is the source of the smell. When I scrape the goo off and smell it, it triggers a gag reflex I swear I'm going to barf.

What does the goo taste like?

I don't think you want to be baking it on there any more than it already is. Removing it with a solvent from the cover on the power supply sounds like the way to go to me.

 

[pancakeplease]

Lol it smells really sweet but also like puke. Like sweet puke it makes me want to throw up.

I tried cleaning it with vinegar and it doesn't scrape off. I put it outside in the garage and had it running with a DVD player for the past few hours and I can be 100% certain that it is coming from that region. The entire other side has no smell, the fragrance is coming from the isolated region where the metal box (the transformer?) is located. And by my reasoning, I have to say it's probably the damn goo. It doesn't smell like the fragrance but I guess it might be a different ordeal when it gets heated. Which brings me to question, WTF did the guy do the receiver to get that crap on there?

tmw, i'm going to open it back up yet again for the 5th time and try to see if the smell/texture of the goo changes when the receiver's been on for a while and its heated. And then take some sandpaper or goo gone and get to work.

 

[Rickster71]

The more I look at the pictures...it's looks like nicotine staining.
Before I jump to any conclusions though. Can you see the inside of the cover vents above that transformer? Is there a trace of that stuff dripping down onto the transformer, to indicate it was a spill?
You want to be careful and not use anything that will damage the coating on your transformer windings.
Either way you'll need a non-residue degreaser spray for electronics.
Try somewhere like Radio shack.
Do this with it unplugged...I'm sure you knew that.

 

[Alex2507]

[/QUOTE]

It's on the cover and transformer but not on the platform the transformer sits on. It looks like that crust the windings have on them. Somehow I doubt puking up sherry wine would be that controlled. Trust me on this.

The OP can probably taste that smell as he reads this but he does have himself the beginning of a nice garage system. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode of the smelly car.

The other place to look is down in that extruded aluminum heat sink. It heats up as well and has lots of surface area for a film residue to live on. Looking at the underside of the cover as Rick suggests would give you an indication of where exactly the multi colored yawn might have been concentrated. I still say go with Goof Off or denatured alcohol. Vinegar doesn't work the same way.

 

[j_garcia]

Vinegar usually does a good job of cleaning things, but it also leaves its own smell, one that I don't like either. I agree with denatured alcohol or similar, such as some type of electronics cleaner from Caig.

 

[Oldlistener50]

I'm thinking nicotine too..

that transformer probably gets hot, so it would tend to liquefy any lying on it. I bet there's a vent right over the transformer too, so the polluted air would go inside and lay right on the transformer.

 

[pancakeplease]

haha yes! this entire time I was thinking the Seinfeld episode with the B.O. car. The "thing" that will not go away.

So I opened this badboy up and unscrewed the transformer from the casing, unhooked the wiring and pulled out the transformer. Not a drop of goo on the casing, underside or anywhere else. Based on how the goo looks like it was applied on, it would seem like if something was spilled from the top it'd be all over other stuff like the adjacent circuit board and on the floor casing. But its not.

I googled "Denon receiver inside" and also "denon transformer" and then did a eBay search for a Denon AVR-2800 transformer thinking maybe it may be just easier picking up a used transformer for cheap. Well, to my surprise, it LOOKS like this one also has some yellow goo on it.

I emailed the seller cause he seemed to know what he's talking about and I asked if there's some kind of goo on the transformer or if it's just the reflection in the picture and his email response was : "Yes, that is insulating and structure stabilizing resin covered on the Transformer body. It is normal, and applied in transformer manufacturing."



Soo..... I guess it's normal then. I did scrape off some of the resin with my knife on the top but not enough to make a difference, that sucker was hard to get off. I'm glad I didn't take my sandpaper to it and sand it all off. lol




I guess i'm back to square one. This is all getting tricky, this puzzle.. that eats at my brain mentally and physically (from the fumes). Based on facts, the smell does originate right from the area where the transformer is. The other side of the Denon does not emit a smell. The smell gets stronger as the unit heats up or is left ON. Perhaps it's just the previous owners glade air freshener or something like that that got absorbed into the unit and now, it's blasting it full force when heated up. I did wipe down the entire casing and some parts of the circuit board and the heatsink with vinegar soaked paper towels but the smell is... of course, still there!


My next solution: Leave it on all day connected to a DVD player (no speakers. So it's processing something and heating up). Put a fan on top of the vent opening. Place a bag of activated charcoal on top of the vents. Do this for a week or two. Or however long it takes. I have no idea if it'll work though. lol