kermit

how to sanitize bricks

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Given these current times with the pandemic and all i was hesitant to purchase bricks on brick link but i had a project that i needed to complete so i ended up taking the leap and purchasing them. the question is how how should i or how do you all sanitize your bricks?

I plan on putting them in a tub filled with dish washing liquid and letting them soak but i also, and yes being paranoid, want to give them an alcohol bath or spray preferably using the lower strength of 70% alcohol. The other question i guess is will the alcohol discolor the bricks or make them brittle?

any suggestions?

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I've been using a tiny bit of powdered laundry detergent inside a Slurpee cup. Regular bath soap tends to leave some residue when not rinsed thoroughly. I saw soap particles are shaped in a way that shreds virus particles.

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If you bought them on bricklink rather than a job lot from a yard sale or ebay, presumably they are relatively clean anyway. If it is down to corona virus, you could also leave them for a week.

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I agree with @MAB, if it is due to covid-19 then leaving them a week would do the job. Unless there is any dirt or grot in which case then I would wash that off and just wash the individual pieces well with basic soap and water, which shouldn't impact the bricks but should do the job very well.

But I don't think any alcohol based product should impact a non-printed brick.

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Mild dish soap and warm water.  Scrub if necessary.  

Don't use hot water, as that can cause warping in pieces. 

Alcohol and other chemicals are probably not needed.  Coronavirus generally spreads by air, and only rarely by surface contact.  There's probably little risk from items that have been in shipping for a few days. 

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12 hours ago, MAB said:

If you bought them on bricklink rather than a job lot from a yard sale or ebay, presumably they are relatively clean anyway. If it is down to corona virus, you could also leave them for a week.

You can also factor in the time in transit. So if they were in the post for 2 days, you would only need to wait 3-5 days to be certain that the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 was too low to infect you.

Washing with soap and water - as already suggested in this thread - is a very good way of killing SARS-CoV-2. The coat of the virus is particularly susceptible to soap.

I have used alcohol-based sanitiser gels to clean bricks before and it doesn’t do them any harm.

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If you're that worried about them, put them in a pillow case, washing machine them, hang them out to dry for 7 days and crack on :thumbup:

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I've tried many approaches and the most effective is to soak everything in hot water (not too hot) and ix with dissolved dishwasher liquid (or capsules).

Make sure you stir the bucket every now and then to expose all sides of the parts. The detergent is very effective at literally eating up all the grime ... no wonder it's so effective against dishes.

Warning - Do not use on parts with stickers, and/or painted parts. 

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I guess this is sort of related, but I was wondering if anyone has a solution to dusting sets that are left out?  I've had Cloud City on display for a while and this thing gets super dusty, probably partially because there's a lot of sections that are black and dark red, so they show dust very easily.  I was going to probably take off the top layer of parts, wash those off to get all of the dust off (just because some gets trapped around the studs that I can't really get off without a rinse), put it back together, and then get one of those air duster keyboard cleaner thingies for future use, but was wondering if anyone has a better solution.

Part of it might be my display space, I've got Cloud City on a lower height and closer to a window (it's not going to get sun faded just because of the angle, though), whereas I have my Mos Eisley set up on a higher shelf without as much light coming in and have had very little issues as far as dustiness.  That may have something to do with it?

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Makeup blush brush works pretty good without scratching the plastic.  Air compressor for air tools with blower attachment works too.  (setting too high a PSI can blow pieces off.)  It is cheaper than canned air in the long run if you have other uses for the compressor.

cleaning-system.jpg

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I was wondering about this cause I am thinking of bidding on some lots of used Lego. Although I am not a germaphobe, I can just imagine what are lurking in those pieces. You can easily wash it with soap and water, I suppose. Soak it overnight even, maybe? I think as long as water is not hot but maybe experts here know better. Soap and water can kill germs however, still can't get to those nook and crannies if there are grime there.

Incidentally, I was in a Lego store this weekend. The clerks were very adamant that they don't allow people to pick their own bricks because supposedly there are more people in the stores on weekends. Which did not make sense to me cause a.) they limit people who come in and b.) at the time we were there, there was a few minutes we were the only ones there. It just makes it harder when I have to tell them what I want and how much vs. me scooping them up myself. They say people shouldn't get their bare hands inside the wall compartments. However, this clerk picking up my bricks, I saw him pick up one brick from the wall with his bare hands. :pir-hmpf:

Edited by BrickObsessed

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