How do I clean electronics on my boat?
How do I clean my electronics?
Welcome to Shurhold’s Clean-N-Simple Tips. We are back at the helm of our Wellcraft 340 Coastal project boat and today we are going to be talking about how to clean and maintain our electronics.
On our dash here we have all of our instrumentation including a beautiful pair of Garmin 7212 touch screens. These units are amazing. With dual processors in each the scrolling and screen refresh rates are instantaneous, not to mention these are super bright even durning a sunny day. Now with built in functions for radar, xm weather, chart plotter, engine data radio controls and more I’m constantly touching these. Also, many boats with a more open design get a lot of salt spray on their dash as well.
So lets take a look at how to properly clean our electronics. You will need:
- A hose nozzle that can do a soft mist
- PVA Chamois Towel
- Microfiber Towels
- Serious Shine
I always start by turning off all my gear. While most all electronics are all weather rated be sure to check your specific users manual for their recommendations and warnings.
No mater how weatherized your gear is we never want to use hard pressure of forced water on them. When we are doing a full wash down of the boat be sure to only use a light mist to rinse your electronics. You will then want to quickly dry the area with a PVA towel to remove all standing water. This will help prevent water spots and remove any other foreign particles.
Once the dash is dry or if you are starting with a fairly clean and dry dash already we will want to spray and wipe the entire area with Serious Shine.
All you need is a fine mist and to work the product using a clean microfiber towel with light pressure.
On the touch screens this is going to clean and remove all the finger prints and provide an antistatic protection that will help reduce finger printing in the future. This product is safe to spray on the screen, frame, buttons and the surrounding fiberglass, steering wheel and more..
You always want to start with a clean towel. If you use a dirty towel you might scratch your screens with grime that may have already been in the towel.
Also, when you clean your microfiber towels you can do it in your laundry machines, just be sure not to use any type of fabric softener as this will clog the fibers in the towel and make it less effective.
Your dash and instrumentation is one of the most important parts of your vessel. Clean electronics are easier to see, will last longer and run better.
Until next time keep your boat CLEAN-N-SIMPLE!
