How do you wash your LEGO... Seriously?

[DrJB]

Every now and then I stumble upon a rare set on eBay that ... I must have. Once it arrives, it must get 'sanitized'. What I do is, disassemble totally, immerse in hot water, and pour a generous amount of dishwasher soap on the parts, then I mix/stir the whole thing few times and let it 'bathe' overnight. The dishwasher soap has a tendency to 'eat-up' the dirt so, in general, no brushing is needed. I've 'read' some people throw the whole thing in a clothes washer ... but with small technic pieces, one needs a fine mesh bag of the sorts. This also applies to assembled sets that have been sitting on a shelf for some time and accumulated few microns of dust as well.

What 'technique' do you use ... and have found to work best?

Edited October 29, 2013 by DrJB

[Meatman]

I've washed them in a colander in the sink before with some mild soap. The old style technic bricks are really hard to clean once dust gets into the little holes in the stud. Another nice advantage of the new style Technic beams.

I've also heard of people putting their parts in a tube sock and knotting the open end and placing them in the washing machine with oxy clean, but I don't know if that is good for the edges of the parts. It would almost be like putting things in a rock tumbler to smooth them out.

[Blakbird]

Moving this to "LEGO General Discusssion".

[bobsir]

I had a cat who did a wee in my lego box a long time ago. My solution was warm water in a large container with dishsoap. After thoroughly moving the parts around with my hands underwater I dumped the container on a bedsheet placed on my lawn, and then let it dry . I don't think it smelled anymore after that

[tkatt]

I use the soapy warm water soak method, but I add a step. I fill up a stainless steel mixing bowl with a quart or two of Hydrogen Peroxide and after rinsing the soapy water from the pieces I put them in the Hydrogen Peroxide for about a minute. I then use a salad spinner to get most of the liquid off, then I put the pieces onto dishtowels for an hour or two until completely dry. I like the Hydrogen Peroxide for sanitizing and it dries without leaving water spots on the bricks. It doesn't seem to harm the plastic and actually tends to leave a nice shine that I don't get with water alone.

[Lakop]

Mild soapy water (washing liquid) let them soak then lay them out and dry with kitchen paper. Wash as and when required. I give some parts a good wipe with a soapy cloth when required.

H

[aol000xw]

For washing I use, hot water, dish soap, a brush and patience.

The Hydrogen peroxide is used in combination with sunlight to fix decoloration in old parts. I don't remeber exact times and dilutions, too much made the ABS brittle.

[WaysofSorting]

I had the same thing happen, but it was a dog - I washed the lot in in dishsoap, hot water, and dried it out. But, Sadness - I had some old 80's knights with the lion and crossed axes motifs on their chests. The gold chrome printing washed off many of them.

Could have been the heat. Could have been the soap. Could have been the urine. Or none of the above - they could have just been old.

I haven't heard of any problems washing very occasionally with soap and water - You'd assume normal play and handling is rougher than a wash (and they plan for that). Lego is Tough. Or resilient, at least. I recently bought a bin at a yardsale - lots of crushed, bent, broken pieces, odd warhammer bits and coins, sadly painted and ruined minifigs...and the worst part: it was like someone spilled a coke in there and let it sit in a super-hot attic for 15 years. The bottom layer lived in a thick sludge of gooey syrup mixed with petrified dust, hair, and the other stuff that always finds its way down to the bowels of the tupperware. But,some soap, water (lukewarm), and a slight case of "toothbrush-elbow" later, everything looks great. Some pieces were pitted a bit, and some seem stained forever. But I quite like the collection as is. The pieces have a history, albeit a dark one, and I'm happy to have them.

The more bricks the merrier.

[eurotrash]

My wife bought me a huge collection of second hand bricks that came from a home that must have had several dozen smoking cats.

I soaked them in batches in the sink using Dawn dish-soap and agitated them by hand and rinsed them. Then I used a sail bag (very fine mesh) and ran them through the washing machine on a cool wash setting (again in batches). Then I let them air dry. They came out tobacco and cat-pee free.

