Boil the DVD ?

[pam123]

Has anyone ever heard of this ?
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=447554

[newbuilder14]

That is very, very weird. It is kind of funny but in a way makes sense, the hot water must clean the disk very well.

[TwoRails]

I never heard of it, and my first impression is of skepticism... Seems like you have great potential to warp the disk, and maybe even run a chance of separating it. It'd get all the dirt off of it, though

[Floppyman]

Interesting!

I have actually gotten audio cd's working perfectly again by applying a thin layer of car wax on the back and the wiping it off. Discs that were skipping all of a sudden played like new again. I should try his method out sometime

[doctorgonzo]

DVDs are made of polycarbonate, which has a melting point of 250 celsius, and a working temperature of over 100 celsius, so depending on what is used to bond the two discs together (I don't know what they use for that), boiling it won't theoretically hurt anything.

[tetsuo]

After boiling, I recommend a nice garlic-butter sauce and a tasty reisling.

[Stuey]

Interesting. I'll keep this in mind!!

[pam123]

Originally Posted by Floppyman Interesting! I have actually gotten audio cd's working perfectly again by applying a thin layer of car wax on the back and the wiping it off. Discs that were skipping all of a sudden played like new again. I should try his method out sometime

I've read that toothpaste or hair gel can "repair" CDs so I'm not too surprised to hear about car wax working.

[mbossman2]

hot water is an amazing solvent, it can dissolve and remove a lot of things...

[David M]

Every DVD I get from Netflix, I have learned to wash with soap and hot water before I play the disk.

This has worked on numerous disks that were skipping previous to cleaning the disk. This works for even the most scratched disks that Netflix sends me.

My theory is that microscopic dirt particles get lodged in the micro scratches preventing the laser beam from reflecting back up to the light sensor correctly. A hot soapy bath and a very thorough rinse with hot water gets rid of the particles.

[mbossman2]

oh yeah, I also run my CD/DVD lens cleaner thru my player every month and I hve minimal problems.

[rwest]

Originally Posted by pam123 I've read that toothpaste or hair gel can "repair" CDs so I'm not too surprised to hear about car wax working.

I use polishing compund by Turtle Wax. It's designed to be a cleaning agent before waxing. I buff it with a sheepskin cloth and then thin the layer out with a few drops of glasss cleaner. I've used this method on all kinds of media. Including cds, game disks, and dvds. It works great for me. Alot of the media I use is highly scratched and bad quality because it comes from the public library or my kids. My son's is the worst. He doesn't take care of his game disks. I have been able to restore a non working disk back to complete and full funtionalbility using this method.

I have got to try the boiling method. Hot water really is one of the best cleaning agents. I've actually though about trying something similiar, but I never heard of anybody doing it and didn't know how much damage I might do. Thanx for the temps doctor gonzo. That was good info. Has anyone tried just steaming?

BTW David M, try rinsing in cold water. Hot water activates soap, cold water deactivates. You should get a better rinse with cold.

[David M]

I would think that hot water increases the Brownian motion of soap molecules therefore increasing the likelihood of it being removed from the disk while rinsing. At that point it does not matter if it is active or not, you just want it off.

I would imagine that you do not want to seal microscopic dirt under a layer of wax. I can see the wax reducing or eliminating the refraction cause by a scratch but I don't think scratches are as much of a factor as dirt. Micro-scratches hold the dirt. Just speculating. It would be interesting to put an old scratched up disk under a microscope and see what it looks like.

[rwest]

I'm not a chemist by even the furthest stretch, but I've always heard to rinse in cold for that reason. But I can say from experience as a custodian cold water rinses better.

I also don't use wax, I agree it will trap the dirt. I'm pretty sure the polishing compound works similar to silver polish. The dirt or tarnished particals attach itself to the cleaning agent and then is removed by wipping with a clean cloth. I could have the whole concept wrong though. I also hit it with a little glass cleaner to break down any residue that may be left. I've actually considered vinegar or maybe using amonia. Again, no chemist here . Both of these are great cleaning agents, but my current methods do work, so I kinda slowed down my experiements.

I wish I had a microscope to be able to see the differences in cleaning methods. I'm definetly interested in finding the best method. I tried plain warm water, didn't work to well. I haven't tried soap and water yet, wasn't sure which type of soap to try first. What do you use? And how much?

I agree with you on the microscopic dirt lying in the scratches and causing the refraction of light to be bent or blocked, but what ever cleaning agent is used it has got to be able to not leave a residue.

[rwest]

Just thought I'd share this:

Experiment #1
Placed dvd into pot of tap water.
Heated water to rolloing boil with dvd in water.
Dvd and water reaches temperature together.
Boiled for ten minutes. Cooled with cold tap water.
results:
No damage to disk. Plays in dvd player.
Surface of disk is clean but looks to have condensation between layers.
Polished with polishing compound.
Surface returned to high reflection with no blemishes.

Experiment #2
Placed dvd on top of already boiling drinking water(filtered water) for 1 minute.
Dried immediatley and lightly with soft cloth wiping from inside to outside rim.
results:
No damage to disk. Plays in dvd player
Surface appears clean and has normal appearance.
Surface is shiny and has good reflection.

Experiment #3
Placed dvd into pot of drinking(filtered) water.
Heated water to rolling boil with dvd in water. Boiled for ten minutes.
Cooled dvd with cold tap water.
results:
No damage to disk. Plays in dvd player.
Surface appears clean but has a very light film after drying.

