ASK HERE How to clean your LEGO sets/parts?

[SuvieD]

Try a moist soft bristle tooth brush (old ones you should throw away work well). If they are really dirty or have stuck on goo try soaking in the hottest tap water you can and then laying them out on a towel to dry flipping them every hour or so. Using a fan helps too.

[BerndDasBrot]

I use the washing machine. put all bricks into a pillowcase (not to much), tie a knot and one hour with 30

[metalandi]

Thanks for the answers! It doesn't matter that you don't know the english word for it, cause i'm from austria, too. :-D

unfortunately i don't have a washing machine, so i'll try it with the manually cleaning.

[BerndDasBrot]

Thanks for the answers! It doesn't matter that you don't know the english word for it, cause i'm from austria, too. :-D

unfortunately i don't have a washing machine, so i'll try it with the manually cleaning.

ahh, sehr gut... verywellverywell...

Strictly speaking I don't own a washing machine too. But my mother does... :-)

I'll recieve the 8848 Power Truck tomorrow and I expect it will feature a lot of dust, so I could record the washing process if you're interested!

Edited February 17, 2008 by BerndDasBrot

[metalandi]

Yeah, that would be great! I hopefully will get the 6086 and 6081 castles on ebay today, and expect some dust on them too when i receive them. So it for sure will be helpful.

[BerndDasBrot]

Okay, I recieved, washed and build the 8848.

Now I shall show the cleaning-process of 8828 and 8848:

#0. WARNING!

- You might lose some parts in your washing machine if the knot's not firm or your bags got holes!

- You might melt your bricks if you wash them too hot. (I suppose.)

- You might destroy electric or pneumatic parts and stickers! Wash those bricks by hand.

- You might get CLEAN bricks.

#1. Prepare a pillow case or a woolen bag. WITHOUT holes!

#2. Fill in the bricks. Remember: Not too much, so the bricks can move easily while spinning.

#3. Tie a knot. Remember: the bricks should move easily while spinning.

#4. Assure that there

Edited February 21, 2008 by BerndDasBrot

[natelite]

one thing to note though - and this was from my experience so it's accurate - please be safe and wash any chrome printing or chrome plated parts by hand using mild soap and lukewarm water. i have a couple of printed scale mail, breast plates, and very likely crusader axes/lions torsos faded during bulk washing, and i have my share of destroyed chrome gold coins that were not sorted prior to bulk washing.

[Asuka]

Thanks, Bernd. *y* :-D

Rub your Lego.... so on! :-$ *sweet*

[voxel]

Hi!

I've also used the pillowcase method in the washing machine.

Rather than using an extra blanket, I fill the machine with normal laundry and use a normal washing program at 30 or 40

[BerndDasBrot]

thanks!

This will take some time

You're right BUT usually I've waited so long (an hour!) for the bricks to be washed, so I'm really impatiently and want to build the new model as fast as possible. X-D

[legotrainfan]

I usually wash my bricks by hand. This is a long and exhausting work. I'm hesitant to put bricks into the washing machine. I am afraid that long plates (e.g. 1x8 or 2x16) might easily break or be twisted. I used to put standard bricks and plates in the same box. When the plates were closer to the bottom of the box, the whole weight of the other bricks was on them. And so some plates were - some a bit more some a bit less - twisted. :-( This could also happen in the washing machine when you put too many bricks in there.

[BerndDasBrot]

I can understand that, but nothing ever happend - up to the present ;-)

Edited February 21, 2008 by BerndDasBrot

[WhiteHexagon]

hmm, I like the idea of the washing machine, but don't really fancy to dismantle each house in my village for that special treatment. And I dont know about putting the thing in whole ;) Anyway my buildings are getting dusty and also somehow attracting black streaks across the walls.

The dust is easy to remove, I use a hover hose with a sock over the end!... yes I did once mange to hover a couple of lose bricks the first time I tried that, but the sock does a nice jog of capturing them before it's too late.

The brick streaks seem more of a problem, they wipe away easily but it's very time consuming. I wonder if it's candle smoke or something getting statically attracted to the bricks. It seems fine enough to be smoke particles.

Peter

[BerndDasBrot]

hmm, I like the idea of the washing machine, but don't really fancy to dismantle each house in my village for that special treatment. And I dont know about putting the thing in whole ;)

yeah. I've got so many Sets smelling like attic AND smoke, all together little town sets (up to 50 parts each).