[BrickRally217]

Ok, first of all, it's Lego! Not Legos! Sorry, just had to say that..

I really don't have anything helpful, other than DON'T use a toothbrush! I decided to follow BrickQueen's method, using a toothbrush, and cleaned my Fire Brigade with it. There is now this white residue that can't come off easily on the roof of it !

Edited October 25, 2013 by BrickRally217

[splatman]

smoking cats.

I LOLed! I'm not sure I wanna see those Smoking Cats. Puffin' instead of purrin'.

@ BrickRally217:

What kind of toothbrush was it? I'm thinking a Soft TB would do it. Or Extra Soft, if there is such a thing.

The white "residue" might be micro-scratches from the brush bristles. Did you try scratching some off (maybe with a fingernail)?

If it was Firm (or whatever the term) it would be best for removing the offending S in the thread title.

Edited October 26, 2013 by splatman

[EternalBrick]

Ok, first of all, it's Lego! Not Legos! Sorry, just had to say that..

I really don't have anything helpful, other than DON'T use a toothbrush! I decided to follow BrickQueen's method, using a toothbrush, and cleaned my Fire Brigade with it. There is now this white residue that can't come off easily on the roof of it !

Did you use a new toothbrush? Dried toothpaste sticks horribly to everything. If you want to clean that off, put them under hot water and scrub vigorously with a new toothbrush. It should get most of the gunk off, and the plastic shouldn't be damaged by the brushing.

Edited October 26, 2013 by EternalBrick

[BrickRally217]

Did you use a new toothbrush? Dried toothpaste sticks horribly to everything. If you want to clean that off, put them under hot water and scrub vigorously with a new toothbrush. It should get most of the gunk off, and the plastic shouldn't be damaged by the brushing.

That must be the problem. I should have used my brain when following the tutorial, she said to use an old toothbrush. But thanks for the tip, I'll have to try that out.

Edited October 27, 2013 by BrickRally217

[legomaniac83]

If I come across some used bricks that have garnered a lot of dust, I get a bowl of hot soapy water (using dish soap), and use an old toothbrush to clean all in around the studs. It works super. The toothbrush i use was never used for brushing teeth - my wife used it for getting stains out of clothing.

After the bricks are cleaned I lay them out on a dish towel and let them air dry. It's time consuming, but works great.

[Cara]

I regularly buy second hand bricks and found that the colander and dish soap method was too time consuming when you have ten to twenty pounds of lego at a time. So now I do a bit of both. I separate the transparents and chromes or anything delicate out into a colander and I wash only that by hand.

The rest goes into these mesh washing bags These aren't net, they are really fine, nothings getting out of them and I've never had one break yet and they have an extra fabric tab and popper to pass through the big circular zip to keep it closed. They are from Bed Bath and Beyond, at two for $8 and if you use a $5 off $15 coupon that's four for $11. I fill them about 5 inches high, at a guess 2lbs of lego. Then into the washing machine they go with a regular (cold/warm) wash, I put them in with towels/bedding or any other laundry I have with whatever laundry detergent that I normally use. I prefer making sure the load is full so there isn't a lot of brick tumbling happening.

The only time I have to be careful is those boxes where the lego has lived with a pet that sheds hair. I blow the hair off it all before it enters the bag. This is one downside of having a fine mesh that no lego can escape from, pet hairs can't escape either. I even put most stickered pieces through the washing machine. The only ones that don't survive are the very old paper stickers. A plus side to washing in the washing machine is that the spin cycle gets the bricks almost completely dry, so you don't get that water sitting inside the brick cavity like you do with hand washing.

Edited October 27, 2013 by Cara

[czl663]

ultrasonic washer, like what you see in the glass shop.

it cleans the holes easily.

[badbob001]

For the occasional stain or mark, I wet a folded paper towel and add some baking soda on it. Then gently rub the stain in a circular motion. The slight abrasiveness of the baking soda really helps remove marks such as crayons or markers.

Also works great to remove crayon marks from walls.

