Suggestions for cleaning cables to remove odor?

[Diego]

I recently bought some long lengths of used Vampire Wire CC Series interconnect cables. When I brought them in the house, I noticed a strong odor on the cables. I'm not very good at describing smells, but I would say it's kind of a mix of a smoke and chemical smell. It's possible it's cigarette smoke from a previous owner. I've also found a few forums that say odors can come from off gassing during the initial use of cables. Vampire Wire is out of business, but I found a forum that lists the specs of this cable as follows: "This interconnect has a 20 Gauge, 154 strand OFC center conductor, a polyethylene dielectric, a braided 95% RF shield in a 105 degree PVC jacket and is terminated with Vampire's #557 gold plated male RCA connect". Any suggestions on how to clean the cable to remove the odor and not damage the jacket in the process?

 

[Swerd]

Wash the PVC jacket with soapy water, nothing fancy. If it's cigarette smoke, it will come right off.

Don't use anything stronger, like alcohol, acetone (any other organic solvent), or bleach.

If that doesn't work, put them in sunshine for a few hours.

 

[highfigh]

Wash the PVC jacket with soapy water, nothing fancy. If it's cigarette smoke, it will come right off.

Don't use anything stronger, like alcohol, acetone (any other organic solvent), or bleach.

If that doesn't work, put them in sunshine for a few hours.

If it's cigarette smoke, it will probably need to be cleaned again- that crap leaches out over time- I have cleaned more than my share of things that were covered with the remnants of smoke and if it's plastic or rubber, it's hard to eliminate. Ozone does work, though.

 

[highfigh]

I recently bought some long lengths of used Vampire Wire CC Series interconnect cables. When I brought them in the house, I noticed a strong odor on the cables. I'm not very good at describing smells, but I would say it's kind of a mix of a smoke and chemical smell. It's possible it's cigarette smoke from a previous owner. I've also found a few forums that say odors can come from off gassing during the initial use of cables. Vampire Wire is out of business, but I found a forum that lists the specs of this cable as follows: "This interconnect has a 20 Gauge, 154 strand OFC center conductor, a polyethylene dielectric, a braided 95% RF shield in a 105 degree PVC jacket and is terminated with Vampire's #557 gold plated male RCA connect". Any suggestions on how to clean the cable to remove the odor and not damage the jacket in the process?
View attachment 54290

I would wipe the plugs, let them dry and cover them with tape before wetting the jacket with a cleaner like Simple Green, ZEP, SuperClean, etc. Those are all very good cleaners, but with cigarette smoke, they will have a fight.

If you hate the odor from this kind of smoke, wear rubber gloves & old clothes and clean them outside. If you have full Sun, use it to your advantage.

 

[WookieGR]

Wash the PVC jacket with soapy water, nothing fancy. If it's cigarette smoke, it will come right off.

Don't use anything stronger, like alcohol, acetone (any other organic solvent), or bleach.

If that doesn't work, put them in sunshine for a few hours.

Are you sure that's a good idea? They are vampire cables after all.

 

[j_garcia]

Looks to be clear PVC. If it was cigarettes, smoke tar will have embedded into it and will leach out over time as mentioned. Not sure there's a solid way to 100% clean them. Those don't appear to have residue on them though.

Those PVC sleeves tended to smell just on their own (hard to tell without smelling them lol) with that sort of rubber-like smell and it should slightly diminish over time.

 

[Verdinut]

Are you sure that's a good idea? They are vampire cables after all.

And you always have to keep the lights on in the room.

 

[highfigh]

Are you sure that's a good idea? They are vampire cables after all.

Do it at night?

 

[highfigh]

Looks to be clear PVC. If it was cigarettes, smoke tar will have embedded into it and will leach out over time as mentioned. Not sure there's a solid way to 100% clean them. Those don't appear to have residue on them though.

Those PVC sleeves tended to smell just on their own (hard to tell without smelling them lol) with that sort of rubber-like smell and it should slightly diminish over time.

They may have been clear PVC.

 

[lovinthehd]

If the smell won't come out you might be able to get a covering that will seal it in perhaps. I've had some cabling have an odor on first use but not persisting....curious, did the previous owner warn you of the odor? Good luck on eliminating it.

 

[Verdinut]

The situation really depends on which distance he is going to sit from the cables. I doubt that he would smell them at an 8 foot distance.

 

[Diego]

Thanks to all who replied. No warning from the previous owner about the odor. And yes, it's quite possible I won't notice the odor after I run most of the length under the floor in my crawl space, with two 3 foot ends above the floor behind two cabinets. But obviously cleaning them becomes a lot harder after I place them, so I'll give it a shot. I'll try the sunshine suggestion as well, although that's in short supply this time of year in Seattle.

 

[Eppie]

Thanks to all who replied. No warning from the previous owner about the odor. And yes, it's quite possible I won't notice the odor after I run most of the length under the floor in my crawl space, with two 3 foot ends above the floor behind two cabinets. But obviously cleaning them becomes a lot harder after I place them, so I'll give it a shot. I'll try the sunshine suggestion as well, although that's in short supply this time of year in Seattle.

After you clean the surface, coil them up in a container with baking soda. It absorbs odours and will not harm the PVC jacket. You can also make a mild cleaner with baking soda, liquid soap and a bit of vinegar (recipes are on the web).

 

[BMXTRIX]

Or, you can just toss them and pick up some new Monoprice RCA cables instead...

Monoprice 25ft Premium 2 RCA Plug/2 RCA Plug M/M 22AWG Cable - Black - Monoprice.com

Despite the introduction of more advanced audio and video signal cables, such as HDMI and Toslink, most audio and a large number of video connections still use the common RCA connector.This is a premi

www.monoprice.com

Make sure you test the cables you purchased before putting them in place. You have no idea how used cables were treated over the years, so double check that they work.

Companies like the one you purchased from have largely gone out of business because they mainly sold snake-oil products at ridiculous prices.

 

[highfigh]

Thanks to all who replied. No warning from the previous owner about the odor. And yes, it's quite possible I won't notice the odor after I run most of the length under the floor in my crawl space, with two 3 foot ends above the floor behind two cabinets. But obviously cleaning them becomes a lot harder after I place them, so I'll give it a shot. I'll try the sunshine suggestion as well, although that's in short supply this time of year in Seattle.

If you'll be running them under the floor, you don't need to clean the whole length, other than to prevent getting the funk on you.

 

[}Fear_Inoculum{]

Take off into orbit, and Nuke them from space. It's the only way to be sure.....

 

[Pogre]

Or, you can just toss them and pick up some new Monoprice RCA cables instead...

Monoprice 25ft Premium 2 RCA Plug/2 RCA Plug M/M 22AWG Cable - Black - Monoprice.com

Despite the introduction of more advanced audio and video signal cables, such as HDMI and Toslink, most audio and a large number of video connections still use the common RCA connector.This is a premi

www.monoprice.com

Make sure you test the cables you purchased before putting them in place. You have no idea how used cables were treated over the years, so double check that they work.

Companies like the one you purchased from have largely gone out of business because they mainly sold snake-oil products at ridiculous prices.

This is exactly what I was thinking. If they smell that bad just replace them. It shouldn't cost a lot to replace those cables.