I can't get that done, so I decided to wash the new sets I've bought and to do the rest when I'm retired... X-D

[CP5670]

Dust is a major problem for me but it (usually) comes off okay without having to wash stuff. For assembled models, I use some cotton dust brushes and sometimes a vacuum cleaner. It occasionally sucks a part in but I can retrieve it from the bag easily. If the bricks aren't part of a model, rubbing them on a carpet also removes the dust very well.

Dirt or other stuff isn't much of an issue for me, so I just wash them by hand since there are generally only a handful of bricks that are affected. It would be impractical for built models anyway. I also sometimes use a metal polish like Brasso to remove fine scratches, especially on transparent pieces.

Edited February 22, 2008 by CP5670

[soy ?]

this is a great topic, thanks for starting it metalandi. i have never thought about using the washing machine, but i would be a tad bit hesitant to do that. what i have been doing and what seems to work fairly well is to but the bricks in a bag of very hot water (as high as the water temp in the faucet can go) and swoosh them around for a while. afterwards remove the bricks, place them in a tub filled with hot soapy water (as hot as your hands can take), get a large paintbrush with soft bristle and rub each brick with the bristles and soon enough the bricks will come out clean. lastly place the bricks on a table or something to let them dry out (i live in a desert so they are usually dry in an hour).

its a lot of work and is why only my new ebay bucks are very very clean

[Deinonychus]

Here and there I get some gunky bricks from sets I buy from ebay or Bricklink. That's when I use some cotton swabs and some denatured alcohol to clean the bricks up. I don't even think to get that stuff near printed pieces.

I've also mass-washed bricks in lukewarm water and a little splash of bleach with no ill effects. And I must emphasize LITTLE splash of bleach. *y*

[frogstudio]

Hi all!!!! Well these are muy methods:

Unassembled models: wash them in hot water with mild soap, using an old toothbrush to scrub dust from the bricks

Assembled models: a bit expensive, but I use compresses air cans, the sort used to take off dust from computer components. I

[brickzone]

I started off handwashing in warm water with just a drop of fairy liquid (dishwashing detergent), and toothbrush for parts with grime attached.

However, this became too much effort and the backlog too much. Many of the ebay sets I bought were really pretty great condition apart from dust, even mint condition really. So I switched to using a very soft paintbrush to dust the parts, and then bag any grimy parts for later handwashing.

Finally though, I may try the washing machine option especially for some bulk parts I got from ebay. Using a 30 degree cycle with no spin is easy (just the same cycle as for woollen items). However, what is the story with washing machine detergent? Should I use any? I usually use non-biological concentrated liquid detergent (<25ml for a half-wash of lightly dirty clothes for example) which might be a bit too serious a treatment for Lego, especially considering I would not really want to put it on an extra rinse+spin cycle to remove the detergent, like I have to for the woollens.

Does it work just not using any detergent in the washing machine?

[legotrainfan]

Does anybody know whether the bricks survive their trip in the washing machine if you use water that is 40 degrees centigrade warm? Is it too warm or still ok? Any experiences made with 40 degrees? I'm not sure if I get layers of dust that are many years old off of my bricks. I've not made good experiences with washing the bricks by hand. So much dust.

[BerndDasBrot]

I can't guarantee it's safe / it'll work. Sorry. :-/

I'm using 30

Edited February 26, 2008 by BerndDasBrot

[larry marak]

My wife Melissa, the Lego purist (I"m a heretic, alas) has found that swinging the pillowcase around several times after sending it through the washing machine removes most of the water inside the tubes. Centrifugal force does wonders. It also exercises the arms and prevents damaging the elements against the metal drum of the machine.

[legotrainfan]

I can't guarantee it's safe / it'll work. Sorry. :-/

I'm using 30

[DarkYamiDragon]

I usually just clean my bricks in the kitchen sink with soap and water. X-D

It would be nice if TLC made a guide on how to restore, clean, and store lego bricks.

[CP5670]

I remember seeing an official temperature limit in one the Lego catalogs from the early 90s. It had a picture of a minifig holding a soapy brush. It might have been one of the Lego Direct catalogs, as I can't find it in the main set catalogs I have.