[naf]

Some of my older Lego had a nice layer of dust and grime from sitting in my parent's basement for 20+ years. I simply put the bricks in a big plastic bin, added some dish soap and warm water, and let it sit for 4 hours, stirring the bricks every once in a while. Then I just rinsed using a colander - just be careful that you use one with small holes as pieces like round studs and technic pins tend to find their way through larger holes and then down the drain. Bricks came out looking very clean

[badbob001]

I just came across this project called Retr0Bright, which talks about restoring the color of ABS plastic via 'a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, a small amount of an “Oxy” laundry booster as a catalyst and a UV lamp'. Note that Retr0Bright is essentially a recipe and not a product you can simply purchase.

[TanTile]

I just came across this project called Retr0Bright, which talks about restoring the color of ABS plastic via 'a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, a small amount of an “Oxy” laundry booster as a catalyst and a UV lamp'. Note that Retr0Bright is essentially a recipe and not a product you can simply purchase.

I have been doing some research in this method, reading various forums... long story short, though they come out white when done in a few months they return to a yellow state again and turn out worse then they previously were ( Like the exposed area was yellowed but the rest that were covered was still white. Now after the treatment, the whole element had became yellowed)

I would like to see if this has happen to others that have tried it.

[ShaydDeGrai]

I don't tend to buy used Lego from unknown sources, so I've never felt the need to "sanitize" my Lego, but I do have MOCs and sets that I've had on display for more than two decades. Between cats, construction projects and just old fashioned household dust, they can look pretty dull after a while. To clear away normal dust build-up, my first choice is compressed air (either in an aerosol can or via a small compressor and an air brush). This has the advantage of getting into tight spots without having to take the model apart. When I "power dust" I usually run a vacuum at the same time in the direction that I'm blowing to prevent dust from redepositing but this is gentler on the model (and often more effective) than vacuuming it directly.

For really stubborn spots, I used to use alcohol based, spray-on tape-head cleaner (the kind they used to use in computer rooms for old 9-track back-up tape drives), but with the advent of cheap optical media, this is harder to find that these days. Now I make my own with isopropyl alcohol in my air brush - NOTE aerosolized rubbing alcohol is very flammable, do NOT try this at home without proper ventilation and keep the spray away from incandescent light bulbs and open flame. Alcohol is a natural solvent for all sorts of non-polar dirts, generally safe for ABS and PC and evaporates quickly and cleanly. I suppose this would be really tedious to clean individual parts this way, but it works well for assembled display models.

[naf]

I used the retr0brite formula about a year ago on my classic space and futuron sets after I rescued them. The blue, gray, and white pieces had started to yellow and discolor. After I used the method, they looked just like new, very bright with no yellow. I mixed the formula exactly as the instructions said, and had them under a UV lamp for 24 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure all surfaces were exposed to the light. A year later, they still look good with no sign of yellowing. YMMV but these are my results.

I also use this cyber clean putty to clean built lego. They call it a putty, but it has the consistency of a gel. You can push it into small crevaces and it will pick up dirt and grime. It's meant for cleaning computers, but it works great for lego: http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/326952/Cyber-Clean-Hi-Tech-Cleaning-Compound/?Channel=Google&mr:trackingCode=30ACC49F-6DF6-DE11-BAE3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=22395426956&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=20224360076&cm_mmc=Mercent-_-Googlepla-_-Technology+Computer_Tablet_Accessories-_-326952

[Pyropetepete]

I bought a set off eBay that's from the 1990's and has been used and on display. Is a little dirty. Could I was this. idea was to put all the parts into a bag called ''bra bag'', Google you'll see what one is. I can then put this into the wash say at 60c with some washing powder and sorted. Obviously only the bricks not motors or moving parts. Thanks

[Front]

I would do only 40 Degrees celsius. Using a machine might make scracthes and marks in the parts, but I have no experience myself. Check the general discussion section for a "washing thread".

[JTS]

This similar topic was moved to Lego General Discussion not so long ago.

I suggest this one follows suit.