reflectors cleaning

“Rubbing alcohol” contains some oils, I believe, in order to not be as drying on the skin when used as - rubbing alcohol. 91% isopropyl is a better bet for leaving less residue. “Distilled water” that you normally buy in the store is rarely distilled, usually deionized, not bad but not as pure as truly distilled. You could probably boil some water and use the steam coming off it to go directly on the surface if it will tolerate the heat, or collect it to cool. Or you can exhale on the surface, the way we did for years to clean the surface of lenses. Relatively little residue.

anyone tried the ultrasonic cleaner usually for jewelry?

ive tried on mirrors but not on flashlight reflectors

those cleaners still needs you to dip it in water doesn’t it?
because it may leave watermark and in my mirrors it does leave watermark depending on how dirty it is

Several months before,I had seen a video here in BLF, showing a cleaning, plus shining, of a flashlight reflector, by some Russian guy.Remember it?
It was those days we talked about the quality of the GT reflector.
The guy who put the link,wrote that the Russian wanted $25.00 for this cleaning.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner and it works well on small reflectors where the factory vapor deposition process was done properly at the correct temperature. Your milage may vary with reflectors from really, really budget lights though.

I use medical grade 99% pure anhydrous alcohol which is often labeled Isopropanol at drug stores for cleaning larger reflectors and the primary mirrors of my telescopes.

A low budget hack if you don’t have an ultrasonic cleaner is to pop a fresh battery into a new battery powered toothbrush and dip the head of the turned on toothbrush into the Isopropanol bath the reflector is soaking in. The small amount of vibration from the brush head soon gets the fluid in the container moving in a manner that touchlessly scrubs the reflector surface until the battery runs down to zero juice.

It works!

The one thing you should avoid at your own risk is physically wiping the reflector surface with anything…yes, anything. Do Not Touch.

I use a spray for cleaning glasses. The dutch brand is Talba Glashelder AKA Seesoo. Unfortunately I could not find the chemical composition of the stuff. It comes in form of a small spray bottle. Spray the reflector until droplets are visible. Wait a (short) moment. Then poor destilled water down the reflector. Most of the water will disappear without a trace. Get rid of the rest by dry-waving the reflector. I won’t say it is perfect but it helps a lot when having a dusty reflector. Please avoid touching the surface of the reflector!

Guys,

Solution is very simple. It is LCD screen cleaning adhesive like this:

And someone mentioned no microfiber cloth? I disagree… There are different gradients of microfiber cloths.
If you are hunter use that kind of microfiber cloth we mostly use for cleaning of our expensive rifle scopes. Every serious manufacturer like Zeiss or Swarovski provides it.

So first blow all visible particles with air. Than lightly spray reflector and gently clean with super fine microfiber cloth (don’t use that one provided with LCD adhesive cause it is rough).

Same technique works for dirty aspheric lens.

For simple cleaning, a neutral detergent rinsed off with distilled (not de-ionised) water. When properly clean, the water will run off, no beading.

I use Teepol L (laboratory glassware detergent). http://teepol.co.uk/products/l.html

If no true distilled water is available, scrape some frost out of your freezer and melt it. It is pure H2O, sublimed.

For more contaminated reflectors, lenses etc. ROR fluid ROR Optics Cleaner - Residual Oil Remover - distributed by Newpro UK Ltd

It is basically dilute ammonia solution, with some stabilisers and magic ingredients. Ultra pure, no residues. I’ve tried making my own, but nothing like as good. Convenient and works so well.

Applied with ideally a PEC pad, https://photosol.com/products/pecpad/ These can also be used for cleaning digital camera sensors, with “Eclipse fluid” (actually analytical grade methanol).

Or a good microfibre lens cloth Amazon.co.uk

Do not use e.g. strongly caustic household detergents, thickened with salt, or strong alcohol, on aluminium reflectors, they can corrode them. Maybe not immediately, but the chemicals are not compatible.

Edit: Not for reflectors, but if you have something really grubby, a chemical/nuclear decontamination fluid such as Decon 90 works wonders: http://www.decon.co.uk/english/decon90.asp

lol i found that the hard way. :person_facepalming:

I use a microfiber cloth that I got for cleaning glasses. It does not scratch reflectors. I just blow air from my mouth on the reflector and use the cloth for any remaining pieces of dust. I wait to wipe it until after any condensation from my breath evaporates.

For the lens, I spray Windex (glass cleaner) on both sides and wipe it clean with the same microfiber cloth. I then blow air on it to remove any dust, wipe it again, and repeat until all the dust is gone.

Then quickly assemble the reflector and lens and inspect to make sure I didn’t miss any dust before tightening everything up. If any specks of dust are discovered later, I’ll decide if it’s worth redoing since sometimes redoing it may make it worse.

Brillo pad :wink:

Microfiber cloth with almost no pressure works well for removing dust.
If there is something stuck to the reflector then this will definitely not work though.

Thanks for all the tips. :+1:

I can testify to this. Cleaned a 501 with one of those single use alcohol pads and it took all the chrome off it to the point it’s now brass. Red LED “walking light” that is mainly used as a toy by my son so I really don’t care.

I’ve used baby wipes before worked fairly well. I’d suggest getting the name brand wipes as there is a difference in cheap and name brand ones

Personally, I’d avoid wiping the reflector with ANYTHING. The coatings are extremely delicate. Any wiping at all is likely to do more harm than good.

I use a compressed air canister to blow off lose debris and beyond that leave it as-is.

If I really wanted to do more, I suppose maybe rinse it with distilled water. But absolutely no rubbing.

Pec-Pads (used for cleaning camera lenses and sensors) and gentle puffs of compressed air (from a compressor, not those aircans).

Go and buy the most expensive vodka you can afford and drink until all the smudges and streaks disappear . if they return … rinse and repeat .

Some years ago I asked this same question and was told to us compressed air so I went into my shop and grabbed my air compressor nozzle and gave my reflector a quick blast and did the most spectacular job of spraying water all over the reflector.
Hadn’t heard of cans of compressed air yet, I’ve never have made that mistake twice and I always drain my air compressor regularly, ha ha

Because I pissed off cleaning reflects, I stopped buy lights with bad sealing.
Mostly Convoy lights are not dust proof.
Prefer TIR optics and for reflector one buying some more expensive brands like Olight, Nitecore, etc.
Some Astrloux lights like ft02s, ec03, ea01s also has good sealing.