There are many who wonder how to clean their office equipment by themselves. First, you should know that you should deep clean office equipment at least once a year. How your equipment is cleaned depends on how often you service it. This includes how often you clean your equipment. To clean both your equipment and your workspace, you may need to budget for a cleaning service. This blog will look at why cleaning equipment by yourself can lead to losses in parts and downtime.
What types of things should you avoid cleaning by yourself in the first place?
Screens
A liquid crystal display (LCD) screen can be seriously harmed by the use of a household cleaning or industrial solvent. The material used in the majority of LCD screens can be damaged by the alcohol or ammonia found in most cleaning supplies.
The glass screens of cathode-ray tube monitors can typically be cleaned using mild cleaners, but you should look for a cleaning expert to ensure your screen’s integrity.
About OLED screens, the best approach to clean them by yourself is with a dry, soft cloth and absolutely no water. Sony advises using a dry cloth, such as an eyeglass cleaner, after turning the screen off at the wall for both its OLED and LCD panels. To prevent damaging the display, take great care not to press down on the panel too firmly. However, this solution will not prevent germs from spreading, so entrust this to a professional service.
Computer components and vents
Computers include several small, fragile pieces that can render them useless if broken or damaged. You might be thinking we are talking about internal parts. Yes, but also some external components.
For example, the parts that hold your keyboard together are fragile and might break if not removed properly. This is especially true for laptops because you can’t just buy a new keyboard, it will need to be installed.
Some people try to vacuum the dirt off the vents. As harmless as it sounds, it might “fry” your computer. The air going into the vacuum causes electrostatic energy to form, which can then be discharged into your equipment by accident. This shock is usually strong enough to damage internal components such as your computer chip. To avoid this, specialists use a type of vacuum cleaner that is designed to clean electronic equipment.
Photocopier’s glass
Despite what pop culture made us believe, photocopiers are not that unbreakable. The glass is a major concern, for two main reasons. The first reason is that too much pressure might break it, spreading glass on the internal moving parts and bringing a costly repair. The second reason is that, if not properly cleaned, the glass will transmit the dirt, grease and other smudges to the copies, which will then need to be redone. There are few things more annoying at the office than making 200 copies of a document and then noticing a smudge on all of them.
Mouse sensor
In the past, cleaning a mouse wasn’t that hard. It was all mechanical and you just had to remove the ball, clean the interior and you were done.
Nowadays with optic and laser sensors, this task is more complex. Cleaning this area might cause the grease and dirt to build up over the sensor, which will then make it behave unexpectedly. Trying to remove this buildup on your own is a mistake: it can lead to damaging the sensor, which will render the mouse useless.
What are the best ways to clean your equipment?
There are some regular maintenance tasks you can do to clean your office equipment. These are:
- Clean visible dust with a clean, dry, anti-static microfiber cloth;
- Avoid touching screens and glasses;
- Avoid eating near office equipment;
- Keep the surrounding space clean;
- Have an air purifier to minimize the dust;
- Flip your keyboard upside down to release crumbs, hairs or other dirt that might be lodged.
Despite all this, it’s important to have your equipment cleaned by professionals at least once a year, every time you get a new workstation, every time a staff member changes to a new workstation and in times of great viral activity, like a pandemic or flu season.
We hope you enjoyed our article on how to clean your equipment. We know that this is an important task for many businesses considering the dwindling number of employees. However, cleaning your equipment yourself can lead to losses in damaged parts and downtime. To avoid this, we recommend hiring a professional to complete the task for you. If you want to learn more about how to avoid losses of damaged parts and downtime, please contact us. Thank you for reading!