Cleaning iMac w/Rubbing Alcohol - Damage?

I am a chemist working in the plastics industry. Rubbing alcohol is one of the most gentle, mild solvents available besides water. Still, having said that it was probably not a good idea to clean your screen with that much enthusiasm. To begin with paper towels can, and typically do, contain a fair amount of abrasive fibers. They could easily damage your screen. Just ask an eye glasses specialist. If the glass does have an antiglare coating on it, they are typically quite thin (only a few microns thick). That coating could easily have been damaged by both the fibers and the alcohol, depending on the type of coating it is. The chances that you have damaged anything else are quite slim. As far as the glass being porous... Before the age of plastic packaging, alcohol used to be bottled in glass bottles. I've never heard of one leaking or of all the alcohol evaporating through one. Glass is certainly more impervious to the action of isopropyl alcohol than is virtually any typical plastic.

You may have damaged this by using the Rubbing Alcohol. No Doubt about it!

Never, EVER use any type of rubbing alcohol or any caustic or ammonia based glass cleaners on/in or around your Mac

Does your screen still look streaky or like it has been etched? Does it look cloudy?

Here is a link to properly clean your desktop Mac.

If this your first and very expensive Mac, you should have done a little research before just assuming and using rubbing alcohol on a piece of expensive computing equipment.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3226#desktops

The alcohol, probably, damaged the coating on the glass, trapped some residue behind the coating onto the glass potential damaging the glass, itself and could, potentially over time, make it to the LCD screen.

Apple bonds the glass panel directly onto the LCD screen, on the new 2012-2013 models , now.

So, there is the potential for the LCD to get damaged.

I only use a microfiber cloth dampened with warm water and really wrung out to clean the screen first, then the aluminum body.

Only clean your iMac body and screen when your iMac is turned off.

AppleCare will NOT cover this kind of damage, so if this has happened, you will have to get this repaired at your own expense. This could be very expense to correct. You will have to make an appointment with an Apple Store for diagnosis and to tell them what happened.

As this was an accident! maybe if you really plead your case and ignorance! maybe you can reach an agreement whereby you might only have to pay a reduced repair/replacement cost instead of having to foot the entire repair bill.

Not good. And not good as this seems to be a fairly new Mac.

Not ot sure about the internal electronic components. All you can do is make an appointment with an Apple Store and have an Apple store tech look over everything to see if there is no liquid or etching marks formed from the combination of heat and the presence of the rubbing alcohol.

So Sorry.

😟

An expensive Live and learn lesson.

Just an FYI and reminder to all those who may not know or have forgotten. The reason you have to be careful what you use to clean your screens is because they ARE NOT MADE OF GLASS. At least not the type of glass you generally have on your house windows. Most screens contain some form of LCD (liquid crystal display) or LED (light-emitting diode). Screens are porous, not solid glass, so any liquid can seep through or scratch, as can certain types of cloth. I am shocked that any Apple employee would not explain this to you or not know this information.

I am not sure that the "glass surface on MacBooks or iMacs is actually glass but a very tough, optically clear, specially coated polycarbonate material.

When I purchased my 2009 iMac, I couldn't stand the additional glare from both the glass panel and the screen behind it (at that time, Apple never glued the clear panel to the LCD screen, but left a small gap between the two creating almost a double, offset kind of light glare, and the clear panel could be removed as it is only attached by strong magnets), so I removed the so-called "clear glass" panel and just attached a black metal frame that just hides all of the perimeter magnets.

That clear panel is super thin and really doesn't feel like glass, at all.

It feels and has the weight of a plastic panel. It is a very light panel, even with the thin metal frame glued to it!

It is covered by a black border all the way around it to hide the thin metal framework behind it which is used for it to be attracted to the magnets on the face of the iMac to attached this clear panel to the front of the iMac.

So, using any glaas cleaning products or any type of cleaning products NOT formulated for plastics, WILL etch and scratch such plastics.