Experiment #4
Placed dvd into pot of drinking water.
Heated water to rolling boil with dvd in water. Boiled for ten minutes.
Cooled dvd with drinking water.
results:
No damage to disk. Plays in dvd player
Surface appears clean but additional drying needed to buff out some fogginess.

Experiment #5
Placed dvd into pot of drinking water.
Heated water to rolling boil with dvd in water. Boiled for ten minutes.
Dried immediately with soft cloth wiping from inside to outside rim.
results:
Surface appears clean and has normal appearance.
Surface is shiny and has good reflection.
Quality of playback appears to be nominally better than after experimment # 2.

Conclusions:
Boiling disks for cleaning is a good idea.
Boiling disks for up to ten minutes will not harm them.
Disk may be placed in already boiling water
Amount of time in water may be dependent on the amount of filth on disk.
One minute should be okay for normal usage.
Use filtered or distilled water.
Tap water leaves residue.
Do not cool.
Dry immediately with soft cloth wiping from center to outside rim.
I would suspect now would be the best time to use a finish if you wish.

If you think I'm nuts, just ask my wife. She'll agree with you. I had fun and learned something. It's all that matters!

Sure wish I had a microscope.

[Stuey]

Thanks for the analysis!

I no longer have access to a decent optical microscope so =(.

I DO have access to an electron microscope but there's little chance I can get to use it since the going rate is about $40/hour.

I wanted to look at minidiscs but electron microscope won't show it well, so CDs and DVDs are also out of the question.

We looked at part of a floppy as part of a lab class, but the images were disappointingly boring.

I *might* be able to get in on a project which looks at a HD platter, so if that ever happens I'll post about it and put some pic links here.

I tried looking at a DVD with my camera in macro mode, but it's not showing anything pretty.

[pam123]

Thanks for the data.
Now to reclaim a few DVDs.

[rwest]

I probably should have mentioned I used a really cheap dvd off the dollar rack. I would think that if theres no damage to the cheap ones, the more expensive ones will be made better.

I also thought about the fact it is a retail disk. When testing I didn't think to try a rewritable disk. I'll have to make a copy of one to test with.

[David M]

Wow rw...thats some serious research!

It kind of reinforces my belief that it is not the scratches but the dirt and crud that gets held by the scratches that causes a disk to not read properly.

I use plain old Dawn dish washing soap scrubbing it with my fingers with a very thorough rinse as hot as my hands can stand it.

[rwest]

O.C.D. is not neccesariliy a bad thing.

David thanks for the tip on the Dawn, but I really think I'm gonna be boiling my disks for one minute now. I'm sure the minimal contact with the surface has got to be the best method for cleaning. And since I've heard so many well informed people say to wipe from the inside to the outside is the best way to wipe, due to the design of the disk, really enhances this method.

I actually haven't had a bad disk to try yet. But it usually doesn't take my son too long to get one messed up. Of course he's still convinced that what his friend told him about peanut butter works best.

[clroberts]

One thing though: Boiling a DVD might be fine, but has anyone ever (Microwaved) A Dvd or CD? I wouldn't do it for very long (Like about 1-2 seconds) or it could catch fire, but it does leave a cool pattern on the disc. Oh and yes, it is destroyed.

[rwest]

Got any pictures?

[Stuey]

Originally Posted by clroberts One thing though: Boiling a DVD might be fine, but has anyone ever (Microwaved) A Dvd or CD? I wouldn't do it for very long (Like about 1-2 seconds) or it could catch fire, but it does leave a cool pattern on the disc. Oh and yes, it is destroyed.

It smells AWFULLY bad but it does make a nifty pattern.

Edit:

Well, I couldn't take a pic or vid since it all happened too quickly. I stopped the microwave after a few seconds. In the past, we stopped the microwave after we stopped seeing the electric discharges. This time, I guess I waited too long.



P.S. my entire apartment now reaks. =(

While I was at it, I tried scanning in blank CDs but it doesn't show anything special. I'll try a partially-written CD but I doubt the images will impress anybody.

[rwest]

Originally Posted by Stuey P.S. my entire apartment now reaks. =(

LOL Sorry for that. But still, better you than me.

[David M]

Thats kind of a neat pattern. It looks crazed...like old ceramic glaze.

[David M]

woops

[doctorgonzo]

Originally Posted by clroberts One thing though: Boiling a DVD might be fine, but has anyone ever (Microwaved) A Dvd or CD? I wouldn't do it for very long (Like about 1-2 seconds) or it could catch fire, but it does leave a cool pattern on the disc. Oh and yes, it is destroyed.

I do that all the time. It's fun.

I also throw them like a frisbee at brick walls. If you do it just right, it shatters into about a million pieces. Most of the time it just bounces off, though.

[David M]

I am surprised nobody has invented a CD gun. I remember when AOL was providing free ammo just about everywhere.

[Stuey]

Originally Posted by doctorgonzo I do that all the time. It's fun. I also throw them like a frisbee at brick walls. If you do it just right, it shatters into about a million pieces. Most of the time it just bounces off, though.

They DO shatter in many little pieces. Note: Tossing a stack of aol CDs around in a dorm room like a frisbee is ok but ALWAYS leads to two people bombarding a third. It is also worthwhile to mention that CD shards DO hurt contrary to the popular believe that flinging them around at high velocities is harmless.

Ah... memories. Cleanup was the worst part but it was sooooo worth it. And only one of us needed a bandaid! Oh, and cardboard shields are inefficient. Nothing works better than half a mattress!

[fleeingpepper]

I've boiled two discs, and it's worked both times.