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Nicotine stains on my wii mote! Help!

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soundfx4

Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2001
Location
Roanoke, VA
I gotta say I'm not even sure if this is appropriate for this section, but everything I've googled about nicotine stains has been about stains on walls and such which is useless to me as I can't apply the same methods to my delicate wii mote. I'm hoping that maybe someone else is in the same boat as me and knows exactly what to do and can assist me. K, story time :soda:


I have a history with my cousin of letting him borrow my consoles in the past, and every time I get them back I have to clean the remotes and the console for the following reasons:

1: he doesn't wash his hands often, and to my knowledge not after using the restroom

2: He smokes (or he used to anyway, quit recently) and the controllers and console were covered in nicotine

3: Most likely eats greasy food and handles my remotes w/o washing his hands (controller looked to have grease on it, I'm assuming this is the situation)


I really have no problem letting him borrow them, and I don't mind cleaning them when I get them back...or at least I didn't mind cleaning my other consoles...however, the wii's very bright white color has proven to be quite a problem. When I first got it back I began my usually sit in front of a fan for a few days to air the smoke smell out. After which I begin taking apart the wii-mote to clean the plastic pieces one at a time using water and a cleaning solution called spray nine. One all was done and the controller was dry I noticed that it had bad nicotine stains on the rubber wire, so I tried bleaching it with a water/bleach solution. I let it sit overnight and well into the next day, but the nicotine stain, while slightly faded, was still there. I'm at a point where I honstly don't know what to do. I may go out to the store today and look around for a cleaning solution but I've no idea what to look for, or what might work. So if anyone reading this knows what to do, please pass your knowledge onto me so that I may use it to cleans my wii mote D:

Thanks :)
 
Make him buy his own controller and hang on to yours.

You might be able to use a buffing attatchment on a dremel..
 
Sorry, nothing you can do once the damage is done. Consider putting a condom errrr I mean jacket over the remote. That won't help the d-pad or the buttons but the white parts won't get stained. Meanwhile, berate your cousin for being a filthy slob. Oh, forgot... you can do like a lot of modders do and take the whole thing apart and paint it a color instead of white. Black tends to be the most popular. Eventually Nintendo will mold them that way too.
 
In addition to the 'skin' you could cut out screen protector material for the buttons and d-pad.
 
Make him buy you new ones and give him the old ones. I know he's your cousin, but I think dirty controlers are disgusting. Even my nes ones are spotless.
 
I'm not sure if this will work, but try the Mr. Clean magic sponge. So far, I have not come across any stain those little puppies can't handle. It baffles me as to why they are so effective.

The only hang up I could see is the rubber material: I've used the sponges on generally hard surfaces.
 
bah, I know I know, I should say something, but he gets ****ed when people confront him about his "habits". I remember telling myself I wasn't going to let him borrow anymore consoles, and I was actually going to say something to him, but when the time came and he asked, I couldn't say no >< and I guess I could ask him to buy me a new one, but he doesn't have a wii, so giving him the old one in exchange is pointless :\ and besides, I did a little custom modding to this controller so that I could plug it into a wall outlet :D (I hate batteries) so I'd have to do that again if I bought another one >.>

at any rate, the painting idea isn't a bad idea at all, I might look into that, but before that, I'll have to try Tresmonos suggestion with the Mr. Clean magic sponge :D



oh and thanks for the link to the wiimote condoms :p I didn't know nintendo was doing that, I'll defintly take advantage of that.
 
I went to an "expert", my Wife owns a cleaning company. She says to use "Softscrub with Bleach". Put it on a soft rag or cloth and rub using one or two finger method.
 
I gotta say I'm not even sure if this is appropriate for this section, but everything I've googled about nicotine stains has been about stains on walls and such which is useless to me as I can't apply the same methods to my delicate wii mote. I'm hoping that maybe someone else is in the same boat as me and knows exactly what to do and can assist me. K, story time :soda:


I have a history with my cousin of letting him borrow my consoles in the past, and every time I get them back I have to clean the remotes and the console for the following reasons:

1: he doesn't wash his hands often, and to my knowledge not after using the restroom

2: He smokes (or he used to anyway, quit recently) and the controllers and console were covered in nicotine

3: Most likely eats greasy food and handles my remotes w/o washing his hands (controller looked to have grease on it, I'm assuming this is the situation)


I really have no problem letting him borrow them, and I don't mind cleaning them when I get them back...or at least I didn't mind cleaning my other consoles...however, the wii's very bright white color has proven to be quite a problem. When I first got it back I began my usually sit in front of a fan for a few days to air the smoke smell out. After which I begin taking apart the wii-mote to clean the plastic pieces one at a time using water and a cleaning solution called spray nine. One all was done and the controller was dry I noticed that it had bad nicotine stains on the rubber wire, so I tried bleaching it with a water/bleach solution. I let it sit overnight and well into the next day, but the nicotine stain, while slightly faded, was still there. I'm at a point where I honstly don't know what to do. I may go out to the store today and look around for a cleaning solution but I've no idea what to look for, or what might work. So if anyone reading this knows what to do, please pass your knowledge onto me so that I may use it to cleans my wii mote D:

Thanks :)

Well it sounds like you DO have a problem with letting your cousin borrow your controllers. And if you don't... you should.

I mean he "doesn't wash his hands after coming out of the restroom?" What's wrong with you? Why the hell would you let him even TOUCH... let alone BORROW your controller?

Sometimes the solution is right there in the problem...
 
Post #9 has a good one( a bit harsh though). But to be easy on the cord and plastics... I use Simple Green great stuff, cheap..not all chemically and such and is easy on plastics, rubber, and pleather (plastic leather).


I
 
I'm not sure if this will work, but try the Mr. Clean magic sponge. So far, I have not come across any stain those little puppies can't handle. It baffles me as to why they are so effective.

The only hang up I could see is the rubber material: I've used the sponges on generally hard surfaces.


Magic Erasers for the win! I use them for everything from makeshift scratch repairs on cd's and dvd's (they work wonders!) to cleaning tar off delicate components in a computer or off the case/keyboard/mouse.

should work the same for a wiimote
 
Well, i guess it's lesson learnt for you.

Next time, tell your cousin to clean up the stain after playing with your Wii.
 
I'll 2nd both the Simple Green and the Magic Eraser. Both are great. I wonder what would happen if you combined them? Maybe the universe would end . . .

At any rate, I think the far, far greater problem here is your cousin. You need to deal with him first.
 
I'm not sure if this will work, but try the Mr. Clean magic sponge. So far, I have not come across any stain those little puppies can't handle. It baffles me as to why they are so effective.

The only hang up I could see is the rubber material: I've used the sponges on generally hard surfaces.

Didnt read the rest of the thread yet but had to chime in on this quickly.

Mr. clean sponged work great for cleaning but will remove all shine form the controllers. They are highly abrasive. I once used one to clean some stains off my hand and arm once thinking it would be OK and it ended up remove skin and my skin was red with "burn" marks for the next couple of weeks. Last years dumb *** moment of the year.
 
bah, I know I know, I should say something, but he gets ****ed when people confront him about his "habits".

Remember, it's not at all about his habits.
You need to point out to him that what it's about is how his habits and hygiene affect your personal items.
Really, it's easy enough to wash before you play...it really is. It's also really easy to not smoke while you play.
Tell him if he wants to smoke or touch himself and not wash his hands, then he can buy his own remote :beer:
 
1. Make him clean it.
2. Make him replace it .
3. Tell him no until he respects your stuff.

One question. If the remote is that bad. What is getting inside the Wii console itself?
 
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