Yeah, I know they sell that

Apple stores also sell keyboard covers, which contradicts THIS:

Apple additionally now recommends against using these keyboard covers on current Macbooks:

"Leaving any material on the top case could result in damage to the display when you close it. This includes palm rest or keyboard covers, as well as any adhesive-backed keycap additions."

Go figure

If your screen doesn't look etched, streaky or cloudy when dry, you probably lucked out and not damaged the matte coating, glass or LCD.

I do not know if isopropyl alcohol is strong enough to completely wipe away the matte coating on the screen.

If you still do not notice any real, strong glare from the iMac's screen, then the coating is still intact and, again, you have lucked out.

Still not sure about the internal electronics, though.

If your cloth was really wrung out, nothing may have not been damaged. Again, lucked out.

Don't ever use that method and cleaning solution, again!

crssbns wrote:

What do you guys think? Could I have damaged this coating by cleaning with rubbing alcohol?

Dont think you have, I know you have.

I use rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) everyday all the time on things. I run thru 2 bottles a week.

Never never never use anything but water, and NEVER dripping wet

HANDLING TIPS

Use a very lightly damp, soft (if you can squeeze the cloth very tightly and even a drop comes out, its still too damp), lint-free cloth to clean the computer’s exterior. Avoid getting moisture in any openings and be very careful not to get the damp cloth around the trackpad edges or around the inside edge between the monitor and its bezel. Do not spray any type of liquid directly on the computer. Do not use sprays, solvents, or abrasives; do not attempt to use any solvents on the LCD display either directly (especially!) or indirectly. There is never any call to use any type of lens cleaning solvents on the screen of your LCD display. Again, do not spray any liquid directly on the screen. Never use Kleenex, or paper towels, these are abrasive. Soft cotton cloth only or a microfiber lens cleaning cloth.

⚠No rubbing alcoholic, no glass cleaners of any variety, no acetone, no lens cleaning sprays, no AR coating sprays, no sprays sold as "for your LCD TV", no sprays sold as "for your notebook display". Water only, and never sprayed on, and never dripping wet even slightly on the cloth.

My i-Mac, being a mid-2010, 21.5 inch model, is of a similar design. It too has the front panel held on with magnets, although I've never had it off. I worked for one of the major PC manufacturers for almost 19 years, last 5 years in the PC group. Polycarbonate is quite soft (and solvent sensitive) and would require a scratch & mar resistant coating for this type of application. IPA is one of the few solvents that are safe to use as cleaners and paint solvents on PC parts. I just tried a scratch test on the edge of my i-Mac... It is definitely glass. I can't really speak to other models, other years production. I know some Macs over the years did use PC, among other polymers, in housings (recall the colored transparent Macs), but in recent years Apple has tended to avoid the use of plastics as much as possible (re all the aluminum housings now used). But I agree, yes, it is doubtless a good idea to follow Apple's recommendation for cleaning surfaces of it's devices. I neglected to mention earlier, what I find to be the best screen cleaner is a very low concentration of a mild dish washing liquid (like Dawn) in water on a clean, soft fabric cloth followed by a wipe with another cloth damp with water. I will get a little more aggressive with cleaning my hard-wired keyboard key caps, but that's another conversation.

If it is glass, it is a very thin slab I can tell you. It is a very light weight glass panel even with the metal frame adhered to it!

Since my iMac's have the LCD exposed, I use just a warm water microfiber cloth wrung out damp so it doesn't drip.

I sometime use a little Dawn dish soap, as well, but only a very small amount and I try to wring out a good majority of the soap suds just to make sure I leave no soap residue of the LCD screen.

I agree, it is very thin (judging from what can be seen at the edge of the screen). I use the same type of solution to clean my glasses daily (which also have an anti-glare coating). It works very well.

Greetings PV,

Agree with your post entirely but I have to report, my local Apple store sells a spray 'for cleaning screens'. Which rather contradicts Apples formal document, wouldn't you say?