Cleaning Nicotine Stained TVs

Whether you agree with the smoking habit or not, one thing that everyone can agree on is that nicotine stains just about everything that it comes into contact with. Every smoker and former smoker knows how important it can be to periodically conduct a cleaning of your home to help remove the nicotine stains. One of the more difficult, and trickier, items to clean seems to be TVs. For whatever reason, cleaning nicotine-stained TVs seems to be just a little more difficult than cleaning other home electronic appliances. Here are a few simple guidelines and options that you can use to help you ensure that your TV gets completely cleaned of any persistent nicotine stains.

• Cleaning plasma screens. Initially, you will want to use a soft lint-free cloth, preferably a microfiber cloth, to gently wipe the screen. This will remove a majority of the nicotine scum, but to get the screen truly clean, use a homemade cleanser. Create a cleaner by mixing 1 part of detergent to about 100 parts water. After making the solution, pour some of it into a spray bottle, and use as you would any glass cleaner. Just make sure that you use a soft lint-free cloth or microfiber cloth to clean your screen.
• Cleaning glass screens. If you have an older television that still has a glass tube, you are in luck. Simply get a little Windex or similar glass cleaner and start cleaning. Typically, the best way to do this is to spray a fine mist of the glass cleaner onto the screen and use a paper towel, or piece of newspaper to wipe it away. Repeat this process a few times to ensure that you do not have any streaks, and that you have removed all the nicotine scum.
• Cleaning LCD screens. Either purchase some cleaner that has been specially formulated for cleaning LCD screens or create a mixture of equal parts distilled water and rubbing alcohol. When using your cleaner spray it onto a soft lint-free cloth or microfiber cloth and gently wipe the screen clean using circular motions. Make sure that you don't press too hard, though, since you can easily damage the screen.
• Quit smoking. While it would be nice to say that once you clean your nicotine-stained TV you don't ever have to do it again, this is nowhere near the truth. As long as you smoke near your TV, there will be a nicotine build up. If you don't want to give up smoking completely, then at the very least stop smoking near your television. Otherwise, you will be repeating this process a couple of times a month in order to have a clean television.

While it is not strictly necessary to do so, remember to unplug your television prior to cleaning. Whenever you clean an electronic device it is better to be safe than sorry, so disconnect them from electricity in order to avoid getting a nasty shock.